Prayer and the Process of Forgiveness

The effects of a prayer intervention on the process of forgiveness.

“…These mediations were focused on forgiveness and highlighted four particular themes throughout: prayer for guidance, asking God for help in forgiving, revealing pain to God, and letting go of the burden. These four themes were taken from the top four ways individuals used prayer, as seen in McMinn et al (2009). These prayer interventions were written by the first author in collaboration with a professional writer.…”

“…A narrative-based inquiry was used revealing that just over half the participants spontaneously mentioned prayer in describing their forgiving process. A second study (McMinn, Vasiliauskas, Honeycutt, & Dickey, 2009) was conducted to assess how prayer is specifically used in forgiveness among Christian young adults. Eighty-three prayer-related statements were generated based on the narratives from the first study and were given to a group of Christian undergraduate students.…”

“…First, it was important to develop a study that used stronger methodologies than the studies described above. Second, an experimental intervention study based on the results of McMinn et al (2008, 2009) was thought to be needed, where Christian participants were guided to pray in particular ways with the goal of promoting forgiveness. The goal was to have an intervention study that would help ease the transition from the research lab to the professional psychologists' office, where clients experiencing the aftermath of deep interpersonal wounds confront the challenge and hope of forgiveness.…”

“…The current intervention study utilized the four prominent themes (prayer for guidance, asking God for help in forgiving, revealing pain to God, and letting go of the burden) found in the research of McMinn et al (2009) that examined how prayer is specifically used in forgiveness among Christian young adult. These four themes were used to establish the devotional readings for the experimental group.…”