Silas
Beloved of All
Thank you for sharing this burden so honestly and for standing in the gap for your husband before the Lord. Your desire is right and good, that he would not live with one foot in the world and one foot toward Christ, but would walk in a single direction with integrity before God and before your family.
Scripture is clear that God cannot be mocked, a man reaps what he sows, and that a divided heart is not the place of safety it appears to be. To claim the name of Christ while continuing to tolerate sin is a false security, and the Lord Himself warns that it is better to be cold than to be lukewarm and think all is well because of a religious phrase or outward form. What God desires is not a label like Christian in the making used as an excuse, but a whole heart turned to Him.
That turning is what the Bible calls repentance, and repentance is more than sorrow or words. There is a sorrow of the world that feels bad for a moment or weeps over consequences, yet brings no change and in the end works death. There is a godly sorrow that the Holy Spirit works, which leads to a true change of mind and life and brings salvation without regret. One man in Scripture wept bitterly, but he was weeping not because he wanted to turn from his sin, but because he had lost the blessing. His tears were not repentance. True repentance is seen when a person stops doing the sin he once excused and begins to hunger for God and His Word, to walk uprightly because his heart has been changed.
We join you in praying that the Holy Spirit will do that deep convicting work in your husband, that any spirit of deception, hypocrisy and false assurance would be broken, and that he would be drawn to genuine faith in Jesus Christ alone. We pray that God would give him a hunger for true repentance and transformation, a love for the Word, and a desire to walk in integrity, not in his own strength but by the power of Christ within.
For your part, the Scripture gives precious counsel to a believing wife when her husband is not yet walking faithfully with the Lord. If he is pleased to dwell with you, you are not to leave him. In Gods sight your marriage covenant remains, and your faithful life in the home has a sanctifying influence there, so that your children are set apart as holy in that sense. You may win him without a multitude of words, not by being pushy which often pushes a resistant heart further away, but by a pure and holy life coupled with respect and reverence for him.
God has given a simple pattern for marriage that brings great blessing when it is followed. The husband is called to love his wife as Christ loved the church, supremely and sacrificially, and the wife is called to submit to her own husband as unto the Lord. These are not burdensome lists to remember, but one rule for each. When a husband shows that supreme love, it becomes much easier for a wife to respect and support him, and when a wife shows that respect, it becomes much easier for a husband to love her well. This mutual honoring does not mean a wife must follow her husband into sin. If he asks what would violate your conscience before God, your first loyalty is to Christ, who is the head of every man. Apart from that, your quiet, consistent, loving and holy conduct is a powerful testimony that the Lord can use.
Continue to pray and to walk in integrity yourself, trusting the Lord to work. One psalmist once appealed to God on the basis of his own integrity, until after a great moral failure he could only plead for mercy. That is a sober reminder for all of us that we do not stand in our own goodness, but only in the mercy of God through Jesus.
So let us pray together. Father, we thank You for this wife who loves You and loves her husband. You see his heart, his actions and his words. We ask that You would break through every deception and every false security in his life. Grant him godly sorrow that works true repentance, not mere regret. Draw him by Your Holy Spirit to a real relationship with Jesus Christ, to trust Him alone for salvation, to hunger for Your Word and to walk in integrity before You and before his family. Help him to turn fully to You and to walk in one path with You. And give his wife grace, strength, patience and wisdom, that her life would reflect Christ day by day, and that her prayers would be effective as she waits on You. In Jesus name, Amen.
Scripture is clear that God cannot be mocked, a man reaps what he sows, and that a divided heart is not the place of safety it appears to be. To claim the name of Christ while continuing to tolerate sin is a false security, and the Lord Himself warns that it is better to be cold than to be lukewarm and think all is well because of a religious phrase or outward form. What God desires is not a label like Christian in the making used as an excuse, but a whole heart turned to Him.
That turning is what the Bible calls repentance, and repentance is more than sorrow or words. There is a sorrow of the world that feels bad for a moment or weeps over consequences, yet brings no change and in the end works death. There is a godly sorrow that the Holy Spirit works, which leads to a true change of mind and life and brings salvation without regret. One man in Scripture wept bitterly, but he was weeping not because he wanted to turn from his sin, but because he had lost the blessing. His tears were not repentance. True repentance is seen when a person stops doing the sin he once excused and begins to hunger for God and His Word, to walk uprightly because his heart has been changed.
We join you in praying that the Holy Spirit will do that deep convicting work in your husband, that any spirit of deception, hypocrisy and false assurance would be broken, and that he would be drawn to genuine faith in Jesus Christ alone. We pray that God would give him a hunger for true repentance and transformation, a love for the Word, and a desire to walk in integrity, not in his own strength but by the power of Christ within.
For your part, the Scripture gives precious counsel to a believing wife when her husband is not yet walking faithfully with the Lord. If he is pleased to dwell with you, you are not to leave him. In Gods sight your marriage covenant remains, and your faithful life in the home has a sanctifying influence there, so that your children are set apart as holy in that sense. You may win him without a multitude of words, not by being pushy which often pushes a resistant heart further away, but by a pure and holy life coupled with respect and reverence for him.
God has given a simple pattern for marriage that brings great blessing when it is followed. The husband is called to love his wife as Christ loved the church, supremely and sacrificially, and the wife is called to submit to her own husband as unto the Lord. These are not burdensome lists to remember, but one rule for each. When a husband shows that supreme love, it becomes much easier for a wife to respect and support him, and when a wife shows that respect, it becomes much easier for a husband to love her well. This mutual honoring does not mean a wife must follow her husband into sin. If he asks what would violate your conscience before God, your first loyalty is to Christ, who is the head of every man. Apart from that, your quiet, consistent, loving and holy conduct is a powerful testimony that the Lord can use.
Continue to pray and to walk in integrity yourself, trusting the Lord to work. One psalmist once appealed to God on the basis of his own integrity, until after a great moral failure he could only plead for mercy. That is a sober reminder for all of us that we do not stand in our own goodness, but only in the mercy of God through Jesus.
So let us pray together. Father, we thank You for this wife who loves You and loves her husband. You see his heart, his actions and his words. We ask that You would break through every deception and every false security in his life. Grant him godly sorrow that works true repentance, not mere regret. Draw him by Your Holy Spirit to a real relationship with Jesus Christ, to trust Him alone for salvation, to hunger for Your Word and to walk in integrity before You and before his family. Help him to turn fully to You and to walk in one path with You. And give his wife grace, strength, patience and wisdom, that her life would reflect Christ day by day, and that her prayers would be effective as she waits on You. In Jesus name, Amen.
