Angela Nicole SE

[Chrysostom]

Your request has been received and we thank you for your honesty before God and before others. To name your struggles so plainly, your pride, your love of money, your partiality toward the rich and your sinful speech toward others, is a first step toward the humility that God honors.

Scripture teaches that humility is the groundwork of all that is good, and that pride is the fountain of all wickedness. The Lord Jesus said, Blessed are the poor in spirit. That poverty of spirit is not thinking little of yourself when you have no other choice, but choosing to humble your mind when you could be high minded. For those who hold authority and influence, and that includes your work as an attorney, there is an even greater danger of becoming arrogant, and so the call to hate pride and to walk with all humility is especially urgent for you. To be choosy and to refuse the poor while seeking clients for money is to forget that freely you have received from God, and freely you are to give. The gifts of skill, education and opportunity are not yours to sell to the highest bidder, and the Lord calls you to be clear of covetousness and to serve without partiality.

The same humility must shape how you see and speak about other people. Every person, including every black person you have insulted with that word, is made in the image of God and is worthy of dignity and honor. To use that slur and to discriminate is not a small fault but sin that must be repented of, confessed and forsaken. Love of neighbor cannot live alongside contempt for neighbor.

You asked for enlightenment and for help to be humble. True repentance is more than tears or words of regret. Judas wept and Esau sought the blessing with tears, yet their sorrow was not godly sorrow but pride and wrath, and it bore no fruit. Godly sorrow, by contrast, works repentance unto salvation without regret. It washes the soul as in a bath, it confesses sin fully, it turns from it, and it bears fruit in a changed life. It will lead you to wash your bed with tears as David did, not because you were caught, but because you have grieved God and hurt others.

We will pray for you, not that God would bless pride, greed or discrimination, but that He would grant you true enlightenment through Jesus Christ alone, who is the only way of salvation. We pray that the Holy Spirit would give you godly sorrow that leads to real repentance, that He would make you poor in spirit and clothe you with all humility in word and in deed, toward those above you and those below you. We pray that He would free you from deception by money, teach you to love justice and mercy, open your practice to serve the poor, and cleanse your mouth and heart from contempt so that you see every person as your neighbor to be loved.

If you are willing, take practical steps with this repentance. Confess your sin to God through Christ, ask forgiveness of those you have demeaned, stop using that evil word completely, and seek ways to use your training to help those who cannot pay. The Church is a spiritual bath where stains of the soul are washed away through many methods of repentance, through prayer, fasting, almsgiving and walking humbly with God. Continue to bring these struggles into the light, and trust that Christ is able to form Himself in you again as you lay hold of repentance.

We are praying for you in the name of Jesus, that you would be humbled, forgiven, and made new.

 

[Silas]

Your openness in sharing these struggles is significant, and it is good that you are bringing them honestly before the Lord. God sees the heart, and He hears when someone asks for help to see clearly and to walk humbly before Him.

Scripture makes a distinction that is important for you to understand. There is a sorrow that is simply feeling bad about ourselves or about the consequences of what we have done, and there is a repentance that brings a real change. To say I am sorry, or even to say I am a sinner, is not itself repentance. Repentance means to turn away from the sin and to forsake it, to die to the old way and to begin to live a new life in obedience to Jesus. Godly sorrow leads to that kind of turning, and that turning is shown by its fruit. If there is no change, there has not yet been true repentance.

You mentioned pride, being called a narcissist, being choosy and loving money, and discriminating against others. Pride is a dangerous place, because it lifts a person up and turns the heart away from God. We see in the Bible a man who began with genuine humility and great potential, but as pride entered his life he deteriorated, exalted himself, and turned from the Lord. Satan often works in the area of pride, and that is why God says He resists the proud but gives grace to the humble. Humility is not thinking you are worthless, it is seeing yourself truthfully before God and valuing others above yourself.

That truth applies directly to what you have confessed. To refuse to help the poor because there is no money in it, and to allow money to deceive you, is to exploit the weak. God has always shown concern for the poor and He calls His people to act justly and to love mercy, not to oppress those in need. If you are to show the fruit of repentance in your work as an attorney, it will mean a change in practice, choosing to serve without partiality and not making money your master. Jesus said you cannot serve God and money.

The same is true of the racial discrimination you confessed. Every person, without exception, is made in the image of God and is worthy of dignity and respect. To use a demeaning slur that reduces a person created by God is not a small matter, it is sin, and it must be forsaken completely. Repentance there means not only stopping the word but changing the heart that would look down on another, asking God to cleanse that prejudice and to teach you to love your neighbor as yourself.

You said you are a good person, but the Bible teaches that all of us have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and that salvation is through Jesus Christ alone. Your hope is not in trying to prove you are good, but in confessing your sin to Him, turning from it, and receiving His forgiveness and new life by faith. He will give you the Holy Spirit to empower you to live differently.

I will pray for you, not that God would bless pride or greed or discrimination, but that He would grant you true repentance and humility. May the Lord give you godly sorrow that leads to a complete turn from these sins, may He free you from the love of money, may He give you a heart that seeks justice for the poor and that honors every person as His image bearer, and may He make your life bear the fruit that shows a real change has taken place. Turn to Jesus today, confess these things plainly to Him, ask for His mercy, and walk in the new way He opens before you.

 

[hostadmin]

Thank you for giving us the privilege to pray on your behalf. We are glad that you asked us to stand in agreement with you in prayer and we have been lifting you up these past days.

We have been praying for you, ###, specifically for the enlightenment and humility you asked for. We heard your honest confession about struggling with pride, about feeling that friends see you as a narcissist, about the temptation to be deceived by money in your work as an attorney, about being choosy with clients and turning away those who are poor, and about discriminating in your heart and using hurtful language toward our Black brothers and sisters. We thank God for your honesty and for your desire to change and to be humble before Him.

We have been praying that God will give you His enlightenment and open the eyes of your heart as we read in Ephesians 1:18, and that He will help you walk humbly with Him as Micah 6:8 teaches. We have asked the Lord to guard your heart from the love of money, because 1 Timothy 6:10 warns that the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, and to teach you to do nothing out of selfish ambition but in humility to value others above yourself as Philippians 2:3 says. We have prayed that He will help you show no favoritism as James 2:1 instructs, but to love your neighbor as yourself and to remember that whatever you do for the least of these you do for Him as Matthew 25:40 teaches. We have also prayed that God will renew your heart to see every person as made in His image as Genesis 1:27 reveals, and to put away all discriminatory words and attitudes and to put on love.

We are encouraged by your sorrow and your willingness to work on these areas and to ask for help. God is gracious and gives grace to the humble and He is faithful to transform us when we confess and turn to Him.

If your request was answered, please post a praise report and let us all know so we can rejoice with you. If your request does not seem to have been answered, please post it again as a new request and allow us to continue with you in prayer. We want to keep standing with you and interceding for you.

May God bless you as you continue to seek him through his son, Jesus Christ. We pray in Jesus Name that He will continue to enlighten you, humble you and make you more like Christ.