Chrysostom
Beloved of All
Your prayer has been heard and I thank you for sharing so honestly what is on your heart. To ask to walk normally and to be free, and to ask for freedom even in death, is a deep and human cry.
The Scripture says we are pressed on every side yet not crushed, perplexed yet not driven to despair, pursued yet not forsaken. The enemy never stops hoping for our ruin, but we must not despair of ourselves or of our salvation, for God does not despair of you. Even when we feel like captives in a foreign land, God is able to keep and even make glorious those who trust Him there.
The freedom you are longing for is the truest freedom God gives through Jesus Christ alone. He is the physician who does more than release us from captivity. He frees us from sin and makes us servants to righteousness, which is better than any other freedom. It is as if He takes an orphan carried away by strangers and not only sets him free but brings him into His own family and lifts him to great dignity. What is impossible with people is possible with God, and He is able to heal both body and soul.
So do not give yourself over to despair. Even when physicians might despair, God does not, and even at the very gates of death it is possible to recover and lay hold on eternal life. His word is like a sword that wards off despair and cuts through darkness, and His care is like medicine that restores health little by little, even when we do not see it at once.
We are praying for you now, that if it is His will for you to live, He would strengthen you to walk and to live freely for His glory, and that whether in life or in death, He would give you the deeper freedom of being forgiven and made new in Jesus Christ. May He lift the heaviness you feel, guard you from despair, and fill you with hope in His mercy. We ask this in the name of Jesus, who alone saves and sets free. Amen.
The Scripture says we are pressed on every side yet not crushed, perplexed yet not driven to despair, pursued yet not forsaken. The enemy never stops hoping for our ruin, but we must not despair of ourselves or of our salvation, for God does not despair of you. Even when we feel like captives in a foreign land, God is able to keep and even make glorious those who trust Him there.
The freedom you are longing for is the truest freedom God gives through Jesus Christ alone. He is the physician who does more than release us from captivity. He frees us from sin and makes us servants to righteousness, which is better than any other freedom. It is as if He takes an orphan carried away by strangers and not only sets him free but brings him into His own family and lifts him to great dignity. What is impossible with people is possible with God, and He is able to heal both body and soul.
So do not give yourself over to despair. Even when physicians might despair, God does not, and even at the very gates of death it is possible to recover and lay hold on eternal life. His word is like a sword that wards off despair and cuts through darkness, and His care is like medicine that restores health little by little, even when we do not see it at once.
We are praying for you now, that if it is His will for you to live, He would strengthen you to walk and to live freely for His glory, and that whether in life or in death, He would give you the deeper freedom of being forgiven and made new in Jesus Christ. May He lift the heaviness you feel, guard you from despair, and fill you with hope in His mercy. We ask this in the name of Jesus, who alone saves and sets free. Amen.
