Powerful Forgiveness

Day 21 of 21 Days of Prayer Outside the Box

I may have repeated this forgiveness prayer more than any other.  It seems when I ask for God to teach me true perspective it is about a relationship with another person that could use forgiveness more than 90 percent of the time.  When I first started learning about forgiveness I thought I only had a couple people I needed to forgive.  I thought I didn't hold many grudges.  I thought I was very forgiving and only had difficulty forgiving a very few.

My first really big aha was when someone told me I wouldn't reach forgiveness with those few people if I didn't allow myself to release the anger I harbored in a healthy way. I had no idea how angry I was.
 I didn't even know anger could be released in a healthy way.  So I started down a journey for many years learning about that.

On the journey I found that actually I spent a lot more time than I wanted to admit in anger.  I found that I needed to forgive.  I learned that forgiveness was not something I did for the other person.  I found ultimately that the person I most needed to forgive was myself.

So here is the prayer my mentor gave me.  I use it a lot like affirmative prayer from Day 5.

I love you.
I bless you.
I release you.
I fully and freely forgive you.
Now be on you way.

I have used it in this way for years.  The last line reminds me of a gentler version of the Day 19 prayer. (Sometimes Day 19 may need to proceed this prayer). Recently I have begun to change the last line to "May your life be filled with joy."  Forgiveness has been a journey and a process for me, a freeing journey and process.

Happy New Year

Affirmative Prayer Continued

Day 6 of 21 Days of Prayer Outside the Box

Yesterday I shared some of my experience with affirmative prayer.  Here is another example of affirmative prayer that I use very often.

God leads, guides and directs me.  I know what to do and I do it.

or

God leads, guides and directs me. I know what to say and I say it.

As I wrote yesterday, knowing that this is already truth, serves to remind me that I don't need to spin circles in my head trying to figure things out.  I ease into remembering that I can let go and trust the process.

Affirmative Prayer

Day 5 of 21 Days of Prayer Outside the Box

Affirmative prayer has been a huge part of my spiritual life.  I didn't expect it to change much from the time I first encountered it through all the years I have practiced it, but to my surprise it has changed quite a bit.  In the beginning, I thought if I affirmed enough in just the right way that I could bring about whatever change I thought I wanted.  There was an element of self shame involved, that it was my fault something was "wrong" and that by affirming often enough I could right the wrong.  There was so much baggage even in the process that I was completely unaware of until I let it go and the process became much more light.

When I realized that whatever I was affirming was already True and that I wasn't bringing it into being I was so relieved.  I became aware that instead of making it happen I was simply remembering that it was already True.  I was simply reminding myself of Truth. ( bringing my mind/thoughts back to Truth)  In fact, this was how I chose the name for this blog.

One affirmative prayer that has been very helpful for me is:

God's Law of Divine Love is working in me and through me now.

If I have a more specific thing to remember I will sometimes use this prayer:

God's Law of Divine Love and Justice are working in me and through me now.

Instead of saying these prayers over and over in an almost frantic fashion as I used to, now I say them much more slowly, really allowing them to sink in to my awareness. I still often repeat them throughout the day, I just do so more as a reminder (which brings me a lot of peace) than a desperate attempt to change anything.  I become very mindful of the prayer and the process.