If there is one aspect of God’s character that we know to be true, aside from his faithfulness, it is that he is a God who heals.
Forgiving our sins is a form of healing. Covering over transgressions as he does in the Old Testament, with his chosen people the house of Israel, is a form of healing. In one way you could say that God’s mission to us is about healing. Jesus dying on the cross healed the great divide. Jesus’ own ministry demonstrated two aspects of God’s character: forgiving sins and healing illness.
So we can always come to the Lord for healing.
Once restored, or in the process of restoration, by the healing process, God never loses a chance to partner with us to improve every area of our lives. And he often chooses to work with us in the area of self love.
Self love with the Lord is not a worldly self centred, selfish characteristic. Rather it is a loving embrace of the self and acknowledgment that we are God’s child, God’s handiwork.
Over the years I have kept many prayer journals where I note down thoughts and prayers and Bible verses and anything that comes up during my times of prayer. I have found it difficult though to keep track of where I think God is leading me, or what he said last year and is it still relevant to this year, or have I done what I felt he was prompting me to do.
So the idea of a journal dedicated to my prayers for self love and healing is attractive as well as practical. I also like the idea that, once created, I can turn to them again when in need of these types of prayers.
You may find prayer easy, or it might be a challenge for you. We are all on a spectrum, some of us have more faith, some less. Some of us pray well and some of us struggle. Wherever you are on that spectrum, know this, that God hears and loves the simplest prayers.
In addition there are many Christian book resources that you may find useful.
Creating your self love and healing journal
What you’ll need to create your prayer journal
Firstly you will need a journal, so a notebook and some pens will be required.
Secondly you need to write your prayers in your journal
Thirdly you’ll need your Bible
Creating your prayer journal
Create your journal over a period of time. You can also always be adding to it. You could create four or five prayers now and then add to the journal over the coming year. You can use the prayers laid out below and put them into your prayer journa. Either in their entirety, or you could use them as inspiration to create your own.
Prayer prompts
After the prayers section I’ll give you some additional prayer prompts to help start your own prayer writing.
Writing a psalm
Finally, after the prayer prompts I’ll give you a great exercise to do where you create your own psalms. Psalms are a form of prayer to the Lord. Of course some of them are songs too, but many of the psalms are written as dialogue with God. Creating your own psalm gives you a great prayer for self love and healing. It’s also a really fun exercise to do.
Your personal prayer for self love and healing
A prayer of repentence and healing
Don’t be frightened off by the word repent. In the original Greek it means to turn and face another direction. Repenting is acknowledging that we have perhaps gone down the wrong route and want to change direction. In repenting and accepting forgiveness it is as if the wrong route never existed. You are healed of it. Psalm 103 says, ‘as far as the east is from the west’ he has forgiven our sins.
Dear God,
I welcome you to this new day and this new beginning.
Thank you for your unfailing love and your faithfulness.
Thank you that you have created me.
Thank you that we are all made in your image, but we are all unique.
I accept my uniqueness today Lord and I repent of rejecting myself and who you have created me to be.
Lord I walk today as the person you have created me to be. I accept that I am who I am.
Lord, take my fears and worries and replace them with your peace.
I repent of my fears and worries. In accordance with 1 John 4:18 I agree that perfect love casts out fear.
Today, heavenly Father, I walk in that perfect love. Lord, heal me of my unbelief and raise my levels of faith in you.
Lord thank you for the loving way in which you want me to drop all that which does not serve me, and walk free.
In Jesus’ name,
Amen
A prayer for healing
We are all in need of healing, all the time! So don’t think it is only you. This is why we come back to the Lord, for God’s guidance, all the time! We need him so very badly. But that is what he wants, he wants us to be reliant on him, like little children. He wants to heal us of emotional pain as well as physical pain.
Lord I come before you today
knowing that you are my good good Father
I bring my whole being to you now, my head, my heart, my spirit.
Lord I lay everything that separates me from you at your feet, all the damaged areas of my life
And ask you to heal them, to create in me a new spirit and in my life a renewed path.
