The Flog – The Fabry Log: Forgiveness Prayer

Where We Are Now

After finding and remediating mold twice in our Colorado home, we abandoned ship in October 2008. Because of the high levels of exposure, our entire family was affected. After months of seeing different specialists for all of the problems, we came to Arizona to begin comprehensive treatment to rid our bodies of the toxic buildup. In August 2009 we moved into a larger home, four bedrooms, south of Tucson, north of Mexico. I am doing my daily radio program/ writing from that location. Thanks for praying for us. We really feel it.

Thursday, June 11, 2009

Forgiveness Prayer

3:16 PM | Posted by Chris Fabry | | Edit Post

On Thursday's program with Joe Beam, we talked about forgiving yourself for something in your past after asking God's forgiveness. An emailer asked me to put up the prayer I suggested from that program.

We were discussing the fact that God does forgive us for our sins when we truly repent and ask his forgiveness. The problem is that we don't believe him and we doubt. So my prayer went something like this:

"Lord, I know you want to forgive me. I'm having a hard time having the faith to believe you're going to do that. Would you give me the faith to believe that you really meant what you said when you promised to forgive me?"

2 comments:

Anonymous said...: My sister went through a similar, but unique experience as your emailer on the program did. Our family has forgiven and moved on with life today. However we are still faced with a future were the other party wants to continue to remain a part of our life from the get go and doesn't understand 'space' or boundaries. Our family is continuing to be contacted through the mail and by financial institutions searching for the other person.; June 11, 2009 at 4:55 PM
Anonymous said...: Chris,
Now don’t feel guilty about what I’m going to say (ha-ha) but I think you guys gave a dud answer to the widow of a drunken husband on Thursday’s show. It’s forgivable though, seeing that neither of you have been women married to alcoholics. I only caught the tail end of the show, but I couldn’t get that woman out of my head this evening.

I’ve been married to a man who has struggled with drunkenness for 20 years. For the past 160 days though, I have lived in bliss with a changed man. It has taken an incredible amount of prayer and heartache for us to get to this point, but I feel I am somewhat qualified to make a comment on this lady’s situation.

While dealing with my husband’s addiction all those years, I started to recognize when the Spirit was prompting me to confront him, challenge him, or simply hold a mirror up (so he could see what he was doing to himself and his family). Any Spirit-filled Christian wife and mother who lives with an alcoholic walks an extremely fine line between being submissive and taking a stand for what is right. It is not an easy path – TRUST me.

This woman may be still be dealing with guilt 5 years later because deep down she knows that her “trying not to make waves” after it’s all been said and done, wasn’t exactly the best way to handle the situation. And now that her husband, and the father of her son is gone, she may very well be finally coming to grips with how she failed in the relationship. Yes, Satan can try to drag us over the coals long after God’s forgiven us; but it also could be the Holy Spirit trying to help her heal once and for all.

If I were in her position, I would write down everything she’s still feeling guilty about then lift each and every one of those concerns to the Lord in prayer. With each one I would pray, “Lord, this is in the past and I believe you’ve forgiven me, but is there any further action you want me to take to heal this particular feeling of guilt?” The Spirit may prompt her to formally apologize to her son, or encourage her in some other form of restitution she may not want to do, but she must. If He does not, then she has done ALL she can do for restoration.
It is ultimately God’s Truth (working by way of the Holy Spirit) that will set her free from the bondage of guilt. That’s how it worked for me … I was just blessed enough to have it happen before my husband killed himself (or others) because of his addiction.

Thanks! Just felt led share that.; June 11, 2009 at 5:28 PM

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