Restoration Begins with CHANGED Hearts and Attitudes
(Note from Linda: The following testimony was posted on the private site by one of the FAM Fellowship members Friday and it’s such a powerful and important message that I requested permission to share it here and I greatly appreciate MNO (Member Name Omitted) letting me do so. It reminded me of a very important passage of scripture to ALL of us as we stand for the restoration of our marriages, which is Luke 6:27-49; particularly verses 37-42. There’s an awful lot of wisdom and VITALLY IMPORTANT instruction packed in these few verses, and we all will be EXCEEDINGLY blessed and encouraged IF we learn to put it all into PRACTICE as we stand for the restoration of our marriages and families! And reading MNO’s testimony is just a glimpse of how God changes our hearts and attitudes when we do; and changed hearts and attitudes ARE always necessary for true and lasting marriage restoration…starting with OURS! And I can attest to the fact that this is indeed a changed (new and improved) man and husband!)
I want to praise God for my life and everything He does for me. I have had more conversations with my wife, and we have been doing better at communicating. Even more than that, though, I had a very God glorifying day yesterday for no reason at all, other than knowing that He is with me. I have been overflowing with God’s love lately, and I was just praising Him yesterday and even stated that I didn’t know how He could bless me more than He already has. And then, out of the blue, I opened my mail and inside was a card that read, “Smile, God loves you,” and it had a gift card in it. There was no name, but there was a return address, so I will thank them via that! And being even more blessed; my neighbor was outside and feeling down, and since she is doing poorly financially, I was blessed to be able to give her the gift card, which I felt in my spirit was suppose to go to her. I have been planting seeds into her life for a long time, so please keep praying for her, as she has also been through a divorce. But I seem unable to convince her that God can handle her problems.
God is so good, and every day is better than the last! I can honestly say that “I LOVE MY LIFE!” In all of my forty years of living on earth, I can actually say that this time in my life is the most rewarding time ever, and that I am truly happy! Anyway, on to my post!
I started my stand for marriage restoration thinking that God needed to save my wife from her sins, and that until He did, she wasn’t very God-like. I felt that God had chosen me and that I was walking the path that He wanted me to walk and that I would be blessed, and she wouldn’t. I thought that her life was just lies, and that Satan was fooling her, and that I was better than all that; so why couldn’t she just see that and turn from her sinful ways. But guess who was being deceived the most? Me! It is true that my wife needs to have a personal relationship with God, but not for me or because of the sins I see and think she has, but for the love He can give her, and the salvation that the Lord has to offer. I thought that I was more Godly than she; but I sin every day too, and there is no sin greater than the other.
We should not cast the first stone, unless we are free from sin, and we are not. We tend to speak of the bad things are spouses are doing, which I am guilty of too; but I never hear of the sins we are still committing. So I think the greatest thing I have learned in the last month or so is the fact that we are too self-righteous and judgmental, even when we don’t mean to be. The only one who can judge us is God. And if we are to be reconciled to our spouses, we need to love them whether they are clean or unclean; after all, doesn’t God love us that way? And none of us are clean without the blood Jesus gave for us on the cross. We are cleansed now, but I still need to be forgiven every day, and in order for us to be more like Jesus, we need to accept and forgive everyone in our lives every day. I’m not sure if this makes sense, and it may not be coming out the way I want it to, but I just want to say that we are not better than anyone else; the only difference between us and our spouses, is Jesus…period. He got our attention, and He will get theirs! So be thankful that He loves us all the same!
Today is the day!!!