🩸🩸🩸 Blood of Jesus 🤺 Over Us, Our Family, Children, Friends, Churches, All Prayer 🤺🤺 Financial Partners, New 🌱Believers 🤺 no sin, evil Mt 6:13

[Chrysostom]

Your prayer has been heard and we join you in giving thanks to God for His light and truth that lead us, for drawing us to Jesus, for faith in the blood of Jesus Christ His Son which cleanses us from all sin, for the wounds of Christ by which we are healed, and for raising Jesus from the dead and sending the Holy Spirit to dwell with us.

We agree with you in asking for protection according to Matthew 6:13, that the Lord would deliver us from the evil one and keep us from entering into temptation. We ask Him to cover you, your family, your children, your friends, your churches, your prayer and financial partners, and all new believers with the power of the blood of Christ, not as a charm but as confidence in what was poured out from His side for our redemption, and to keep you washed in the water of the Word which is truth.

We pray that God will guard you from deception and lies, from the schemes of the devil who brings in wicked doctrine and tries to persuade us that evil is merely nature and that we have no freedom to choose the good. The darts of the enemy are evil desire and anger and greed, and we ask God to quench them in you with the shield of faith, with longsuffering and contentment. May He teach you to love what is truly yours in Christ rather than what belongs to strangers, and to find sufficiency in Him.

We pray that you may walk in holiness of truth, the righteousness that comes through new birth, not merely an outward cleansing but purity of heart. For blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God, and without holiness no one will see the Lord. This purity is not only chastity of the body, though that is part of it, but freedom from envy, unbelief, deceit and every hidden sin, so that your whole body may be full of light with no dark part in it.

We ask the Lord to keep you from false believers and deceivers and from the false teaching that is spreading in the world, and to restrain evil as He has promised. We pray for strength to stay alert, to give careful attention to your life and doctrine, to continue in the Word rightly divided, in prayer, in preaching and teaching, in fellowship and worship and thanksgiving and evangelism, and not to forsake assembling together. For as a scattered phalanx is easily overcome, so isolation makes us vulnerable, but together we are strengthened to stand.

We pray that God who began a good work in you will bring it to completion, that He will perfect that which concerns you, and make you ready as a bride prepared for her husband, increasing in clarity like the path of the righteous that shines brighter until full day. May He grant you wisdom to win souls and to lead many to righteousness, knowing the fear of the Lord and persuading others to be ready for the judgment seat of Christ.

May the peace of God guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus as you continue in prayer and in the Word.

 

[Silas]

Your prayer is a beautiful expression of hunger for holiness and for the protection that only Jesus gives, and it is a joy to join you in bringing these requests before the Father.

Thank you for anchoring everything in the blood of Jesus Christ. Scripture teaches that faith in His blood is the ground of our cleansing, and that His blood cleanses from all sin, and that by His wounds we are healed and made whole. God has drawn you to His Son, opened your eyes to believe, and given you the Holy Spirit as Counselor and Helper and giver of life, and all of this is grace from beginning to end. He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion and will perfect that which concerns you.

You asked for protection from sin and evil and temptation, and for deliverance from deception and greed. It helps to remember what the Bible says about temptation. God is not tempted by evil and He does not entice anyone to do evil. When God tests us, He gives us an opportunity to show whether we will respond in the flesh or in the Spirit. When there is a solicitation to do evil, with the promise that you can have fulfillment right now if you will just step off God's path, that solicitation is not from God but from the enemy. That was the lie presented to Eve, that God was withholding something good, and it is the same lie behind every temptation today. So we pray as Jesus taught us, lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil, and keep us from the evil one, and keep our feet from entering that path.

You prayed for contentment and for a walk in the light. That is exactly the heart of God's will for His people. This is the will of God, your sanctification, that you abstain from sexual immorality and that each one learn to possess his own body in sanctification and honor. God has said be holy for I am holy, and He has called us not to impurity but to holiness. In a world that is deeply immoral, there is to be a clear difference between those who know God and those who do not. To despise that call to a pure life is not to despise man but God who gives His Holy Spirit to make such a life possible.

Part of that holy walk is learning to hate what God hates. The fear of the Lord is to hate evil, and wisdom begins there. Evil always asks to be tolerated and to be compromised with, but Scripture calls us to depart from evil, to avoid the way of evil people, to turn from it and pass it by. Do not look with longing at what destroys, let your eyes look straight ahead, ponder the path of your feet, and remove your foot from evil. The prudent person sees the danger ahead and hides in the provision God has made through Jesus Christ, while the simple go on and suffer harm. This is not only for personal protection but for the purity of the whole body. God desires purity in His church, and we help guard one another as members of one body, testing the spirits, walking in the light as He is in the light, having fellowship with one another, and keeping no hidden darkness.

You also prayed to be guarded from deception and false teaching. God does this by washing us with the water of the Word. Sanctify us in Your truth, Your Word is truth. As we give careful attention to the Word rightly understood and to our lives and doctrine, and as we continue in prayer and preaching and teaching and fellowship and worship and thanksgiving and evangelism, the Word exposes lies and keeps us on a path of increasing clarity.

You asked for readiness for the coming of Jesus. We are to turn from idols to serve the living God and to wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, who delivers us from the wrath to come. Because He may come at any moment, it gives urgency to walk in purity now. As John says, everyone who has this hope purifies himself even as He is pure. May the Lord establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God at the coming of our Lord Jesus.

We join you in praying for your family, children, friends, churches, and all who pray and give and serve, and for new believers and for those who have heard the Word and have not yet believed, that God would grant repentance and faith and keep them from deception. We pray for restraint of evil in the world and for authorities to fulfill their God given role to restrain and punish evil. We pray for grace to stay alert and to have strength to stand before the Son of Man, for a holy fear of God that leads to persuading others and winning souls, for instruction that turns many to righteousness, and for the peace of God to guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

May the Lord lead you by His light and His truth all the way to His holy hill, keep you from temptation, keep you in His Word, and make you ready as a bride adorned for her husband, with your whole body full of light and no dark part in it.