Thank you that i am your beloved daughter / son.
Lord I give you my entire being and ask you to heal me from the inside out.
Heal my heart, my body, my brain, my spirit, my mind.
Give me a renewed mind and renewed sense of myself.
Lord from this day on I look only to you for guidance
I release other people’s opinions of me
I walk in your love and in your loving guidance.
I thank you for your healing power in my life,
In the name of Christ Jesus,
Amen
A prayer of self love
Self love, as I mentioned above, is not about conceit or vanity or self obsession. Rather it is a loving acceptance of oneself. Do you accept yourself? it might be a funny question for me to ask you. But so often we don’t accept ourselves. We think we are lacking in some way. We think that if we could lose weight, or earn more money, or change our physical appearance, or be more intelligent, that we would be more acceptable to ourselves.
But this is not the case. As a child of God you are entirely and completely worthy. You are lacking nothing. Self love could be described as the understanding that you are lacking nothing, that you are complete. Here is a prayer for acknowledging that you are lacking nothing and that you are complete.
Dear Lord, creator of the universe, Holy one, Father,
Thank you that in you I am complete.
I lack nothing.
Lord, teach me to love myself as you love me.
Show me how to develop a loving acceptance of myself,
Show me that I am worthy of love, or your love and of the love from others and from myself.
Thank you for this gift of life.
Today I step into this life with a new heart and a new spirit
totally complete, lacking nothing.
In Jesus’ might name,
Amen
Dear heavenly father,
Thank you for this new day.
By the power of your holy spirit
create in my a renewed mind.
Replace my low self-esteem
with the power of self-love.
Give me a new power within myself
that is the power of unconditional love
for myself
and for others.
Faith, hope and love
and the greatest of these is love.
Teach me to walk in the power of your love,
In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ,
Amen
Prayer prompts to create your own prayer for self love and healing
Use these prompts to start writing your own prayers. If you get stuck, take some time in the Bible and read some scripture and ask God for inspiration
Prayer for self love and healing prompts
Lord, I am sorry when I let fear of love, of your love, of self love stand in my way….
Dearest Father God, i am in need of your healing hand today because …
Heavenly Father, teach me to take care of my body, teach me that self love is …
Lord God, For so many years I have had a negative view of my body, I feel it is not good enough. But now I realise that, in your sight, I am perfect, lovable and acceptable, because of your son. Today I choose to repent of my negative view of my body, let the power of your love break those negative thoughts. I repent of my own image of myself and accept your image of me which is …..
Dear Lord and Father, I come to you today and release myself from my own unattainable expectations of myself. I choose to trade in my negative self-talk and instead walk in your light and your love for me. Thank you that in your sight I am …
Write your own psalm
Finally in this blog post, an exercise to create your own psalm. This will create a psalm, or short prayer which you can read back to yourself whenever you are need reassurance of God’s love for you and whenever you need complete peace to wash over you. The words are set up to direct you to create in line with wanting change in your life
Below is a list of prompts. Answer each one with a one line sentence. Write each sentence undernearth the one above.
Instructions for creating your own psalm.
- Your prayer opening, ‘Father God’, ‘Loving Father’, ‘God my God’ or your own
- Write one sentence of your love and thanks to God
- Bring your request before God
- Why is it important to you?
- What would it mean to you for God to grant it.
- Do you feel God’s presence now? (no wrong or right answer)
- How do you feel about yourself
- How will you feel about yourself when you have received your request
- Thank God for hearing your request
- Let God know one thing that you absolutely love about him
- Feel that you have received your request. How does that feel?
- Thank God that you have received your request
- Finish your prayer/psalm in whatever way you want.
I love this practice. We’ve gone through the steps, slightly different each time. Someone always has an ‘a-ha’ moment which is really beautiful. Let God speak to you through the creation of this psalm and then use it as a beautiful prayer to him, to connect yourself to Him and be anchored to him.
I love writing prayers to God and hope that this blog post has inspired you to write similarly.
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