How Forgiveness & Prayer Can Heal the Deepest Wounds

Forgiveness has been one of the hardest, yet most transformative parts of my walk with God.

Just a few years ago, I was bitter and hard-hearted because of the wrongs that had been committed against me. People I trusted most in the world betrayed me, hurt me, and crossed lines I never believed they would have in a million years. I didn’t just feel pain; I felt anger—no, pure rage. I felt confusion, hatred, bitterness, and honestly, a serious sense of injustice that left me wanting to seek revenge. Letting go didn’t feel natural or safe, and forgiving them felt completely impossible. I thought I never would. And that scared me, because I didn’t know what it would lead me to do. My thoughts were shifting to darker things, and I felt like I was losing my grip on life—I think I was.

But, if I’m completely honest, what truly began to change my heart was something more simply that I thought would work…prayer. I had read book after book, article after article, and yet nothing seemed to help heal those broken parts of me. But prayer—but God.

I wasn’t just praying for my own healing, but I was intentionally praying for the people who hurt me. At first, it felt incredibly uncomfortable and even insincere. I didn’t want good for them—I wanted justice, understanding, maybe even an apology. And, in the beginning, I couldn’t even pray the words I knew I needed to. I just cried on my knees. But God saw my heart, and he heard what it was screaming. The more I tried, the more I kept showing up and surrendering, the easier it got. Eventually I could even say their names, not just “I pray they find you and grow from this”. As I kept bringing their names before God, something slowly shifted in me. My bitterness started to soften, and I began to see them through God’s eyes instead of just through my pain.

Praying for them didn’t excuse what they did, but it freed me from being bound to the offense. It helped me release the need for control, justice, and closure, and instead trust God with it. Over time, I was able to forgive people I truly thought I never could. That doesn’t mean the memories disappeared, but the weight of them did.

Now, when I feel offense creeping in, I go back to that same method—prayer. And, I ask myself: where, or WHO is this thought coming from? When you think you’ve healed from something but it shows up randomly after a year or so, it’s likely from the enemy. He wants to keep you there, in your pain, so he can control you easier. So, when those memories or emotions come back up, I take a deep breathe, and I pray them away, followed by “Satan, get behind me. I am a child of God and you are not welcome in my thoughts. In Jesus name, I demand you leave my thoughts this instant!”

And guess what?

He always flees.

1 Samuel 2:2: “There is no one holy like the LORD; there is no one besides you; there is no Rock like our God.”