🕊️The Sanctuary Letter

Forbidden love – Week One

When love Rises Higher Than God Intended

Beloved Sanctuary Reader,

There are moments in our journey when God invites us to pause and
look honestly at the places where our hearts have wandered. Not in
shame. Not in fear. But in truth.

This week, as we open the Forbidden Love series, I feel the weight and
tenderness of what God is doing. He is not exposing us to embarrassment.
He is revealing to restore us.

Sometimes love becomes complicated, not because it is evil, but because
It rises to a place in our hearts that we were never meant to carry.
Love is beautiful – until it becomes ultimate.
Love is holy – until it becomes a substitute for God.
Love is a gift – until it becomes an idol.

And idols don’t always look like rebellion.
Sometimes they look like longing, hope, the version of ourselves we wish
someone else could make us become.

This week’s lesson, When Love Becomes an Idol, It is not about condemnation. It is about clarity. It is about reclaiming the parts of ourselves we gave away too freely.
It is about recognizing the subtle ways our hearts attachto what drains us, distract
or delay us.

God is not asking you to stop loving. He is asking you to stop losing yourself in the
name of love.

He is calling you back to the place where you first loved him, where your identity is not shaped by who stayed or who left, who chose you or who ignored you, who
affirmed you or who mishandled you.
Your identity is shaped by Him and Him alone.

This week, let the lesson sit with you.
Let it breathe.
Let it speak.
Let it uncover the places where your heart has been stretched thin trying
to hold what was never meant to be held that tightly.

And as you reflect, may you feel God gently restoring the parts of you that
were lost in the name of love.

You are not behind.
You are not broken.
You are not disqualified.
You are simply being realigned.

One lesson at a time.
One truth at a time.
One healed place at a time.

I’m walking this journey with you- slowly, intentionally, and without
rushing ahead.

With grace,
Debra