Asking for Prayer During a Difficult Season

[Chrysostom]

The assault you feel upon your mind and peace is exactly what the devil aims for when he finds a soul striving toward God. You speak of building businesses to serve and strengthen, and this is good, but understand that the enemy is most bold when he perceives you are walking a solitary path of purpose. He attacked the woman in the garden when she was alone, and he assailed our Lord in the wilderness, far from the city. Therefore, do not let the isolation of leadership or the schemes of those overseas convince you that you are fighting by yourself. Flock together with the faithful. The strength to resist these attacks is not found in solitary fortitude but in the humility of shared prayer and counsel.

That said, be very careful that the opposition you face from others does not become a snare in your own soul. You ask for help to forgive, and that is a wisdom that comes from Heaven, not from the logic of the marketplace. The world calls it foolishness to release a debt, yet holding onto bitterness is the true folly, a self-chosen madness that makes the heart a sewer of its own resentments. You cannot build honest value or strengthen a community if the frame of your own spirit is corroded by unforgiveness. The wisdom you need for your projects is not a cunning business plan tricked out with fine words, but the simple, divine strength of right doctrine: lowliness of mind, compassion, and almsgiving. This is what makes a person truly wise and able to navigate human affairs, because they see clearly. They know that prosperity is nothing to be delighted in, and calamity is nothing to be grieved by, for the one true purpose is to give thanks to God in all things and to keep His will before your eyes.

The intense trial you feel is not a sign that God has abandoned your work, but that He is testing your faith as He did with Abraham. There, promise seemed to fight against promise. Your desire to create honest value seems to be met with unjust opposition. Do not lose heart. The same God who can raise up the dead can bring life and fruit from your endeavors when they seem to be sacrificed on the altar of discouragement. The faith He desires from you now is not simply to believe you will succeed, but to believe He is able even when the path runs directly contrary to human hope. Lay aside the wisdom of this world, the strategies that rely on political influence or mere human cleverness. The weapon you need is the divine and heavenly wisdom that is hidden from the rulers of this age, those who are coming to nothing. Let the work of your hands be established not on the shifting sand of economic schemes, but on that immovable rock of doing the Father’s will, so that the very manner of your business becomes a silent homily proclaiming Christ.

 

[Silas]

What you are facing right now is a real contest over your faith, and that is where the real battle always lies. The enemy does not care primarily about your businesses or your projects, except as they serve his deeper goal: to wear down your trust in God and move you off the steady ground of simple reliance on Jesus Christ. I want you to remember that faith is the substance of what you are hoping for, the conviction about things you cannot yet see. It reaches far past the opposition and the weight you feel today.

Your honest desire to create value, strengthen communities, and serve faithfully already tells me something authentic is at work in you. A living faith proves itself by works, not by speech alone. You are not saved by your good efforts, but a true faith will never remain merely a claim; it works together with obedience and begins to reshape your life. So do not be surprised when that very faith is tested. The proving of your faith is never for God’s benefit, he knows your heart entirely. It is for you, to make your hope steadfast. The Scriptures show us godly men and women who endured torture, deprivation, and long disappointment, all while clinging to the promise. Having faith does not guarantee a life without affliction. Those who have gone before us died in faith without receiving everything promised, yet God was not ashamed of them. So when you face discouragement and persistent opposition, it does not mean your faith has failed.

Keep your eyes on how you were made right with God in the first place. You were justified by faith in Christ Jesus, apart from your own striving. That is the only ground of your peace. Grace and peace always go together in that order: you cannot know the deep, unshakable peace of God until you anchor yourself in the grace that forgives your sins freely through the death and resurrection of Jesus. If you find your peace leaking away, go back to that starting point. Your forgiveness was never a wage you earned; it was a gift received by faith. And from that same grace flows your ability to forgive others and walk in humility. You cannot produce humility by gritting your teeth; it grows as you see more clearly what you have been given.

The enemy would love to use affliction to separate you from that childlike trust. Much like the apostles who worried about new believers being moved by suffering, my chief concern is that your faith would remain anchored. So when you pray for protection, wisdom, and discernment, know that these things come to you by the same faith that first brought you to Christ. The Holy Spirit is given by the hearing of faith, not by the works of the law. Keep trusting, keep asking, and keep acting on what God has already said. Your projects and your labor, offered as an act of service, can be a demonstration of your faith, not a replacement for it.

I am asking God to strengthen your faith, to guard you from evil, to grant you the wisdom that comes down from above, and to help you forgive others freely. And I ask that he would so deepen your understanding of his grace that humility becomes the natural posture of your heart, not something you have to manufacture. His will, not ours, is always the truest, safest place. It may not look like immediate victory, but it is where real, lasting fruit is born. Hold fast. You are not alone in this.