There is no question that
the traditional family unit has been and is now
under tremendous attack. This attack is a
mulch-pronged one, from all sides.
Many causes are to blame but the one true
cause is Satan, himself.
There are drugs, alcohol,
money and materialism and then there's adultery.
The casual way people walk into marriage these
days is abhorring. Having been married 30 years
to the same person, I have never once thought
that would be a problem. How wrong was I?
This writer doesn't write about life
events, who wants to hear other people's
problems? Yet, this very thing is so timely for
today. If this can happen to
me, it can happen to anyone.
Whenever someone betrays
us, no matter what the cause of that betrayal
might be, we feel sadness, loss and strive to
“understand” why this might have happened.
The Bible has a great deal to say about
adultery and many times, when God uses this
word, He refers to Israel (and believers all)
following or worshiping false idols. But these
verses are literal. Forgiveness is also
addressed.
Exo_15:9
“The enemy said, I will pursue, I will
overtake, I will divide the spoil; my lust shall
be satisfied upon them; I will draw my sword, my
hand shall destroy them. “
As my son says, “Mom
there sure are a lot of 'thou shalt nots' to
which I always reply, remember these:
Thou shalt have no
other god before me, Thou shalt not kill, Thou
shalt not steal, Honor they father and mother.
This is simple for him and he accepts it.
I have found a new
test of my Christian faith. Any Christian trying
to live by God's word and walk in God's will
DOES experience extreme challenges and tests.
Satan uses any means possible to hurt us. Though
my spouse is upset and says divorce is sure to
come, I find myself wanting to forgive him and I
DO forgive him. For a relationship to
recover, it would be very hard but to
begin anew would be a blessing. I pray he sees
this as I do but because he is not a believer,
it might not happen. How long have I
prayed for him! How long have you prayed for
someone? We must never quit. We are in a
spiritual battle for each and every soul in
these last days.
God tells us in
Exodus 20:14, “ Thou shalt not commit
adultery.”We are also told in numerous places in
God's word about this topic. Proverbs 6:32
says “ But whoso
committeth adultery with a woman lacketh
understanding: he that doeth it
destroyeth his own soul.”
Forgiveness is a
choice we make through a decision of our will,
motivated by obedience to God and his command to
forgive. The Bible instructs us to forgive
as the Lord forgave us: Colossians
3:13 “Forbearing one another, and
forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel
against any; een as Christ forgave you, so also
do you.” We are clearly commanded to
forgive.
God is very explicit in His
commandments on this subject,.We forgive by
faith out of obedience. Since forgiveness goes
against our nature, we must forgive by faith,
whether we feel like it or not. We must trust
God to do the work in us that needs to be done
so that the forgiveness will be complete.
I believe God honors our commitment to obey Him
and our desire to please him when we choose to
forgive. He completes the work in his time. We
must continue to forgive (our job), by faith,
until the work of forgiveness (the Lord's job),
is done in our hearts. Philippians 1:6
“The one preach Christ of contention, not
sincerely, supposing to add affliction to my
bonds.”
Corrie Ten Boom, a Nazi concentration camp
survivor and missionary said, “"Forgiveness
is to set a prisoner free, and to realize the
prisoner was you."
We will know the work of forgiveness is complete
when we experience the freedom that comes as a
result. We are the ones who suffer most when we
choose not to forgive. When we do forgive, the
Lord sets our hearts free from the anger,
bitterness and resentment and hurt that
previously imprisoned us.
Most times, however, forgiveness is a slow
process. Jesus tells us, “Then came Peter to
him, and said, Lord, how oft shall my brother
sin against me, and I forgive him? Till seven
times? Jesus saith unto hi, I say not unto thee,
Until seven times: but, Until seventy times
seven.” Matthew 18:21-22 This answer
by Jesus makes it clear that forgiveness is not
easy for us. It's not a one-time choice and then
we automatically live in a state of forgiveness.
Forgiveness may require a lifetime of forgiving,
but it is important to the Lord. We must
continue forgiving until the matter is settled
in our heart.
The coming days will bring more challenges and
tests for us. Let us keep our eyes upon heaven,
upon our Lord Jesus. No matter what the
circumstances, we are to follow God's teachings
and His will for our lives. Acts of betrayal
against us and other problems are mostly the
acts of those who are intentionally trying to
hurt us. Focus on God. We are
in contention for the very souls of man.
It is not our fight to fight for God will
do that. But, we do our part by following the
Word of God.
I forgive all who have ever hurt me, who have
tried to hurt me and my Heavenly Father knows
this. I have found prayer is one of the best
ways to break down the wall of unforgiveness in
my heart. When I begin to pray for the person
who has wronged me, God gives me new eyes to see
and a new heart to care for that person. As I
pray, I start to see that person as God sees
them, and I realize that he or she is precious
to the Lord. I also see myself in a new light,
just as guilty of sin and failure as the other
person. I too am in need of forgiveness. If God
did not withhold his forgiveness from me, why
should I withhold my forgiveness from another?
How must we deal with the anger and hurt we feel
as a result of these problems? This question
presents another reason to pray for the person
we need to forgive. We can pray for God to deal
with the injustices, for God to judge the
person's life, and then we can leave that prayer
at the altar. We no longer have to carry the
anger. Although it is normal for us to feel
anger toward sin and injustice, it is not our
job to judge the other person in their sin.
The best reason to forgive
is because Jesus commanded us to forgive. We
learn from Scripture, if we don't forgive,
neither will we be forgiven. We never want this
to be. “O God, hear my prayer; give ear to
the words of my mouth” Psalm 54:2
While we can be sure that
God does hear our prayers, there are times when
He chooses not to heed or answer them. There are
hindrances to prayer and several are briefly
they are listed here. One hindrance to our
prayer is our motives. We must ask in accordance
with God’s will as revealed in the Bible. We
must ask only for things that are consistent
with the character and nature of God. We must
ask for things that are for the spiritual
benefit of ourselves or for the person on whose
behalf we pray. God will not answer our
self-centered, self-serving prayers.
If we are not spending time
immersing ourselves in Scripture and are not
obeying what we have learned, we should not
expect God to answer our prayers.
Our defiance in ignoring
the life-giving Words of the Bible may hinder us
from having our prayers answered. Solomon goes
so far as to suggest that prayers made from such
a hardened heart are an abomination to God. “If
one turns away his ear from hearing the law,
even his prayer is an abomination”Proverbs 28:9.
Without submitting ourselves to Scripture, we
may not even know what and how to pray. We pray
best and most effectively when we are saturated
in the Word of God.
The Christian has been
forgiven for the greatest of offenses. He has
been forgiven for knowingly, purposely and
unrepentantly transgressing the Law of God. And
yet we are often slow to forgive our fellow man
for the smallest of transgressions. Even the
biggest of the sins committed against us are as
nothing compared to how we sinned against God.
God does not honor this attitude. In Mark
11:25 Jesus says, “And whenever you stand
praying, forgive, if you have anything against
anyone, so that your Father also who is in
heaven may forgive you your trespasses.”
We forgive out of obedience to the Lord. It is a
choice, a decision we make. However, as we do
this "forgiving," we discover the command is in
place for our own good, and we receive the
reward of our forgiveness—freedom.