Praying in the Target parking lot

Running my errands one day, I stopped at Target. Soon after I parked my car, a woman started to get in her car,  parked right next to mine.  I felt led to pray for her.

Before she opened her door, I rolled down my window and asked if I could pray for her. She started crying uncontrollably. 

“What’s wrong?” I asked. 

“I can’t forgive him. I’m just so angry,” she said. 

Seeing the severity of her emotions, I assumed what the transgression was. I asked her when it happened. 

She blurted out something like, “Over a year ago.” 

I sat in stunned silence. 

The torrent of tears pouring out of her seemed so fresh, so new. As if her husband had just committed the offense recently.  She was crying as if it happened yesterday, not took place over a year ago.

What I learned from that encounter is this: 

Hurts we don’t let go of fester. The wounds stay as fresh as the day we were wounded, no matter how much time has passed since, if we do not forgive. 

This woman told me she was a Christian. How sad when a believer, who has the power of God living inside her to forgive, chooses not to. I get it.  Her husband did the unthinkable.  But we are still called to forgive.

I prayed over her asking the Lord to heal her, to help her forgive, to help her let go. 

Then, the Lord gave me a word for her. It shocked her as much as it did me. I told her… 

“Whatever your husband did, we are all guilty of the same thing.” (see Matthew 5:28)

She looked at me for a moment. Without saying a word, the look on her face registered, “I know this is true.” 

I have since prayed for her, that she would be able to: Let go of the pain. Choose to forgive. Love him.

I pray the same for you, dear reader.  Let it go.  Forgive whomever betrayed you.  Love is the cure to your pain - not the love you get, but the love you give.