A Prayer for a Hardened Heart to Forgive

Father, I will be honest. I do not want to forgive. The hurt has been here so long that I have built around it, and somewhere along the way my heart went cold and closed.

I confess I feel nothing where there should be softness. People talk about letting go and I just feel stone. I am not even sure I can forgive, and part of me has stopped wanting to.

But I know this hardness is not life. It is a slow kind of death, and I am scared of who I am becoming inside it. So I bring You the very thing I cannot fix, my own frozen heart.

You promised to take out the heart of stone and give a heart of flesh. I cannot do that surgery on myself. Only You can. So do it, even against my reluctance.

Start the thaw. Make me willing to be made willing. Bring back the feeling I have shut down to protect myself.

I cannot manufacture forgiveness, but I can open the door. So I open it. Come in and soften what I have let go hard. Amen.