Prayers . . . for tough beginnings

HELP ME OVERCOME SURVIVOR'S GUILT

Why me LORD?  I can't understand it.  Why am I alive while others died?  Why am I breathing fresh air?  Tasting my favorite foods?  Smelling pungent odors? Seeing and touching those I love?  I don't know; it's not because I'm better than the others.

I feel so guilty.  I don't deserve the gift of life you've given me.  I know you're not fickle, and you don't play games with our lives.  I know the scriptures that say you love us and that everything that happens is part of your divine plan.  You don't always explain why things happen, though, and I can't figure this one out.  Help me to trust your Word, which says your ways are not our ways, and your thoughts are beyond our thoughts.

Right now I choose to receive your gift of life with gratitude.  Free me from the chains of guilt that bind my heart and mind and spirit.  Alert me to the times when Satan would try to re-forge these chains of guilt in my life.  You have said if the Son sets me free, I will be free indeed.

Help me to live with joy, with a heightened sense of the preciousness of life, and with the confidence of knowing you have a purpose for me.  Transform this episode in my life into a testimony of praise to you.  Thank you that the Son has set me free!

Amen

So if the Son sets you free,

you will be free indeed.

John 8:36

Date this page was last edited:  July 11, 2004