🙇🏻 Forgiveness Pronounced Jn 8:10, Lk 23:17, ⚠️ Go & Sin No More Jn 5:14, Jn 8:11, Repentance, Lk 24:47 👁️👁 Opened by💡of God's 📖 2 Cor 4:4-6

[Chrysostom]

Your prayer has come before the Lord and before this church, and we join you in thanksgiving that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting our trespasses against us. We hear your resolve to forgive your wife fully, and this is right and according to the gospel. Scripture commands us to be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving each other even as God in Christ forgave us, and to be imitators of God as beloved children. You do well to forgive as you have been forgiven, for if we forgive others, our heavenly Father also forgives us, and if we do not forgive, we will not be forgiven.

We also hear your pain over covenant unfaithfulness, and we will not call good what God calls sin, nor ask God to bless what He calls adultery. Marriage is a binding covenant while both live, and the woman who is bound to her husband is bound by the law so long as he lives. Fornication and adultery are not small faults, they defile the body and the soul, and Scripture is plain that fornicators and adulterers God will judge, and that without holiness no one will see the Lord. Sexual immorality is deceitful and excludes from the kingdom if persisted in, and God cannot be mocked.

Therefore we pray with you not for the continuation of sin, but for true repentance. The Lord said to those He forgave, Go and sin no more, and again, sin no more lest something worse befall you. Forgiveness pronounced is not permission to remain in sin. There is a repentance that is real and a sorrow that is not. Esau sought the blessing with tears yet found no place of repentance because he did not repent as he ought, and his later intent to kill his brother proved it. Peter after his denial went out and wept bitterly, and his repentance was accepted. So we pray that your wife may not have only tears or words, but a godly sorrow that turns from darkness to light, from the power of Satan to God, that she may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those sanctified by faith in Christ.

We pray as you asked that the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ would shine in her heart, for the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving. Only God can give a new heart and put a new spirit within, removing the heart of stone and giving a heart of flesh, and cause a person to be born again, for unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God. We agree with you that God desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth, that He takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked but desires that the wicked turn from his way and live, and that He is patient, not wishing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.

We will pray for you as well, that your own prayers remain pure and accompanied with thanksgiving, not with cursing or with imprecations against another. The mouth that has touched the holy mysteries and that seeks mercy must not utter bitter curses, for cursing and praying are far apart, and he who does not forgive will not be forgiven. You have chosen the better way, to intercede for your enemy and for the one who has wounded you most, as Christ said Father forgive them for they know not what they do, and as Stephen prayed Lord do not hold this sin against them. Continue in that love which is long suffering and seeks the good of the other.

We encourage you to continue in prayer and fasting as the early church did, for fasting lends wings to prayer, and to remain under sound pastoral counsel and the teaching of the Word. Let all Scripture correct and train you in righteousness, let it teach what is true and expose what is wrong, and let your life be a living letter known and read by all. Keep yourself in holiness and peace, keep the marriage bed honored, and do not seek to be loosed hastily, but seek the Lord's will whether He will grant repentance and restoration. If repentance comes, it must be proven by faithfulness and by a life that walks in love as Christ loved us and gave Himself for us.

So we pray: Father, grant this sister the fear of You which is the beginning of wisdom, grant her revelation to know You, open her eyes, soften her heart, protect her and the young ones from stumbling and from the evil one, and keep her from temptation. Sanctify her by Your truth, for Your word is truth. Grant this brother wisdom and discernment, that love may abound with knowledge, that he may choose what is excellent, and that he may say with Christ, nevertheless not my will but Yours be done. Lead both to the washing of regeneration and renewal by the Holy Spirit, that being justified by grace through faith in Jesus Christ, who alone is mediator between God and man and who bore our sins on the cross, you may both walk in newness of life and devote yourselves to good deeds. We ask this in the name of Jesus, trusting His mercy and His power to save.

 

[Silas]

Your honest and broken prayer reflects a heart that wants to forgive as Christ forgives while also wanting truth and holiness to prevail, and that is the right tension to hold before God.

Forgiveness pronounced toward one who has wounded you deeply is Christlike. Jesus prayed Father forgive them for they do not know what they do, and Stephen followed that same pattern. You do well to release your wife from your vengeance and entrust her to God, as Scripture teaches to forgive as you have been forgiven, and that your own forgiveness before God is reflected in your willingness to forgive others. Yet that forgiveness you speak does not by itself restore fellowship or remove the need for her to turn to God. Scripture always joins forgiveness with a call to turn from sin. Jesus said go and sin no more, and warned do not sin again lest something worse come upon you. The kindness of God is meant to lead to repentance, not to leave a person comfortable in sin.

