Over the past week, FAM Fellowship members have truly been blessed by one amazing testimony of God’s awesome power and faithfulness to restore after another; but one of the most remarkable we’ve ever witnessed comes from one of our newest members.

MNO (member name omitted) was married for fourteen years to a wonderful man that she loved very much and who she knew loved her very much as well. But she began a friendship with a married man at work, which soon became much more than friendship and eventually led them into adultery. And even though his children were very young, they divorced their respective spouses and were married about ten months ago. Both of their covenant spouses are Christians, and MNO has no doubt that the NCP’s (non covenant person) wife was standing for the restoration of their marriage. And as He ALWAYS will, God was faithful to uphold His Holy covenant of marriage! So I thank MNO for permission to share the following excerpt from her introduction on the private website, which she posted a week ago:
“Three weeks ago, my current husband told me that he could not stand the guilt and shame he felt for how we came to be any longer and told me God was calling him back to his family (he has three very young children). I was, of course, devastated, but began my research immediately. Could this truly be God’s will, to break another covenant? We took vows, I couldn’t believe he thought God would be fine with allowing us to break them again. But in my search I found that I too was wondering if I should go back and give my first marriage a chance. I had talked to my pastor, who told me I should stay true to my new vows, that the past is the past and that I need to let go. But something kept telling me not to leave it at that.

I found this website and joined immediately. That was last night, and I received an email from Linda asking me to call her. I wrote in my profile that I was not sure which marriage I should stand for; that I was lost and confused. I just spent an hour on the phone with her and I know now the path that I need to take; not because Linda told me which one, but because God revealed through her, which path was the right one for everyone involved. And it’s the one I knew to take all along but was too scared to pursue.
I still love my first husband; that never stopped. And I know he still loves me, but I hurt him deeply. I still feel shame and guilt for that, and I am having a hard time believing that he could ever take me back. I know I have to give him time. Unfortunately, I am not a patient person, so I know I need a lot of prayers for patience. I also ask for your prayers for my current husband, and that his first wife will forgive him and take him back and that they can be a family again; the way God intended. I pray for each and every one of us. I know God has great plans for us, and I know they will be made known in His time.

My hope, of course, is that my first husband can find it in his heart to forgive me, but I also hope that my story can be an inspiration to those who have lost their spouses to someone else. God does make it known to us when we need to go home.”

Needless to say, MNO’s amazing testimony has been extremely encouraging for all of the FAM members standing for marriage restoration, especially when it looks impossible because there’s another person involved and even more so after remarriage. But if we ever needed proof of why God tells us that if we don’t lean to our own understanding and trust Him with ALL of our hearts and commit to doing things HIS way and acknowledge Him in ALL of our ways, in everything we say and do, He will make our paths straight, OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS shine like the dawn and the JUSTICE OF OUR CAUSE like the noon day sun (Proverbs 3:5-6 and Psalm 37:5-6), the following excerpt from MNO’s post on the private site earlier tonight really proves why we can’t do that! Things are almost NEVER the way we THINK they are!

“Good Thursday evening everyone. I want to share something I ran across today. I have been cleaning out all the old emails SNO (spouse name omitted) sent me while I was still married to my first husband. I felt like I needed to get rid of them; clean out my closet so to speak. I also pulled up my journal, which I keep online and went back to last year. In the sixteen months SNO and I were together, I counted eighteen times where I believe God was trying to speak to us. So much happened during that short amount of time, including SNO being forced to resign from a well paying job the same day I closed on my house. But what really stood out were the entries where I wrote about the guilt and shame. I wrote how I hurt for my first husband. I wrote how on my cruise with SNO, I was overwhelmed with guilt and couldn’t stop thinking about my first husband because we had cruised together so many times and everything reminded me of him. And then I found an entry written only six months ago…”I need to stop feeling like if I went back to (name omitted) things would be so much better for me.” I was shocked as I continued reading entry after entry about my guilt; entries about how I felt God was punishing us. But instead of being upset with myself, I could only be thankful that my eyes were finally opened.

I woke up this morning with Psalm 23 running through my head. Once again, God is telling me that I am on the right path and he will deliver. Today was my best day so far since this started almost four weeks ago. I am starting to learn to give it all to Him.”

It’s through powerful testimonies like this that we truly learn why God tells us that we MUST live by faith and NOT by site (2 Corinthians 5:7)! And we’d find that a whole lot easier to do if we’d truly get it into the depths of our hearts, minds and spirits that NO WISDOM, NO INSIGHT AND NO PLAN WILL EVER SUCCEED AGAINST GOD Proverbs 21:30 and that God’s Word NEVER returns without accomplishing what He desires and what He sent it to do (Isaiah 55:10-11)! And when we realize that God REALLY meant business when He said that HE HATES DIVORCE (Malachi 2:13-17 and 1 Peter 3:7), we’ll realize that we don’t need to know anything more as we stand on the power and promise of His Word for the full and complete restoration of our marriages and families and we’ll truly be blessed and encouraged!

Dear Lord, we thank You for Your awesome faithfulness to uphold and defend the covenant of our marriages and that we can indeed put all of our hope and confidence in the power and promise of Your Word as we stand in faith and obedience for the restoration of our marriages and families. And we thank You for blessing us with powerful testimonies like this and that it will completely destroy and overcome the wicked works of the devil just as Your Word promises in Revelation 12:10-11. And we thank You now as we claim the full and complete restoration of these marriages and families in the most powerful name and authority of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, and all for His glory! Amen!

Posted Thursday, August 28th, 2008 at 11:54 pm in Seeds Of Faith.