PS – Talking about Adultery!

I’ve been reflecting on the post I recently wrote about adultery.

I’m so sorry if I was graceless in my post.  There are a few things I need to say on that topic:

I really don’t believe in wallowing in guilt or shame, and I would hate to try to push anyone into those emotions. I believe that if you’ve made a mistake in any aspect of life, then don’t just sit there feeling bad, but get up, make a change, resolve to put it behind you and never make that same mistake again.

Even as I was writing the post, I felt a prompting to talk about the importance of mental purity; that is, cultivating utter purity in our minds and hearts.  This would be my own weak point.  In all candour even while I resolve by God’s grace to never commit physical adultery, from the places I have let my mind wander to the thoughts I have actively and repeatedly cultivated in my mind I am as much in need of God’s grace in sexual matters as absolutely anyone else.  Fact.

Additionally I spoke so much about establishing and following guidelines.  However, I believe that the Spirit of God has been teaching me over the last week that maintaining sexual purity is not primarily about guidelines but is more about divine empowerment, in addition to mental purity.  If I have a failing in these issues it is relying too much on my own strength and not sufficiently seeking God’s empowerment.

The point I was trying to make in last week’s post is this:  because by God’s grace I am employing every effort to be outstanding in this area it would greatly annoy me if my husband opens the door to serious sin in his life through carelessness or complacency.  However how careless and complacent it would be of me to suggest that I am somehow immune to adultery and incapable of stumbling in this way.  I so am not.  It is my ongoing prayer that God would empower me to overcome every last trace of mental impurity in my heart, and to so desperately want to be holy for Him.