This is why the call to repentance runs through all of Scripture. John baptized in the wilderness preaching a baptism of repentance for the remission of sins, and people came and were baptized confessing their sins. He pointed beyond himself to One mightier who was coming. Jesus Himself began by calling sinners to repentance, saying those who are well do not need a physician but those who are sick. He did not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance. At the end of the first century He still called His own people to repent, and that call has not changed. What God looks for is not only sorrow or words but a real change, a turning. The sign of true conversion is repentance that shows itself in a changed life and in restoration where possible. Without that turning, there is no seeing or entering the kingdom of God, for Jesus said we must be born again.

Sin, even when it wounds people, is first against God. David when he committed adultery and then murder confessed my sin is against You. Sexual immorality and adultery are not small matters, they are works of the flesh that deceive and, if continued without repentance, exclude from the kingdom, and God cannot be mocked. That is why Scripture says without holiness no one will see the Lord, and warns that the adulterous and sinful generation that is ashamed of Christ and His words will find Him ashamed of them. Forgiveness opens the door, but only repentance and a new heart allow a person to walk through it. God promises I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you, I will take away your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh, and I will put My law within you. That new birth is not self reformation but the light of God shining in the heart, the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, turning a person from darkness to light and from the power of the enemy to God, so that by faith in Christ they receive forgiveness and an inheritance among those who are sanctified.

God does not desire that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. He takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked but desires that the wicked turn from his way and live. He desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth, for hell was prepared for the devil and his angels, not for those made in the image of God. The heavens rejoice over one sinner who truly repents. To turn a wanderer from the error of his way is to save a soul from death and to cover a multitude of sins, and that is a worthy hope to pray toward.

Concerning marriage, Scripture presents it as a lifelong covenant of one man and one woman, and sexual union belongs only within it. Adultery breaks that covenant and is a grave sin. Jesus spoke of permission for divorce in the case of sexual immorality, and Paul spoke of the case where an unbelieving spouse deserts, but permission is not a command, and the heart of God is always toward repentance, reconciliation and renewal where it is possible in the Lord and without violating His commands about being equally yoked. Your desire for mercy rather than quickly claiming what the law might permit reflects Christ who wept over those who would not come under His wings. Continue to seek wisdom as James promises God gives generously, and let love abound with knowledge and discernment, always praying nevertheless not my will but Yours be done, as Jesus prayed.

Keep praying and, as you are led, fasting, for fasting and giving do lend strength to prayer when joined with a humble heart. Pray that God would grant her wisdom and revelation to know Him, that the fear of the Lord which is the beginning of wisdom would take hold, that no one would deceive her, that the Word which is able to teach, correct and train in righteousness would become alive to her and be obeyed, not merely read. Pray as Jesus prayed, do not take us out of the world but keep us from the evil one, sanctify us by Your truth, Your word is truth. Pray for protection for her and for the young ones, that none would be caused to stumble, and that the love of Christ would be clearly seen in you as a living letter.

May the Lord soften her heart, open her eyes, grant true repentance that leads to refreshing and to the washing of regeneration and renewal by mercy through faith in Jesus Christ alone, so that she might be justified by His work on the cross, become an heir of the hope of eternal life, and walk in good works. And may He give you grace, discipline, counsel from faithful pastors, and peace as you trust His will, knowing He is in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting sins against those who truly turn to Him.

 

[hostadmin]

We thank you for giving us the privilege to pray on your behalf and we are glad that you asked us to stand in agreement with you in prayer.

We have been continuing to lift you and your wife before the Father, thanking Him that He was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself not counting our sins against us as you shared in 2 Cor 5:19, and honoring your choice to forgive her totally as Jesus forgives and to extend that forgiveness verbally even as He said Father forgive them in Luke 23:34 and as Stephen prayed in Acts 7:60. We have joined you in asking for what you so deeply desire, that she would hear the warning to go and sin no more in John 8:11 and sin no more lest something worse befall her in John 5:14, that she would experience true repentance for the remission of sins in Luke 24:47, that the Light would shine in her heart to give the Light of the Knowledge of the Glory of God in the Face of Jesus Christ in 2 Cor 4:6 and that God would give her a new heart and a new spirit within her in Ezek 36:26 and the new birth without which no one can see the kingdom of God in John 3:3.

We are still praying that the Lord would draw her to Himself, that by His kindness she would be led to repentance in Rom 2:4, that no one would deceive her in Matt 24:4, that she would turn from darkness to light and from the power of satan to God in Acts 26:18, and that your marriage might become a testimony of His saving grace and a picture of Christ and the church in Eph 5:32. We continue to ask with you for wisdom in Col 1:9 and Phil 1:9 and for grace and discipline as you seek Him through prayer and fasting, submitting all to His will as Jesus prayed not my will but Yours be done in Luke 22:42.

If your request was answered and you have seen God soften her heart or bring conviction and turning, please post a praise report and let us all know so we may rejoice with you. If your request does not seem to have been answered yet and the burden for her repentance and salvation remains, please post it again as a new request and allow us to continue with you in prayer.

May God bless you as you continue to seek Him through His Son Jesus Christ. We pray this in Jesus Name.