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Prayers on the theme of Healing and Forgiveness [ 1 ] [ 2 ] [ 3 ]

I don't wish to give the impression that healing and forgiveness are linked with sickness and sin. Healing does however cover more than just the physical, as it encompasses relationships, feelings, prejudices and so much more. I am sure that to an extent our state of mind affects our state of health. Forgiveness therefore can often be an important first step in the healing of relationships, and in overcoming our own dis-ease with our lives caused by pride, our lack of humility, our failure to follow Christ's command to love.

There is a reason why the prayer of confession takes place often near the beginning of an act of worship - it centres our minds and our thoughts on those things which separate us from God, and brings us back to that place where we can worship with all of our heart and spirit.

Loving Father
all the fancy words
in the world
expressed in eloquent prose
decorated with emotion
spoken with conviction
cannot compete with a heartfelt
'sorry'
when all other words fail.
There are times
when we are all too aware
of our limitations
conscious of sin
and the distance it creates between us.
Sometimes 'sorry'
is all the heart can bear to say aloud.
It is only you
who can read and understand
the language of our hearts
Only you who can translate our 'sorry'
into the prayer we would have prayed
if we had the words within us.
Then you forgive
and having forgiven
surround us in an embrace of love
drawing us close to your heart
as it was always meant to be.
Thank you, Loving Father
that you listen to hearts
as well as voices
Thank you.

Your forgiveness is total
no notebook
tape recorder
or post-it note
to remind you of that moment
when.……..
You take our confession
offered with hands outstretched
and gently
like the loving
heavenly Father that you are
put it to one side
to be forgotten
No grudges, no itching for judgement
No resentment or ill-will
Not like us
who find it easy to say sorry
but so hard to forgive
absolutely
Forgive us, Father
that we are often more willing
to accept forgiveness
than to forgive
More willing to accept your love
than to share it with those
who have hurt us.
Teach us to forgive
As you forgive

Love
Has its source in you
Creator God
Flows from you like an ocean
into a world as unyielding
as any shoreline cliff
And like the ocean
which batters
erodes
and wears away
even the hardest stone
your love persists
finds cracks and inlets
in hardened hearts
flows inside and works a miracle.
Who would think that water
was more powerful than granite
love mightier
than the hardest heart
Thank you, Creator God
for the power of your love

Just a mustard seed, you said
just a mustard seed of faith to remove
the mountain of doubts and difficulties
which beset our often frail existence.
We readily confess, Lord Jesus
that there are times when we reach out
seemingly in vain for that mustard seed.
And yet, if we did but think for a moment
in that very act of reaching out
we reveal the presence
of the very seed that we seek.
Lord Jesus we have faith in your power to heal
but lack the self-confidence to ask.
We have faith in your ability to mend broken hearts
but lack the experience in our own lives.
We have faith in your power to bring wholeness
into lives that are incomplete
but hesitate to trouble you with our prayers.
We are like children, Lord Jesus
standing here in awe of your power and love
afraid to ask that which we know is possible
because we are afraid
of the consequences of our asking.
Lord Jesus, accept the mustard seed
that we hold out to you, hearts outstretched.
Take it and the prayers that we offer
and grant us the grace to accept
that our prayers are heard and answered
at the moment of asking
by a God who knows our own incompleteness
and is working to make us whole