A Prayer to Forgive and Move On

Father, I am stuck. The hurt happened a long time ago, and I keep telling myself I am over it, yet here I am, still tethered to a chapter that should have closed by now.

I confess I have let this old wound take up room it has not earned. I keep walking back into the same memory, picking at it, and then wondering why I cannot move forward.

I want to live in the present instead of relitigating the past. So I bring You the thing I have been gripping and ask for the grace to actually set it down and walk on.

Your servant said he was forgetting what lies behind and straining toward what is ahead. I want that freedom, to stop facing backward and finally turn toward the life still in front of me.

Loosen my grip on the old story. Give me eyes for what is next instead of what was.

I forgive, I release, and I choose to move on, trusting that what is ahead with You is better than what I keep looking back at. Lead me forward. Amen.