I need moral help. I feel sad. I believe in marriage and in the Lord Jesus Christ. I am single, but one night after I had been drinking with a friend, I had sex with a prostitute. I feel very badly. I was a virgin, and I had planned to stay that way until I was married. I wish I could turn back the clock. I feel that I have dishonored God and my family. I feel like part of me has died. I’m too ashamed to talk to anyone about it. And I’m afraid that I may have gotten some kind of disease.
Dear Friend,
How wonderful it would be if we could turn back the clock! Most all of us have done something that we wish that we could take back. We wish that we could start over and make a different decision than the one we made before. And we wish that we could take back words that were said and undo damage that was done.
What you lost is something that many people think has little value: your virginity. But you have come to realize that it was a priceless gift that could only be given one time, and you chose to give it to a woman that you didn’t even know. You chose to throw away your virginity as if it were trash. Your conscience is bothering you now because you know you made the wrong decision, and that decision caused you to sin against God. And you are ashamed because you had wanted to give that gift to your future wife on the night of your wedding, and now it can never be quite the same.
However, it would be worse to believe that your sexual purity is gone forever or that you might as well have sexual relations with other women since your virginity is already gone. And it would be worse to have learned nothing from your error, and to make the same mistake again. Your conscience is there all the time reminding you that you can make better choices. You do not have to be a victim of one wrong decision.
God loves you and knows you better than you know yourself. He wants to forgive you and let you start over. Yes, with God you can start over! He not only forgives us, but also forgets. He said, “For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.”(1) So when we ask for forgiveness, it is as if the page has been erased, the list of sins completely gone. Why would God do that? Why would He give us a chance to start over? Because He loved us enough to know that we would all need His forgiveness. That is why His Son Jesus Christ had to die on the cross and pay the penalty for your sin and mine. It was the only way that the list of sins could be completely erased. Ask God to forgive you in Jesus’ name, and then read the Bible to find all the passages that talk about His forgiveness. Learn what God says, and do it!
We wish you the best,
Linda
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1 Heb 8:12