Ask for Forgiveness

I had to humble myself to ask for forgiveness from family for my attitude towards controversial issues.

Couple days ago I shared a burden regarding a root of bitterness hardening my heart toward my husband. I humbled myself and admitted I needed prayer to overcome it. I wasn’t even wanting to pray for him anymore I was so hurt. Last night while studying & praying the Lord showed me II Corinthians 5:18-20. As believers we are ambassadors of the ministry of reconciliation. This morning my husband was leaving for work and felt lightheaded. He has high blood pressure, heart issues & *not saved*. I told him to sit down and I’d pray. I felt led to apologize to him for my part in our marriage issues. Then I started praying and let it pour out of my spirit. Praying for his healing, comfort and SALVATION. He began to weep and I knew he felt the presence of the Holy Spirit. I continued praying silently, Holy Spirit help him, I heard him cry out for help, forgiveness and our marriage. My husband *gave his life to Jesus this morning*! Please pray for him. Forgiveness is powerful! Don’t let the enemy discourage you! Pray without ceasing.

After hearing the sermon this past Sunday God laid it on my heart to ask for forgiveness of my self righteous pride. I prayed about it, and the next day I texted my ex-husband of 11 years, and asked for his forgiveness If I had ever made him feel unworthy of God’s grace. We are all broken people desperately in need of Jesus. I’m just one beggar showing another beggar where to get food. Sin is sin no matter the offense. Lord help us all. I love you Jesus!

I am a single mother with a farm and a career. My little girl is such a hard worker and helps me do all the barn chores. She has a bad habit of leaving the gate open. This causes horses loose, feed and hay scattered everywhere. I lost my temper with her yesterday morning. I was enraged. After we cleaned up the mess I took her off to school in complete silence and anger. I cried my eyes out I felt so bad I left things that way. Saying I’m sorry does not come easy. This messaged was exactly what God was laying on my heart. To apologize to my daughter and tell her how much I love her!

The Church's silence about sex has caused some people, maybe even you, to think that it was somehow shameful and it led you to find some really unreliable and destructive answers from other sources. So much dysfunction has come from not understanding what God designed sex to be - this gift of mutuality. We read in 1 Corinthians 7:3-5 that: “The husband should fulfill his marital duty to his wife, and likewise the wife to her husband. The wife does not have authority over her own body but yields it to her husband. In the same way, the husband does not have authority over his own body but yields it to his wife. Do not deprive each other except perhaps by mutual consent and for a time, so that you may devote yourselves to prayer. Then come together again so that Satan will not tempt you because of your lack of self-control.” And so, if you've been discipled on this topic by our culture and society instead of viewing sex to be a gift of mutuality, it can cause a combination of resentment and bitterness in your heart. Marriage is not a place to stand up for your rights; marriage is a decision to serve the other in all aspects of life. The way the Church has historically talked around sex and sexuality has built up some walls around many of your hearts. But Jesus came to give us freedom and healing. He came to declare truth that would set us free and give us grace to pick us back up, and we want to be a community that is full of compassion without compromise.

The Church has been challenged to do better job of celebrating what God has said is good about marriage and sexuality, without turning marriage into an idol as it has historically. The Church has often described marriage as the ultimate goal, where it’s described as the answer to all of your problems. The Church can sometimes say, maybe not overtly, if you're lonely, marriage is the answer. Marriage isn't the answer. Jesus is the answer. Some of the loneliest people on the planet are married. The Church can sometimes give you the indication that if you're sexually frustrated, marriage is the answer marriage isn't the answer. Some of the most sexually frustrated people I know on the planet are married people. The Church can sometimes give this idea that if you're dissatisfied or unhappy or discontent, that marriage is the answer. While marriage is a beautiful gift from God, but don't put your hope in it because it will disappoint you. Jesus is the only one who will fulfill us ultimately. We are sorry if you are single and the Church has ever made you feel less than or has ever treated your celibacy like it's a curse. We are sorry if the church ever made you think your cure for loneliness was a spouse. Your cure and your hope is Jesus.

In the Song of Solomon, a book found in the old Testament, we read about a passionate love between a husband and a wife. The book contains lots of sexual imagery and language throughout as it describes of this couple’s love. Chapter 5, verse one shows us this picture of satisfaction and connectedness that can exist between a husband and a wife. God speaks in this chapter when seeing the couple together and says, “Eat, O friends, drink, yes, drink your fill, O lovers!” What's God saying with this statement? He's celebrating what he created and declaring it to be something beautiful. In the context of how he designed it to be, it’s something to be celebrated. And so, the message of the Church should be this enthusiastic “yes” to God's design, where we're constantly pointing to God’s intent and purpose behind sexuality.  As believers of God and his design, we should have the highest view of sex and sexuality. It just has to be in the right context though, as part of God's plan. We are sorry if the Church's message about sex has brought fear and unhealthy expectations into your marriage, or if your religious upbringing made sex seem dangerous rather than something that was beautiful for you and your spouse to enjoy.

Where is your heart in terms of sexuality and disclipleship? We read in Mark 7:21-22, “For it is from within, out of a person’s heart, that evil thoughts come—sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly.” So where does this verse say it comes from? It comes from within. And so, we want to, as followers of Christ, put that priority on the same, that it comes out of people’s hearts. When you put the emphasis on behavior rather than on the heart, what it ends up happening is that we end up treating the symptoms, but not the cause. Many of us who grew up in the church tried to develop ways of fighting sexual sin by just having better habits rather than spending the time on my heart and making sure that the heart was right. But when you turn sexuality into a list of do's and don'ts, it turns people into either self-righteous legalists or it turns people towards the rebellion. If the church circle you grew up and took the beautiful mystery of sexuality and turned it into a list of do's and don'ts, we are sorry. If the church told you that purity is something you can behave your way into, instead of making it clear that only Jesus can make you pure, we are sorry. We're all impure, only Jesus purifies us. We are sorry if the church ever made you think that God loves you more, when you keep a bunch of extra rules and less loves you less, when you don’t.