Chrysostom
Beloved of All
We have heard your prayer and we join you in bringing it before the Lord with both grief for what is broken and hope for what God can restore.
God established marriage as a lifelong covenant of one man and one woman, and Scripture calls it honorable and pure. It is meant to preserve holiness and to keep husband and wife from defilement, not by giving holiness itself, but by guarding the holiness that comes through faith in Christ. When that covenant is broken by adultery, the sin is not measured only by the hurt done to another person, but by the offense against God Himself. As the Lord taught, everyone who divorces his wife except for sexual immorality makes her commit adultery, and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery. In the same way, a man who is bound to his wife and gives himself to another woman, even if she is free and unmarried, commits adultery because he has transgressed the law and injured his own flesh and his own covenant.
For that reason we will not ask God to bless what He calls sin, but we do ask Him to convict of sin, to break its power, and to lead to repentance and healing. There remains hope that the wandering member may be saved through the marriage, for the wife is made completely his own and may by grace reclaim her husband. This is not accomplished by human pressure alone, but by God softening the heart and turning it back to Himself.
Let us pray together:
Heavenly Father, in the name of Jesus Christ, Your Son, through whom alone we have salvation, we ask for mercy on this marriage. You hate the breaking of the covenant, yet You are rich in mercy to forgive and to restore. We ask that You would intervene in these divorce proceedings and, if it is Your will, bring them to an end. Soften this husband's heart toward You and toward his wife. Bring deep conviction for sin, take away the deceitfulness and pleasure of adultery, and make that ungodly relationship bitter and empty so that it cannot continue. Separate him from the other woman and from all that draws him away. Remove ungodly counsel and every voice that speaks against this marriage, and surround both husband and wife with wise and godly counsel that honors Your word.
Grant to them both a spirit of repentance, forgiveness, and holiness. Teach them to follow peace with all people and to live in chastity and orderly love within marriage. Help them to love each other as You have loved us, to use the gift of marriage with moderation and faithfulness, and to put You at the very center of their home. Where there has been injury, bring healing. Where there has been hardness, bring tenderness. Restore what has been broken and reconcile what has been divided, for Your glory.
We ask that the wife who prays would be strengthened to persevere in prayer, in purity, and in faithful love, trusting not in her own strength but in Your grace. Keep her in faith and guard her heart in Christ.
We ask all this in the name of Jesus, trusting Your power to forgive, to cleanse, and to make new. Amen.
God established marriage as a lifelong covenant of one man and one woman, and Scripture calls it honorable and pure. It is meant to preserve holiness and to keep husband and wife from defilement, not by giving holiness itself, but by guarding the holiness that comes through faith in Christ. When that covenant is broken by adultery, the sin is not measured only by the hurt done to another person, but by the offense against God Himself. As the Lord taught, everyone who divorces his wife except for sexual immorality makes her commit adultery, and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery. In the same way, a man who is bound to his wife and gives himself to another woman, even if she is free and unmarried, commits adultery because he has transgressed the law and injured his own flesh and his own covenant.
For that reason we will not ask God to bless what He calls sin, but we do ask Him to convict of sin, to break its power, and to lead to repentance and healing. There remains hope that the wandering member may be saved through the marriage, for the wife is made completely his own and may by grace reclaim her husband. This is not accomplished by human pressure alone, but by God softening the heart and turning it back to Himself.
Let us pray together:
Heavenly Father, in the name of Jesus Christ, Your Son, through whom alone we have salvation, we ask for mercy on this marriage. You hate the breaking of the covenant, yet You are rich in mercy to forgive and to restore. We ask that You would intervene in these divorce proceedings and, if it is Your will, bring them to an end. Soften this husband's heart toward You and toward his wife. Bring deep conviction for sin, take away the deceitfulness and pleasure of adultery, and make that ungodly relationship bitter and empty so that it cannot continue. Separate him from the other woman and from all that draws him away. Remove ungodly counsel and every voice that speaks against this marriage, and surround both husband and wife with wise and godly counsel that honors Your word.
Grant to them both a spirit of repentance, forgiveness, and holiness. Teach them to follow peace with all people and to live in chastity and orderly love within marriage. Help them to love each other as You have loved us, to use the gift of marriage with moderation and faithfulness, and to put You at the very center of their home. Where there has been injury, bring healing. Where there has been hardness, bring tenderness. Restore what has been broken and reconcile what has been divided, for Your glory.
We ask that the wife who prays would be strengthened to persevere in prayer, in purity, and in faithful love, trusting not in her own strength but in Your grace. Keep her in faith and guard her heart in Christ.
We ask all this in the name of Jesus, trusting Your power to forgive, to cleanse, and to make new. Amen.
