X is having a difficult time forgiving his wife for cheating on him a couple of years ago. He wants to forgive her & go on in their marriage but he feels so betrayed & trust has been broken. He tries to forgive her one day but then the emotions & details come back to haunt him. It plays over & over in his mind. It's like a battle raging within his mental & emotional being.
I believe it is a battle. Satan is playing his emotions & thoughts, pulling him back from forgiveness & pushing him to punish his wife for stabbing him in the back. Even though he realizes he has been tempted himself, he questions whether he can ever trust her again. Is confession really enough? Is repentance complete? Or will it happen again? Forgiveness can be a lot harder than we ever realized. Resentment is hard to overcome. It's not fair.
Yet Jesus said"If you do not forgive others for their sins, your Father in heaven will not forgive your sins." Forgiveness is required. We may not be able to forget but we must forgive & keep moving forward. We may not be able to trust until trust is built back up again , but we cannot move forward, or even stand still, if we refuse to forgive.
I believe it is a battle. Satan is playing his emotions & thoughts, pulling him back from forgiveness & pushing him to punish his wife for stabbing him in the back. Even though he realizes he has been tempted himself, he questions whether he can ever trust her again. Is confession really enough? Is repentance complete? Or will it happen again? Forgiveness can be a lot harder than we ever realized. Resentment is hard to overcome. It's not fair.
Yet Jesus said"If you do not forgive others for their sins, your Father in heaven will not forgive your sins." Forgiveness is required. We may not be able to forget but we must forgive & keep moving forward. We may not be able to trust until trust is built back up again , but we cannot move forward, or even stand still, if we refuse to forgive.
We will begin to regress & move backward. That's why Satan is battling the mind & replaying the tapes of resentment & the unfairness.
"LORD please help X to see that when he cannot forgive, he is thinking of himself. He's not thinking of his children, or his grieving wife, or his influence in the church or community.
He's not seeing that unforgivness will eventually ruin his soul.
He could divorce his wife for adultery & find a new life & try to go on but it would be a downhill slide because it would be stemming from pride.
Nothing wounds a man's spirit worse than being disrespected.
For women love is the most important need, but for men it's respect.
If you want to test a man to his very core, it's respect & pride that is to be tested.
If we let You cut us down & trim us,& shave off our edges You will make us into an even more useful vessel. Then You cover us w/ gold & place us as part of Your tabernacle."
