Repenting of Our Sins
Recommended Reading:
Breaking Generational Curses (~Marilyn Hickey)
The Breaking of Curses (Spiritual Warfare Series, Volume 5) (~Frank Hammond)
Sin blinds us, and so we have to start with repenting of our own sin.
As we go though some sins, if you find one that applies to you,
- Stop and confess it to God.
- Take responsibility for it.
- Renounce it, and strip yourself of all excuses for doing it.
- Ask God and the people offended for forgiveness.
- Do what it takes to protect yourself from falling back into that sin..
- When possible, make restitution--undo the damage done and help bring healing to those who were hurt.
If you helped someone commit that sin, if you encouraged it, approved of it, tolerated it without objecting when you felt you should, or if you covered up for it or even willfully protected someone of the rightful consequences of that sin when you should not have done so, you will need to repent of that as well. Don’t leave your family and your marriage half clean and half cursed.
Important: Once you have repented of the sin and done these things mentioned above, Romans 8:1 promises us there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ. The sin is in the past. It is covered by forgiveness. You can do nothing about the history to change it, and while it is important to make restitution and ask for forgiveness with a sincere heart, it is not necessary to become a slave to guilt. The person you offended may choose not to forgive you, and some people may want to use unforgiveness to keep you in bondage.
Let’s go over some sins that are key to protecting marriage.
Adultery
This is a hard place to start, but it is the very best place to start. This sin will damage a marriage like no other sin can because it completely destroys the very foundation of the marriage.
Did the relationship you now have violate a previous marriage? If you or your partner had to break wedding vows to form this relationship, then your current relationship is adulterous. Jesus Christ said, “Except for reason of unfaithfulness to divorce your spouse and marry another is adultery.” No civil divorce and remarriage could ever legitimize adultery.
Can you or I come to God and say, “Lord, please bless my adultery?”
If your relationship is adulterous, it is already cursed heavily. To enter an adulterous relationship, both partners must strip themselves of virtually everything needed to protect a marriage--ethics, morality, honor for wedding vows, honor for the institution of marriage, honor of God, integrity, sincere and unconditional and lasting love, concern for one’s children, honor of one’s own word.
If your relationship is adulterous, your children’s marriage is also cursed. It is cursed by your bad example. It is cursed by your lack of support for the foundation of marriage. How can you pray for God to protect your children’s marriage or anyone else’s marriage while desecrating the very foundation of marriage by your own lifestyle? How can you protect your children’s marriage without ending your unfaithfulness?
Here is the curse--if your relationship is founded on adultery, then you have no security whatsoever. If you are in adultery, you don’t have any basis for offering a promise of faithfulness to your partner. If you are willing to receive a partner, it shows you have no concern for the spouse who has been abandoned and the pain you bring upon that person may come back to you and your children and your family before long.
That is why it is so important to uproot this terrible sin completely.
The Curse of Approving or Condoning Adultery
If you are clean yourself from the sin of adultery and its curses and your relationship with your partner is entirely pure, it is time to take it one step deeper.
When you condone, accept, approve, or excuse the sin of adultery in another person, this carries a heavy curse that seriously damages the foundation of your own marriage. If you wish to protect your own marriage and the marriages of your children, your parents, and your other loved ones, then you must take a firm stand against all forms of adultery and defend the foundation of marriage against attack.
Do you attend adulterous marriage ceremonies? Do you buy gifts for couples entering into marriages that violated previous marriage covenants? Do you bring your children to such weddings? Do you wish the couple blessings and good luck? Do you tempt God by praying for their adulterous marriages to succeed? Do you perform adulterous marriage ceremonies as a minister or serve as a best man or maid of honor for them? Do you allow your children to serve as a flower girl or ring bearer for those kinds of weddings?
If you do these things you bring curses upon your own family and you need to repent of that and take a firm stand against such adulterous marriages. If this will make you unpopular, then you must decide whether this matters more to you than your integrity, your family, and your relationship with God. You cannot have it both ways.
Go back over your past and ask God to remind you of everything you may need to repent of. You don’t want to leave yourself and your family half cursed.
I know this seems hard to some people, but it is only because we have allowed our society to drift so far away from God’s standards of love, integrity, courage, and marital fidelity.
Do you go to movies that promote adultery? Do you pay for that? Do you buy risqué magazines? Even socially acceptable ones? When you watch TV with your friends and family, what do those shows promote?
