|
Prayer for healing after physical or sexual abuse
I was once
asked to pray with and for someone who had just ended a
relationship in which she had been abused. She felt that her
body had somehow been “contaminated” and was no longer hers.
When we met to pray I used part of psalm 139 and a prayer I had
written based on that psalm. I offer it here in case anyone
else might find it helpful.
Psalm 139
O Lord, you
have searched me out and known me;
you know my
sitting down and my rising up;
you discern my
thoughts from afar.
You mark out
my journeys and my resting place
and are
acquainted with all my ways.
You encompass
me behind and before
and lay your
hand upon me.
For you
yourself created my inmost parts;
you knit me
together in my mother’s womb.
I thank you,
for I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
marvellous are
your works, my soul knows well.
My frame was
not hidden from you,
when I was
made in secret
and woven in
the depths of the earth.
Your eyes
beheld my form, as yet unfinished;
already in
your book were all my members written,
As day by day
they were fashioned
when as yet
there was none of them.
Psalm 139
vv 1; 2; 4; 12-16
Prayer for healing after physical or sexual
abuse
* Heavenly
Father,
we thank you
for your intimate and loving knowledge
of who we are
and how we are made.
In Jesus you
know the damage that can be done
to our bodies,
our minds and our spirits
when we are
mistreated by others.
You know what
it is to be humiliated, shamed and forsaken.
We bring to
you our whole selves: body, mind and spirit.
We pray that
where there is
hurt you will heal us;
where we are
broken you will make us whole;
where there is
shame and self-loathing
you will
restore dignity, self acceptance
and a
knowledge of ourselves
as your
beloved children;
Where there is
loneliness and isolation
pour out your
Holy Spirit to make known to us
your loving
presence in our lives.
We thank you
that we are wonderfully made
and we ask you
to restore in us
unity of body,
mind and spirit
within the
love of our Lord Jesus Christ.
AMEN
* Addressing
God as “Father” can be off-putting and unhelpful to some so we
might want to use other words e.g. “Loving God ….”
DOWNLOAD THIS PAGE AS A PDF FILE
BACK TO "FINDING
GOD IN DEPRESSION"
BACK TO HOME PAGE
|
