“Dear Heavenly Father,
I thank you that I can come to you as I am. I know that I cannot hide anything from you. By coming to you with a broken and honest heart, I trust that you can heal me in an honest and thorough way. I know it pleases you when I am truthful to myself and honest with you.
Lord, I get so easily offended and take the things that people say to me on such a personal level. I know that sometimes people are mean to directly hurt me. But, more often, their hurtful actions are not intentional. For some reason, I even seem to take “good” things people say to me and twist them into something ugly. I seem to look at and interpret things in a way where it hurts my relationship with others, and this makes me feel bad about myself.
I am not happy with the way I push people away. I hate myself for doing this, yet I cannot seem to stop being so negative and being on the defense all the time. I know this is wrong. I need you to help me to see things from other people’s perspective, to not be so judgmental and critical and to not push good people out of my life because I cannot handle what they say with a balanced viewpoint.
This burden is too heavy for me; I cannot bear it any longer. I need your help. I know even if it feels like the world is against me, it is not. You are on my side, and with your help, I can overcome this bad habit of self-centered thinking.
In the name of Jesus, I cast my spirit of being easily offended, my touchiness, insecurity, need to control and my stubbornness and selfish nature to you.
Lord, all these attitudes came from somewhere. Please show me the root of the cause for each of them, so I can better understand how to guard against them in the future. I know you want the best for me, and I know when you reveal the truth it will hurt. I am willing to deal with that pain, as I know you will walk me through it and heal me as I go through the process of renouncing the sin that I harbored and used to make excuses for.
There are no more excuses for my behavior. It is ugly, it is not the way you want me to live, it is not a way to develop good friendships and healthy relationships. It is wrong.
Thank you, Lord, for loving me even when I am so ugly and cannot bear to love myself. Thank you for making me a new creature through Christ, and although I feel ugly today, I know there is a beautiful me that you are developing.
Your love will heal all my wounds and build my confidence; this is what I need to ground myself in so that I will no longer be weak and insecure.
I give those weaknesses to you, and know that you will cast them as far away from me as I choose to not bow down to those feelings anymore. I am choosing to love my neighbor more than my feelings.
In Jesus’ name, I am relying on the strength of God to carry me through this, because I cannot do this by myself, Amen.”