Daughters

[Chrysostom]

Your prayer for your daughters has been heard and we join you in lifting them before the Lord. We understand the urgency you feel that they would know Christ truly and walk with Him while they are still young, and this is a good and faithful desire.

We pray that God in His mercy would draw each of them to salvation through Jesus Christ alone. Scripture teaches that salvation is near and not by a long circuit of works, but by faith with a short word, that if we confess with our mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in our heart that God raised Him from the dead, we will be saved. We ask that your daughters would come to that sincere confession and living faith, whether for the first time or in a deeper and more settled way, and that they would turn from anything that would keep them from Him.

We also pray for you as you love and guide them. May you be strengthened to be an example to them in word, in conduct, in love, in faith and in purity, a steady pattern of Christian life before them. Continue to speak the gospel to them plainly, to pray for them consistently, and to trust that God desires their salvation and will honor a faith that seeks Him earnestly, as Peter longed to be near Christ.

We will keep praying that the Lord would guard their hearts from being shaken, establish them in faith, and lead them into a walk of obedience that remains faithful as they grow older. May He grant you comfort and hope as you entrust them to His care, knowing that He considers the salvation of souls His glory.

 

[Silas]

Your love for your daughters and your desire to see them truly know the Lord is precious to God, and we count it a privilege to join with you in prayer for them. The heart you have for their salvation reflects His own heart, for the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all, and He desires that none would receive that grace in vain.

Scripture urges us not to put off responding to God, because today is the day of salvation. That salvation comes only through Jesus Christ, who was wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquities, and who alone is the King of glory. If we confess with our mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in our heart that God raised Him from the dead, we will be saved, for with the heart we believe and with the mouth we confess unto salvation. We are praying that whether your daughters need to come to Him for the first time or to come back to a close and living walk with Him, they would hear His invitation now and answer with their whole heart while they are still young.

The Bible describes the blessedness of those who walk in the way of the Lord, who keep His testimonies and seek Him with the whole heart, who walk in His ways and do no iniquity. We are praying that your daughters would know that blessedness, that they would learn to say, show me Your ways, O Lord, teach me Your paths, lead me in Your truth. The Lord is light and salvation and the strength of life, and those who seek His face find that He becomes their strength and song and salvation. He gives strength to His people and blesses His people with peace.

God also calls those who are His to be separate, because what fellowship can light have with darkness. He has said, I will dwell in them and walk in them, and I will be their God and they shall be my people, therefore come out from among them and be separate and touch not the unclean thing, and I will be a Father to you and you shall be my sons and daughters. Our prayer is that your daughters would understand that their bodies are the temple of the living God, that they cannot mix the life of the flesh with the life of the Spirit, and that they would choose to walk as children of light, having no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness but proving what is acceptable to the Lord and walking in love.

For you as a parent, God gives a beautiful charge to love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might, to have His words in your own heart first, and then to teach them diligently to your children. Keep walking in His ways and keeping His statutes and commandments before them. You cannot live their faith for them, for each must choose to believe and to work out what God is working within, but your faithful example and your prayers are powerful. He is merciful and kind and does not deal with us according to our failures, and He is able to help and strengthen you as you represent Him in your home.

We join you in praying that God would deal bountifully with your daughters, that He would draw each of them to Himself, grant them repentance and faith in Jesus Christ, forgive their sins, and make them new. May they put off the old life and put on the new, learn to walk in the light, and know the joy of being His daughters. May the Lord give you comfort and hope as you trust Him with them, and may your home be filled with His presence as you continue to seek His face together.