Hope after a backsliding season

[StarryEyedShoeGazer]

Hi all,
Just wondering if there is hope for a victorious productive and joyful life after a season of backsliding (for the repentant believer).

I was reading a book by Erwin Lutzer who says that Christians who fall into gross sin(particularly immorality) never fly as high again and essentially are like birds with clipped wings.
My personal failures date back to about a decade ago bit the anguish, shame and remorse is as soul crushing as if it had happened yesterday.
Is there hope for freedom and a sense of being made clean or will I carry this pain to my grave?

 

[Emli]

Hi all,
Just wondering if there is hope for a victorious productive and joyful life after a season of backsliding (for the repentant believer).

I was reading a book by Erwin Lutzer who says that Christians who fall into gross sin(particularly immorality) never fly as high again and essentially are like birds with clipped wings.
My personal failures date back to about a decade ago bit the anguish, shame and remorse is as soul crushing as if it had happened yesterday.
Is there hope for freedom and a sense of being made clean or will I carry this pain to my grave?

I believe that God can and will both restore you fully and make you shine even more than before, because He doesn't want you to suffer and He wants to use you. So ask Jesus to use your sins and mistakes for His purposes in the future, ask Him to teach you from it, and believe that He can and want to heal you completely. What good with it do Him or you if He leaves you in darkness? Pray and seek Him, and He will definitely make something beautiful out if you. Don't lose hope or faith!

 

[ToBeLoved]

Hi all,
Just wondering if there is hope for a victorious productive and joyful life after a season of backsliding (for the repentant believer).

I was reading a book by Erwin Lutzer who says that Christians who fall into gross sin(particularly immorality) never fly as high again and essentially are like birds with clipped wings.
My personal failures date back to about a decade ago bit the anguish, shame and remorse is as soul crushing as if it had happened yesterday.
Is there hope for freedom and a sense of being made clean or will I carry this pain to my grave?

I think it can actually make both you stronger and your testimony.

For instance,people that have experienced terrible things, such as drug addiction or heavy premarital sex can often be great testifying to those people in those situations. If God has brought you (or whomever) out of such grave sins and set you free, that is powerful testimony for the other person currently in that type of situation. Many times they will listen to you when they won't listen to someone selse.

The other thing is that to some who know great forgiveness from God, their faith is added to or affected by the great debt that was relieved. In some cases.

 

[Kit Sigmon]

Hi all,
Just wondering if there is hope for a victorious productive and joyful life after a season of backsliding (for the repentant believer).

I was reading a book by Erwin Lutzer who says that Christians who fall into gross sin(particularly immorality) never fly as high again and essentially are like birds with clipped wings.
My personal failures date back to about a decade ago bit the anguish, shame and remorse is as soul crushing as if it had happened yesterday.
Is there hope for freedom and a sense of being made clean or will I carry this pain to my grave?

Lutzer shares a reality...that many backsliders have faced in life...trust me,
it's not always sexual immorality that can wreck a repentant believer.
Try taking a stand against drug dealers in your community, that will pit you against their family members and friends...specially when the drug dealers
have relatives who be prominent church members/leaders in the community.
I know what it's like to suffer, to have others speak evil against me...so you see,
it's not only the ones who have been immoral that suffer and will be "avoided".
God forgives, heals and restores but know this, it's not always that way with
other people (saved or unsaved) there will be those who come against you
and there will be those who will come along side you.

Our Lord knows how hard it be living on this earth, he been through great suffering himself.
Put yourself completely into His care, ask Him to restore to you His joy and
mend that which is broken inside of you.
Spend time with the Lord in prayer, read/study out God's Word and develop
a closer walk with the One who gave His very life to Redeem you.
You are of great Value and loved by God! Believe it, walk it out each day...
Put on Christ every morning you wake up.

Remember this: our call is to be one of the Lord's Ambassadors, that still stands, for God's gifts and His call be irrevocable...Romans 11:29.

 

[faroukfarouk]

Hi all,
Just wondering if there is hope for a victorious productive and joyful life after a season of backsliding (for the repentant believer).

I was reading a book by Erwin Lutzer who says that Christians who fall into gross sin(particularly immorality) never fly as high again and essentially are like birds with clipped wings.
My personal failures date back to about a decade ago bit the anguish, shame and remorse is as soul crushing as if it had happened yesterday.
Is there hope for freedom and a sense of being made clean or will I carry this pain to my grave?

Hi; good to see you; Hebrews 9.14 speaks of the cleansing of the conscience; John's First Epistles speaks of cleansing and about walking in the light while following the Son of God.

 

[ToBeLoved]

Hi all,
Just wondering if there is hope for a victorious productive and joyful life after a season of backsliding (for the repentant believer).

I was reading a book by Erwin Lutzer who says that Christians who fall into gross sin(particularly immorality) never fly as high again and essentially are like birds with clipped wings.
My personal failures date back to about a decade ago bit the anguish, shame and remorse is as soul crushing as if it had happened yesterday.
Is there hope for freedom and a sense of being made clean or will I carry this pain to my grave?

Just remember that if you repent, God is fair and just to forgive you your sins and cast that sin as far as the east is from the west.

What is often harder, is to forgive ourselves. What is easier is to get God's forgiveness through repentance and then really work on your love and kindness. God's Word says that love covers a multitude of sin. So, in this you can really spiritually put yourself in a good place and realize that you can do so much more good when you concentrate on that rather than kicking yourself for what you have done n the past.

Sometimes, I have had to try really, really hard to forgive myself and I figure if God has forgiven me and He is the Judge, than I am in error not to do the same.

Hope this helps and God bless you.