Chrysostom
Beloved of All
We join you in thanking God for what He has done, that after more than four months of silence He has opened a measure of peace and restored time by video for you and your son. Everything God does does last forever, and we give thanks that He has shown kindness in this. We also hear your desire that this time be ordered in wisdom, that set hours be respected, that tasks can be done, and that your son may receive love freely and learn to love God and to walk in righteousness.
Marriage is honorable and the bed undefiled, and Scripture teaches that holiness in marriage means a chaste and faithful life together, each man with his own wife, each woman with her own husband, keeping the covenant pure. This is not because marriage itself makes us holy, but because faithfulness within marriage guards the holiness we have received through faith in Christ. For that reason we cannot ask God to bless adultery, dating sites while married, or any sowing to the flesh, for those deeds are evident and those who practice them without repentance will not inherit the kingdom. God is not mocked, what a person sows he will reap. Instead we pray with you for conviction and true repentance.
God has reconciled us to Himself not by words only but through Himself, through the blood of His cross. There are no other mediators and no other way of salvation. He gave His only Son, He bore reproach for us, and He made peace between heaven and earth so that we who were enemies might be brought near. That peace is the mother of all good things and the foundation of joy, and Christ commands His people to pursue peace with all and to be peacemakers. Where peace is present, love can grow and children can be nourished without stumbling.
You asked that the Holy Spirit would do His work to convict of sin and to turn the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to turn hearts back again as in the days of Elijah. We pray for that same turning now. God is patient, not wishing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance, and He leaves the ninety nine to seek the one who is lost. He often uses pastors, friends, family, and even sharp trials to hedge a way with thorns so that a person cannot comfortably pursue false lovers, but is brought to come to her senses, as the prodigal did, and to confess sin against God and against others.
Yet repentance is more than tears or regret. Esau sought the blessing with tears and found no place of repentance because his heart was not truly changed, and his later intent to kill his brother showed it. So we pray not only for sorrow, but for the godly sorrow that produces a real turning from sin, a forsaking of sexual immorality and deceit, and a return to faithfulness and truth. We pray that social media and every avenue of temptation would be moderated and, where it leads to adultery, forsaken entirely, and that the heart would be softened toward God and toward His authority.
We pray also for you, that you would keep your first love first, abiding in fellowship with the Father and the Son in the Holy Spirit, holding your tongue, holding nothing against one another, and entrusting each other into God's hands. May you show honor and respect before your son, speaking the truth in love, forming in him a gracious and compassionate view of God who is merciful and kind, so that he may be brought up in the training of the Lord and gain the wisdom of the Scriptures which makes wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.
Therefore we ask the Lord to keep you, your son, and your wife from evil, from evil people and false teachers, from the hireling who cares nothing for the sheep, and from the evil one himself. May Christ the Good Shepherd who laid down His life for the sheep guard your household, restrain the world, the flesh and the devil, and grant you grace to walk in the light, to receive love and to pour love upon your children, and to live in the peace which Christ leaves with His people.
Father, we thank You for the time You have given this father and son together. Establish it in peace and wisdom. Convict of sin where there is sin, hedge the way that leads to destruction, and grant true repentance and faith in Jesus Christ alone for salvation. Turn hearts back to You, make Your will and Your love fruitful in this family, and keep this child from temptation and deception. Let Your Word dwell richly among them and let Your peace rule. We ask this in the name of Jesus, who alone is our reconciliation and our hope, Amen.
Marriage is honorable and the bed undefiled, and Scripture teaches that holiness in marriage means a chaste and faithful life together, each man with his own wife, each woman with her own husband, keeping the covenant pure. This is not because marriage itself makes us holy, but because faithfulness within marriage guards the holiness we have received through faith in Christ. For that reason we cannot ask God to bless adultery, dating sites while married, or any sowing to the flesh, for those deeds are evident and those who practice them without repentance will not inherit the kingdom. God is not mocked, what a person sows he will reap. Instead we pray with you for conviction and true repentance.
God has reconciled us to Himself not by words only but through Himself, through the blood of His cross. There are no other mediators and no other way of salvation. He gave His only Son, He bore reproach for us, and He made peace between heaven and earth so that we who were enemies might be brought near. That peace is the mother of all good things and the foundation of joy, and Christ commands His people to pursue peace with all and to be peacemakers. Where peace is present, love can grow and children can be nourished without stumbling.
You asked that the Holy Spirit would do His work to convict of sin and to turn the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to turn hearts back again as in the days of Elijah. We pray for that same turning now. God is patient, not wishing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance, and He leaves the ninety nine to seek the one who is lost. He often uses pastors, friends, family, and even sharp trials to hedge a way with thorns so that a person cannot comfortably pursue false lovers, but is brought to come to her senses, as the prodigal did, and to confess sin against God and against others.
Yet repentance is more than tears or regret. Esau sought the blessing with tears and found no place of repentance because his heart was not truly changed, and his later intent to kill his brother showed it. So we pray not only for sorrow, but for the godly sorrow that produces a real turning from sin, a forsaking of sexual immorality and deceit, and a return to faithfulness and truth. We pray that social media and every avenue of temptation would be moderated and, where it leads to adultery, forsaken entirely, and that the heart would be softened toward God and toward His authority.
We pray also for you, that you would keep your first love first, abiding in fellowship with the Father and the Son in the Holy Spirit, holding your tongue, holding nothing against one another, and entrusting each other into God's hands. May you show honor and respect before your son, speaking the truth in love, forming in him a gracious and compassionate view of God who is merciful and kind, so that he may be brought up in the training of the Lord and gain the wisdom of the Scriptures which makes wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.
Therefore we ask the Lord to keep you, your son, and your wife from evil, from evil people and false teachers, from the hireling who cares nothing for the sheep, and from the evil one himself. May Christ the Good Shepherd who laid down His life for the sheep guard your household, restrain the world, the flesh and the devil, and grant you grace to walk in the light, to receive love and to pour love upon your children, and to live in the peace which Christ leaves with His people.
Father, we thank You for the time You have given this father and son together. Establish it in peace and wisdom. Convict of sin where there is sin, hedge the way that leads to destruction, and grant true repentance and faith in Jesus Christ alone for salvation. Turn hearts back to You, make Your will and Your love fruitful in this family, and keep this child from temptation and deception. Let Your Word dwell richly among them and let Your peace rule. We ask this in the name of Jesus, who alone is our reconciliation and our hope, Amen.
