Last Updated on October 19, 2023 by Emma
Are you feeling resentful toward another person? Do you have resentment in your heart and want to pray about it?
Allow us to be of service to you with these seven calming prayers about resentment. If you don’t see your specific situation represented here, then you are welcome to alter the wording of any of these prayers to fit what you’re facing with resentment. Use these prayers to open your heart toward the God who can help you.
You may find it helpful to pray these prayers, or to pray about exposing lies, or about restoring a relationship.
Anger is not the same as resentment. Anger is having strong feelings of displeasure towards someone, or about a situation. Resentment includes bitterness and involves being treated unfairly in the past, and it is never positive.
“Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice” (Ephesians 4.31, NIV).
As a regular part of life, we may face frustration about a situation, or become disappointed at the result of an encounter with someone. I’ve often faced this emotion, whether that was at work, with friends, or with my own family.
When we embrace resentment, however, we harbor negative emotions that linger, and we can’t stop thinking about the situation. Remorse and regret also come into play once resentment is present in us.
My way of dealing with these negative feelings was to bring all of them to God through prayer. So, I ask you to join me, and let God soothe your troubled heart.
Let God calm your stormy emotions and bring you peace within. We invite you to share your prayer journey and requests below in the comments section.
Short Prayer About Resentment
Dear God, I can’t seem to let go of what they said to me. They said so many hurtful things and humiliated me in front of all my friends. I keep replaying what they said, over and over in my head, all day long. I am so angry with them and don’t want to be around them.
I am praying to you for help because my mind is filled with thinking about what happened. I can’t focus on anything else. I resent that person greatly and I don’t think that is healthy, but I don’t know how to let go of all of this.
Please help me, God. I ask this in the name of Jesus, Amen.
Prayer About Resentment Toward My Sibling
Dear Lord God, I resent my brother and have for the longest time. He was older than me by several years, so when I came of age, he was already off to college. As I grew up into a teenager, he was already gone from the state and into his career.
I keep going over those crucial years and think about how things could have been different if he was around and available to me, instead of gone and distant. I can’t help but think that I would have made better choices and had less angst and pent-up anger.
I resent that he wasn’t around for me. I resent that he keeps me at arm’s length now that we’re adults. I’m tired of feeling this way but I don’t know what to do about it. I pray you will guide me into a healthy place in the coming days. I ask this through Christ Jesus my Lord, Amen.
Prayer About Resentment At Work
God, I can’t believe I got passed over for a promotion again at work! This is the third time in the last several months, and each time the person that got promoted has less experience at the company than I do.
I find myself making up reasons not to be around those three people or to cross their paths. I should be in one of their position now. Instead, I’m still doing what I’ve been doing for the last four years. I’ve been replaying my evaluation meetings, thinking about what I could have said differently.
I find myself filled with anger, frustration, and disappointment. It’s like no one notices the good work I’m doing and I’m not being rewarded for what I do. I’m praying to you for help. Break through all of this so I can get promoted as I deserve. I pray this in the name of Jesus, Amen.
Prayer About Resentment Toward My Husband
Father God, I resent my husband so much right now. I have told him and told him how much I hate it when he makes jokes about me in public and he did it again last week at a neighborhood gathering.
He thinks he’s so funny when he makes a dig at my expense and he enjoys that he makes other people laugh. Except I’m standing there, embarrassed. I can quote him word-for-word what he has said for the last six months because I replay each situation over and over in my head, and I just keep getting more angry and hurt.
If he loved me he would stop doing this. If he loved me, he would listen to me when I tell him that what he says hurts me. I’m coming up with ways to not be around him in public settings anymore because I know he’ll just keep sticking to me for cheap laughs. Please help me, God. In the name of Jesus I pray, Amen.
Prayer About Resentment Toward My Wife
Dear Lord, I am so disappointed in my wife. I’m also angry and regretting that I married her.
All I hear from her are negative comments about my appearance. I can press rewind in my head and hear every single one of those jabs for the last several months. Again and again, she cuts me down and thinks it’s nothing because she does it with a laugh, like it’s a joke–like I am the joke.
This can’t be how a good marriage is supposed to go. This can’t be how two people who love each other act toward one another. I resent my wife and I resent what she is doing to me and to our marriage. I need help. Our marriage needs help, but I don’t know where to turn.
I pray for guidance and direction. I want to be in love with my wife, not feel all the negative emotions I’m feeling right now. I ask this in the name of Jesus, Amen.
Prayer About Resentment Toward My Friend
Dear God, my friend at school dumped me for another set of friends and I am not feeling great about it at all. Our last conversation, where she told me she was “moving on” to other people, plays in my head all the time. It’s like I can’t think about anything else.
I find myself thinking that her new friends don’t like her and don’t want to be around her. I am so hurt and angry and frustrated and disappointed and I don’t like all of that right now.
I don’t know how to get beyond this resentment and bitterness that is beginning to build within me toward her. Help me see a way out of this, Lord. In the name of Jesus I pray, Amen.
Prayer About Resentment Toward My Neighbor
God, I find my mind filling up with anger and resentment toward my neighbor. He keeps telling me how well he’s doing, even though he knows I’m between jobs and that we are struggling. It’s like he’s rubbing my nose in it so he can show me he’s better than me.
He makes it a point to come over to me when I’m out in the yard and make sure I hear every detail about the latest thing he’s bought, or how well he’s doing in his job. The whole time I am boiling with anger. I replay those situations for days afterward, fueling my disappointment in myself and my rage toward him.
I can’t stand that I have to live next door to him now. I wish I could move but I can’t because I’m stuck here. I need help Lord and I need God-size help. I pray this in the name of Jesus, Amen.
Final Thoughts
We don’t set out each day to grab hold of resentment in our hearts and let it build up day after day. But sometimes, situations happen in our lives that hurt us and we dwell on them.
So, anger, which is a normal emotion and is to be felt and expressed, turns into resentment, which takes hold of us. We rehearse the words that were said or the actions that were done, over and over. We can’t let go of what happened. This is not good for us.
When I did a search for “resentment” in the Bible, there were only three scriptures that came up in the results. Two of those were in the book of Job, where you find a story of suffering and redemption. If anyone had a right to be resentful, it was Job.
But instead, you find a statement about resentment like this one:
“Resentment kills a fool, and envy slays the simple” (Job 5.2, NIV).
The story of Job also elicits this saying:
“For the godless are full of resentment. Even when he punishes them, they refuse to cry out to him for help” ( Job 36.13, NLT).
It’s clear that resentment isn’t something we want to have in our lives, or if it is present, to hold onto very long. We need to release resentment from us before it destroys us from within. We can best do that with prayer. May these prayers be a release valve for you. May they break you loose and set you free to live in God’s peace!