Saturday, 15 November 2008

• Confronting the Person You're Going to Marry With Sins of Your Past

  Guest post submitted by Love__Chronicles

  

  There are few things more painful, and more rewarding, than meeting the person you are going to marry and confronting all the sins of your past with her.  Some wounds must be opened in order to heal. 
  
  Let me share a passage:
   
      2 Hear this, you elders;
         listen, all who live in the land.
         Has anything like this ever happened in your days
         or in the days of your forefathers?

      3 Tell it to your children,
         and let your children tell it to their children,
         and their children to the next generation.

     4 What the locust swarm has left
         the great locusts have eaten;
         what the great locusts have left
         the young locusts have eaten;
         what the young locusts have left
         other locusts have eaten.  - Joel 1:2-4

  This is the prophet Joel, one of the seven pre-exilic prophets of the Bible (prophets from before the time of Isreal's fall and exile to Babylon), and the second earliest prophet (second only to the prophet Obadiah). He is talking about a time in Judah's history when the Lord sent an army of locusts to devour the land and cause famine and poverty.  

  This story reminds me of my life before I got saved, and even before I met Michelle.  I once lived a very insecure life, clinging to romantic relationships as a source of self-esteem and direction in life.  It led me to make an abundance of mistakes.  The Lord always allowed me to make my own choices, because He loved me so much.  It must have grieved Him to watch me go so far astray all those years.
  
  But it would not do to let me die.  God sent into my life my own personal army of locusts.  Slowly, but fiercely, I was brought into a state of spiritual poverty, and emotional turmoil.  My plans were devoured.  My relationships were devoured.  Everything I had ever put my hope in was chewed up and destroyed.  Michelle had gone through the same thing in her own way.  It was a painfully necessary step to freedom.

  Don't get me wrong.  I'm not preaching prosperity theology.  I'm not saying the only reason anything is going wrong in your life is because you're sinning, and when you're not sinning you will always prosper.  We're in a fallen world.  Things go wrong.  People are victimized and taken advantage of.   Disaster happens.  Tragedy occurs.  This is the result of the fall of man, and not necessarily the result of your own personal sin.
  

  Nonetheless, going through the process of uncovering each other's past is unbelievably painful.  But, it's necessary, and so very powerful.  The enemy will have no foothold in my marriage.  I have absolutely nothing to hide from Michelle, and she has nothing to hide from me.  There is something so very liberating about being completely transparent.  Darkness cannot fall on the light of truth, and Jesus removed the guilt and shame of our sins when He died on the cross.  

  Now, look at Joel 2:23-27:
  
   23 Be glad, O people of Zion,
         rejoice in the LORD your God,
         for he has given you
         the autumn rains in righteousness.
         He sends you abundant showers,
         both autumn and spring rains, as before.
   
  24 The threshing floors will be filled with grain;
         the vats will overflow with new wine and oil.
  
   25 "I will repay you for the years the locusts have eaten—
         the great locust and the young locust,
         the other locusts and the locust swarm—
         my great army that I sent among you.

   26 You will have plenty to eat, until you are full,
         and you will praise the name of the LORD your God,
         who has worked wonders for you;
         never again will my people be shamed.

   27 Then you will know that I am in Israel,
         that I am the LORD your God,
         and that there is no other;
         never again will my people be shamed.

  Joel prophesied around 835 B.C.  It was a time of political and societal turmoil in Judah.  They were transitioning between two leaders (Queen Mother Athaliah died, and King Joash seized power).  If my research is correct, Athaliah was a godless ruler who seized power after her son's death.  In 2 Chronicles 22:4, she even has the advisers of King Ahab (one of Isreal's worst kings) come to advise her then-ruling son. Judah had far departed from the way of the Lord, and now God was calling them to repentance. 
  

  The reason God sent the locusts upon Isreal was to get their attention.  He was calling them to repent.  He longed for Israel to be restored. 
  
  This is the beauty of it all.  Despite mine and Michelle's great abundance of mistakes in our past, and all the pain we have had to endure, the Lord has now begun to restore the years that were once devoured.  He's given us an amazing relationship full of joy and honor, that gives Him glory.  He is laying an unshakable foundation for a marriage that will display His love and power to a lost world. 
  
  There are simply no words to describe His power, His might, His fear-crushing love that He sheds abroad in our hearts.  
  
  I am so thankful for God to have given me such an amazing, loving, and beautiful young lady to take as my wife.  I am so thankful for that swarm of locusts that once ripped my life to shreds so that I might turn to Him and find rest.  I'm grateful that He did the same in preparing Michelle for the day when we would come together in holy matrimony.   He has given us the autumn rain upon our long, painful drought.  Our threshing floors are filling with grain, and our vats are beginning to overflow.
  
  I love her so unbelievably much.

   

  Did you share the sins of your past with your significant other? How have the "locusts" in your life affected your faith?  

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