A Prayer for Healing from Past Trauma

Father, something that happened long ago still lives in my body. A sound, a smell, a certain tone of voice, and suddenly I am back there, heart pounding, unable to convince myself I am safe in the present where I actually am.

I confess I have spent years pretending it did not shape me, burying it, performing a wholeness I did not feel. I have been angry that I still carry it, ashamed that I cannot simply will it gone, exhausted from bracing for danger that has already passed.

So I open this old wound to You, the one I have hidden even from myself. You were there in that room, in that moment, even when I felt utterly alone, and You have never once turned away from me.

Gently loosen the grip of what was done to me. Quiet the alarm that fires when there is no fire. Let me feel safe in my own skin again, and lead me toward the help and the people who can walk this with me.

You came to bind up the brokenhearted and set captives free, and part of me has been captive a long time. Free me, Father, not all at once but truly. Let the past stay in the past and let me belong to today. Amen.