One time I got so upset at my husband. I wasn’t going to put up with it anymore. I got in my car and left.
I drove about 90 miles when I thought about how I had been married for 60 years. I began to calm down.
I was a pastor of a church. There was a doctrinal disagreement between me and the other pastor.
I was 90 miles away on a Wednesday night. I was supposed to be there at seven o’clock. It was already about five o’clock in the afternoon.
Nobody knew I was mad and sad. Nobody knew except me and God.
The Lord said, “Anything you do, I’ll bless. You’re gifted, you’re talented, you’re anointed. I love you. Your decision is going to hurt many other people. Think about the effect this is going to have on your children, on your family, on the congregation and the things that you’ve taught other people, which you’re choosing not to apply to your own life. Why don’t you just choose to forgive?”
The convicting power turned me around. It was the sweetness of God.
The kindness of God causes people to change, to repent, to go in another direction.
Nobody ever knew that I took that 90-mile trip away from home.
I followed God’s prompting and set my sites back home. I made the choice to forgive and to love, which let me see the circumstances differently. What seemed dire and terrible at first, now just evaporated. It was so big at one point that it drove me away.
The circumstances became small when I chose to forgive. When I handled it with love, things changed.
We have got to understand that you are not going to be tested with things that God has not already given you the ability to go in on Jesus’s score.
This is what this life is about. This is a very temporary existence, but you are an eternal being. Jesus says, I’ve come that you may have life and that you have it more abundantly.
If you want the benefit, there are procedures that you have to follow.
I received a letter from a lady who said, “I am a TV talk show host, producer, and coach. I have had the good fortune to work with world-class coaches, Zig Ziglar, and Tony Robbins, among many others. I’ve invested thousands of hours, over six figures, in personal development. I’ve worked tirelessly to obtain God’s favor, to do it right. In working with Dr. Clarice Fluitt, the simplicity of the way she does things, I found the long elusive quality of favor reigning in my life by trusting God. With Dr. Clarice’s guidance, I’ve experienced the supernatural understanding of prayer that supersedes earthly restrictions, unleashing tidal waves of joy and favor, and opened doors to long-cherished dreams.”
For 14 years, she had been to top-notch counselors, and marriage retreats, and spent tens of thousands of dollars. Christian counseling books, begging, pleading, manipulating, doing all that she knew.
She continued to write, “My marriage was so stuck, but after three months of working with Dr. Fluitt, my marriage has been totally healed and totally restored.”
Marriage 101: Love God and do what he inspires you to do.
You have to choose. You have to make a decision about forgiveness. Forgiveness doesn’t mean I forgive you. No, it just means I’m going to put it away. It’s justified as if it didn’t happen.
To see no man accept in Christ is a very Godly position to take. I didn’t tell you it was easy.
Come to the place where you say, “Lord, it happened. It wasn’t right. It wasn’t righteous. I choose to tie it to the cross, rather than trying to drag it with me all the time, trying to reconcile something that’s not reconcilable, always hurting, always crying, always oppressed.”
I pray for you today. I pray for your marriage. I pray for your home. I pray for the relationships that are necessary.
Let’s set our faith in agreement right now. In the authority of the name of Jesus, that thorn that has just stuck in your heart, that’s caused you such sadness, such grief, such despondency, I bind that in Jesus’ name.
In light of things that are eternal and things that last, you know, you really don’t have a past.
Those things that have happened. Yes, they did. It was wrong. It shouldn’t have been, but we have the antidote to the antichrist spirit. And that’s the love of God. It’s his mercy. It’s his forgiveness. But it’s your decision.
Do you choose to be obedient to the Word of God? Do you want the benefit? Then, of course, we’ve got to embrace the Word of God.
You’ve got to choose to agree with God.
I’ve found in 61 years of living with this wonderful man, I chose to see nobody except in Christ. I choose to tell him every day about how wonderful he is, how much I love him, and how much I appreciate him.
Every day, I find a way to find something new and exciting to talk to him about. And you know what? My words have gone out and his words come to me. He is continuously speaking words of life.
It wasn’t always that way, but we made a decision to get married and stay married.
The winds blew. The rains came. Snow fell. Hurricanes came in, tsunamis whipped up, but you know what? The key to all of it is choosing to forgive.
Sometimes you’ve got to forgive yourself and sometimes you have to forgive your mate. Sometimes you have to forgive your children. Sometimes you have to forgive your mama and your daddy. Sometimes you have to forgive your preacher. Sometimes you just have to go down the line and say, I choose.
When you feel like you just can’t handle it anymore, call on the aid of God’s grace.
I’m asking some big old angel to come by your house and pick up a load of all those things that you have in regard to unforgiveness and haul it off and move it as far as the East is from the West.
Now you can walk with a deep, clean breath. The Ruah breath from the spirit of the living God.
Say this, “Father, I thank you for releasing me from the bondage of this attitude that’s not filled with gratitude.” You’ve got the power to do this in Jesus’ name.
I pray this story is a blessing to you and that enriches your life. I ask now that the wisdom for success in your marriage, in your relationships, and in your life, become a reality today.
God bless you.