In Spanish people say, “Nadie reconoce sus errores” (no one recognizes their own errors). There was a time I felt a person who was close to me had really wronged me. We maintained a cordial relationship but you could always feel a wall between us. Of course I could lay out for you all the things this person had done and why I was right. I held on to this for a couple of years. I came to a time of wanting to grow deeper in God. So I began fasting and waiting before the Lord seeking to humble myself before Him and hear what He might say to me. Days turned to weeks with no word from God. In the third week I went into a time of solitude at a friend’s house and several days went by. I received some revelation from God’s word but no word of how I might grow or humble myself or see some real key for change I had not considered. Finally, on the fourth day, I heard this person’s name that I thought had wronged me and that I needed to seek forgiveness from this person. My defenses immediately sprang up to justify my position. “If anyone needs to ask forgiveness it is they from me”!Psalms 19:9-14 The fear of the LORD is clean, enduring forever; The judgments of the LORD are true and righteous altogether. More to be desired are they then gold, Yea, than much fine gold; Sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb. Moreover by them your servant is warned, and in keeping them there is great reward. Who can understand his errors? Cleanse me from secret faults. Keep back your servant also from presumptuous sins; Let them not have dominion over me. Then I shall be blameless, and I shall be innocent of great transgression. Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O LORD, my strength and my Redeemer.If I can just have God’s judgments over the areas of my life, to see them as He does, it is worth more than gold. What price can you put on two family members being restored to one another? This is what is so powerful about fasting, if I will use it to humble myself rather than to try and get God to do something. I can see the ways that I presume that I am right when in reality I am in sin.What does it take for any of us to lay down our judgments; why is it so hard for us? I believe it is because our very identity gets tied up in these things. My view of how I am “right” in a given situation is what I have trusted in to feel okay about myself. This is how I defend myself that I am okay rather than trusting in God’s righteousness for me. “If I were to admit that I was wrong would that not bring shame to my life?” There are certain ways I just cannot bear to see myself as a sinner.At Fountains of Life we see restoration of relationships in most every conference we do. In the first meeting or two, people are weeping at the altars as they forgive others who have hurt them and then receive God’s love washing over them. In the next meetings we start seeing people off to one side having a talk. We see mothers and daughters reconciling. We see ministers asking forgiveness of one another. It is a truly beautiful sight.Unfortunately, in so many cases reconciliation is not what we see. I know of many who are divorced today for an unwillingness to break. Many are out of the ministry, living with hurts and even diseases because they would not simply yield. When I first heard “breaking” taught in church it seemed so ethereal, so deeply spiritual, the long dark night of the soul and so forth. I have come to see that it is really quite simple. During that fourth day of my solitude I finally began to consider the possibility that I did have some culpability in some of what had happened with this other person. I decided to humble myself and go and asked for forgiveness. We ended up embracing and speaking blessings over one another as God brought restoration. God has so much more for us if we will simply embrace humility.