I read that the cure for resentment is to pray two weeks for the person for whom you're holding the resentment. Is there something extraordinary about a two weeks cure? Or just making an effort to pray for someone with whom we're struggling softens our hearts toward them?

Actually, I think the key that makes this wisdom true is the word “for”. Praying for, not about...

What's the difference? Quite a bit, really. Praying-about prayers are the kind that go something like this: "Lord, please make this person leave me alone. Do something about her mean attitude. After all, Lord, if she weren't so awful, I wouldn't have to hate her." In other words, praying about someone is really all about me and my own suffering.

In contrast, praying-for other people calls upon God's power to change the person for his/her own good, and to bring healing in whatever may be lacking which has caused the negative actions. It can never be the wrong thing to pray for our enemies, no matter what they've done to us. The Bible says, "Love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you" (Mat. 5:44). It's not easy, but it sure does put the smack-down on resentment. Become a grudgeless grudger.

Praying for the good of our enemies provides a two-fold miracle.

1 - First, it dilutes the development of bitterness in our own hearts, no matter how innocent we are and no matter how guilty the other person is.

2 - Second, it opens the opportunity for God to actually change that person rather than just to protect us from him. It also gives us an opportunity to share in the intercession that Jesus performs for us. We may offend God, but Jesus continues to pray for us and for the healing of our faults. And He say:

Go and resentment no more…