If we confess our sins to him, he can be depended on to forgive us and to cleanse us from every wrong. And it is perfectly proper for God to do this for us because Christ died to wash away our sins.Did you know that fornication (sex outside of marriage) is mentioned 39 times in the New Testament? Obviously it is an important issue to God.
(1 John 1:9 TLB)
And He has good reasons for telling you to wait, although I won't cover that now.
But maybe you've already fallen in this area and had sex outside of marriage. The good news is, there is forgiveness for you. The verse above states that all you have to do is ask the Lord to forgive you, and He will. Don't allow the devil to make you feel guilty about it once you've repented.
Get back up again, and don't look back!
There were even some people in the Bible who messed up big time. In 2 Samuel 11, we can read about David and his affair with Bathsheba. And she got pregnant!
Then, to top it off, he sent Bathsheba's husband, Uriah, into the heaviest fighting—basically a suicide mission—and Uriah was killed.
David committed adultery and murder! But he eventually came to his senses and remembered how much he loved God. He repented and God brought restoration to his life. After that, the Lord still referred to him as a man after His own heart (Acts 13:22).
God will do the same for you, no matter how bad you've blown it. He can restore your life and get you back on track when you genuinely repent, as David did.1
If you have failed in the area of fornication or in any other area, take it to God in prayer right now. Don't put it off. No matter what you've done, God wants you to run to Him so He can restore you. Do it now and you can start again.
1Kate McVeigh, Single and Loving It! (Tulsa, OK: Harrison House Publishers, 2003) pp. 71-72.
Excerpt permission granted by Harrison House Publishers