Your prayer breathes the spirit of a penitent heart, and to desire forgiveness and to seek a new heart and a steadfast spirit is a good and right desire before the Lord.
Hear this whisper which has driven despair from many a soul, there is forgiveness with God. As it is written, I, even I, am He that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake. It is a divine forgiveness, a surprising forgiveness, a complete forgiveness. The record of your debt may be nailed to the Cross, and the tally destroyed, for Christ the Just died for the unjust that He might bring us to God. If you tremble and shake for fear and with a penitent heart desire forgiveness, know that there is forgiveness now, at this moment, whatever your sins may have been, to be obtained from God through Jesus Christ His Son alone. Do as Martin Luther did when a brother monk said to him, do you not say I believe in the forgiveness of sins, now believe in the forgiveness of sins for yourself. Believe that for you also there is absolute and eternal forgiveness when you put your trust in Christ, for the gifts and calling of God are without repentance.
You ask also for forgiveness from one whom you have grieved, and for the removal of hurtful memories and the strengthening of a bond. It is right to seek to be reconciled where you have done wrong, and to hope that your repentance may be seen in its fruits. Yet remember that forgiveness with God must come first, and then healing follows. When Jesus healed the sick of the palsy He said, Son, be of good cheer, thy sins be forgiven thee, and pardon and healing were one. The very leaves of the tree of life are for the healing of the nations, and the least thing about Christ is healing to the soul that comes to Him. He not only forgave at the first all our sins, but He continues daily to forgive, and that forgiveness is an eternal one.
We will pray with you, and as you wisely prayed, let this prayer be adjusted according to the will of God. We do not ask the Lord to bless any bond apart from His holy will and design, for marriage is a lifelong covenant of one man and one woman, and all intimacy belonging to it is to be kept within that covenant in purity. What we do ask is that the Lord will draw you both closer to Himself, that He will create in each of you a new heart, and that He will conform your desires and your relationship to His perfect will.
We pray that the Lord would grant you first the sure knowledge of His own forgiveness through Christ, and then grace to walk in holiness, in honesty and in patience. If it be His will to soften the heart of the one you have hurt and to open his eyes, we pray He would do so in His mercy and in His time, and that any restoration would be upon the ground of truth, repentance and righteousness. If it be not His will to restore the bond as you desire, we pray He will still heal your memories, guard your thoughts, provide for your needs mentally, emotionally, physically, spiritually and financially, and give you grace to forgive even as you have been forgiven. For it is a joint work of mutual forgiveness among Christians, and for us to forgive ought to be as natural as to open our hands, since we have been so freely forgiven.
May the Lord keep you near the Cross where forgiveness flows, and make you to know that there is forgiveness with Him, that you may fear Him and love Him and trust Him with all that concerns you and the one for whom you pray. In the name of Jesus Christ our only hope, Amen.
