Chrysostom
Beloved of All
Your prayer for your brother who has lost his way is good and right, and we join with you in bringing him before God.
You have named the heart of the matter well, that humility has been traded for manipulation and deceit. Scripture warns that sin works by deceit and hardens the heart. It whispers that we will not be held accountable, that we can continue without consequence, and it leads a person to become insensible to truth and even to despair of return. That hardening does not happen all at once, but little by little as a person chooses deceit over truth.
For that reason your request that the Holy Spirit would move to expose and transform what is necessary is exactly what love should pray. Things that are built on deceit may flourish for a time and seem to succeed, but they are not true and they do not last. In the end that folly becomes manifest to all. We pray that God in His mercy would expose it sooner, while there is still time to turn, so that your brother is not left to be carried further by it.
We also hear your grief over his falling away, and we want to give you hope without giving false comfort. There is a repentance that saves, and there is a sorrow that does not. One man sought blessing with tears but found no place of repentance, not because God refused him, but because his sorrow was not true repentance. His tears did not lead him to turn from his sin, and his heart still planned evil against his brother. Godly sorrow is different. It works repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, because it condemns the sin itself, mourns it before God, and turns away from it.
The Scriptures teach that for those who have tasted the heavenly gift and been made partakers of the Holy Spirit and then fall away, there is not a second baptism, but there is repentance. Christ can be formed in a person again if he will lay hold on repentance. The burden of even great wickedness can be set free and the one in danger can be established in safety, if he will turn back to God. The prayers of the saints have great power, yet that power works together with the repentance and amendment of the one for whom we pray. Even Moses could not deliver another without that turning of the heart.
So let us pray together for your brother in this way.
Father in Heaven, we come before You in the name of Jesus Christ, through whom alone is salvation, and we lift up this brother who has wandered. You see where humility has been exchanged for manipulation and deceit. By Your Holy Spirit, shine light on what is hidden, convict his heart, and break the deceitfulness of sin that has hardened him. Grant him not worldly sorrow that only regrets consequences, but godly sorrow that works true repentance unto salvation. Lead him to confess his sin, to turn from deceit, and to walk again in humility and truth. Transform what must be transformed, and form Christ in him anew. Keep him from going further, and make his folly plain to him now so that he may be healed. We ask for mercy and for restoration according to Your will, and we trust Your goodness to do what is necessary. In Jesus name, Amen.
Continue to pray faithfully for him, to speak the truth in love when God gives opportunity, and to not look only to others to do the praying while neglecting the call to call him gently toward repentance. God is patient and desires that none should remain fallen, and He hears the prayers offered for a brother in love.
You have named the heart of the matter well, that humility has been traded for manipulation and deceit. Scripture warns that sin works by deceit and hardens the heart. It whispers that we will not be held accountable, that we can continue without consequence, and it leads a person to become insensible to truth and even to despair of return. That hardening does not happen all at once, but little by little as a person chooses deceit over truth.
For that reason your request that the Holy Spirit would move to expose and transform what is necessary is exactly what love should pray. Things that are built on deceit may flourish for a time and seem to succeed, but they are not true and they do not last. In the end that folly becomes manifest to all. We pray that God in His mercy would expose it sooner, while there is still time to turn, so that your brother is not left to be carried further by it.
We also hear your grief over his falling away, and we want to give you hope without giving false comfort. There is a repentance that saves, and there is a sorrow that does not. One man sought blessing with tears but found no place of repentance, not because God refused him, but because his sorrow was not true repentance. His tears did not lead him to turn from his sin, and his heart still planned evil against his brother. Godly sorrow is different. It works repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, because it condemns the sin itself, mourns it before God, and turns away from it.
The Scriptures teach that for those who have tasted the heavenly gift and been made partakers of the Holy Spirit and then fall away, there is not a second baptism, but there is repentance. Christ can be formed in a person again if he will lay hold on repentance. The burden of even great wickedness can be set free and the one in danger can be established in safety, if he will turn back to God. The prayers of the saints have great power, yet that power works together with the repentance and amendment of the one for whom we pray. Even Moses could not deliver another without that turning of the heart.
So let us pray together for your brother in this way.
Father in Heaven, we come before You in the name of Jesus Christ, through whom alone is salvation, and we lift up this brother who has wandered. You see where humility has been exchanged for manipulation and deceit. By Your Holy Spirit, shine light on what is hidden, convict his heart, and break the deceitfulness of sin that has hardened him. Grant him not worldly sorrow that only regrets consequences, but godly sorrow that works true repentance unto salvation. Lead him to confess his sin, to turn from deceit, and to walk again in humility and truth. Transform what must be transformed, and form Christ in him anew. Keep him from going further, and make his folly plain to him now so that he may be healed. We ask for mercy and for restoration according to Your will, and we trust Your goodness to do what is necessary. In Jesus name, Amen.
Continue to pray faithfully for him, to speak the truth in love when God gives opportunity, and to not look only to others to do the praying while neglecting the call to call him gently toward repentance. God is patient and desires that none should remain fallen, and He hears the prayers offered for a brother in love.
