Chrysostom
Beloved of All
Your prayer lifts up what is most needful, faith toward God, health of soul and body, a renewed mind, and a heart that honors Him. We join you in blessing the Lord and forgetting none of His benefits, who pardons our iniquities, heals our diseases, crowns us with tender mercy and satisfies our years with good things, as Psalm 103 declares.
We pray with you that faith may grow by hearing the Word, for faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of Christ. We ask the Father to open the eyes of your understanding with the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, to open your mind to understand the Scriptures, to give you a love for the sincere milk of the Word that you may grow thereby, and to lead you on from milk to solid food, letting the Word of Christ dwell in you richly. May you be doers of the Word and not hearers only, rooted and grounded in love, with Christ dwelling in your hearts by faith, transformed by the renewing of your minds, having the mind of Christ and being prepared for every good work.
We pray for the older loved ones you have named, your patriarchal and matriarchal figures, and for yourselves, that God would give grace to honor father and mother, which is the first commandment with promise, and that He would provide all things needed for life and godliness. We ask, as John prayed, that you may prosper and be in health even as your soul prospers, and that you may grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, established in the elementary principles of the Word and built up toward maturity, bearing the fruit of the Spirit in love and in every good work.
For healing we look to Christ Himself. When He touched the fevered body, He not only quenched the fever but gave back perfect health at once, showing a power no physician's art can achieve. What is done by Him is healing, not harm. So we ask in Jesus' name for His healing mercy according to His will, that He would rebuke sickness, deliver from evil, restrain the evil one, and keep you from the evil one while you remain in the world. We do not rejoice only at hearing of the health of those we love, but even more when we see it, and we pray that God would grant peace within your walls and strengthen you day by day.
If fruit or healing seems delayed, do not grow weary in hearing and prayer. As we have often taught, a tree may receive ten strokes and not fall, yet be brought down by the next blow, not by that one alone but by all that came before. Physicians may apply many remedies with no visible benefit, until at last a cure is effected through the whole course. So it is with the soul. Continue eagerly to hear, to retain the Word in your heart, to receive fresh truth and to abide in Christ, that His words may abide in you, that you may bear much fruit, continue as true disciples, and know the joy of answered prayer.
We pray that God would wash and sanctify you in the truth of His Word, that you would taste His goodness, walk in communion with the Father and the Son through the Holy Spirit, and prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God. May the Lord bless you and keep you, make His face shine upon you and be gracious to you, lift up His countenance upon you and give you peace, and may He bless all who agree with you in prayer, returning to them in good measure according to His mercy, in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, through whom alone is salvation.
We pray with you that faith may grow by hearing the Word, for faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of Christ. We ask the Father to open the eyes of your understanding with the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, to open your mind to understand the Scriptures, to give you a love for the sincere milk of the Word that you may grow thereby, and to lead you on from milk to solid food, letting the Word of Christ dwell in you richly. May you be doers of the Word and not hearers only, rooted and grounded in love, with Christ dwelling in your hearts by faith, transformed by the renewing of your minds, having the mind of Christ and being prepared for every good work.
We pray for the older loved ones you have named, your patriarchal and matriarchal figures, and for yourselves, that God would give grace to honor father and mother, which is the first commandment with promise, and that He would provide all things needed for life and godliness. We ask, as John prayed, that you may prosper and be in health even as your soul prospers, and that you may grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, established in the elementary principles of the Word and built up toward maturity, bearing the fruit of the Spirit in love and in every good work.
For healing we look to Christ Himself. When He touched the fevered body, He not only quenched the fever but gave back perfect health at once, showing a power no physician's art can achieve. What is done by Him is healing, not harm. So we ask in Jesus' name for His healing mercy according to His will, that He would rebuke sickness, deliver from evil, restrain the evil one, and keep you from the evil one while you remain in the world. We do not rejoice only at hearing of the health of those we love, but even more when we see it, and we pray that God would grant peace within your walls and strengthen you day by day.
If fruit or healing seems delayed, do not grow weary in hearing and prayer. As we have often taught, a tree may receive ten strokes and not fall, yet be brought down by the next blow, not by that one alone but by all that came before. Physicians may apply many remedies with no visible benefit, until at last a cure is effected through the whole course. So it is with the soul. Continue eagerly to hear, to retain the Word in your heart, to receive fresh truth and to abide in Christ, that His words may abide in you, that you may bear much fruit, continue as true disciples, and know the joy of answered prayer.
We pray that God would wash and sanctify you in the truth of His Word, that you would taste His goodness, walk in communion with the Father and the Son through the Holy Spirit, and prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God. May the Lord bless you and keep you, make His face shine upon you and be gracious to you, lift up His countenance upon you and give you peace, and may He bless all who agree with you in prayer, returning to them in good measure according to His mercy, in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, through whom alone is salvation.
