Silas
Beloved of All
Your honest and broken prayer is heard, and the heart behind it honors the Lord. To forgive as you have forgiven, even while deeply wounded, reflects what God has done for us in Christ, who was reconciling the world to himself and not counting our sins against us. Jesus himself prayed for those who crucified him, Father forgive them, and Stephen prayed the same while being stoned. When we forgive those who hurt us most we show that we have understood how much we have been forgiven, and we open the door for the kindness of God to lead toward repentance.
Scripture puts repentance at the very center. John baptized in the wilderness preaching a baptism of repentance for the remission of sins, and people came confessing their sins. Jesus came preaching the same call to repent and change. He said he did not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance, that those who are sick need a physician. Even to the churches in Revelation he called for repentance. This is not a one time religious word but a real turning, a change of mind and direction that bears fruit. David understood this when he said his sin was against God. True conversion is shown by that turning and by a changed life, as seen when tax collectors and sinners who followed Jesus left their old way to walk with him.
That is why forgiveness and holiness belong together. Jesus pronounced forgiveness to the woman caught in sin and then said go and sin no more. To the man healed at the pool he said do not sin again lest something worse befalls you. God forgives freely through the cross, yet he calls us to walk in the holiness without which no one will see the Lord. Sins of the flesh are deceptive and Scripture warns plainly that they keep people from the kingdom, and that God cannot be mocked. What is needed is what you are praying for, a new heart and new spirit as promised in Ezekiel, to be born again as Jesus said no one can see or enter the kingdom without the new birth, and to have the light of the knowledge of the glory of God shine in the heart as described in Second Corinthians, so that darkness is scattered and the beauty of God's ways is seen.
God's heart in this is clear. He takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked but desires that all come to repentance and be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth. The heavens rejoice over one sinner who truly repents. Your prayer for your wife, that her eyes would be opened and turned from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that she would receive a new heart, walk in honesty, bear the fruit of the Spirit and be sanctified by the truth of God's word, is exactly in line with his will. Marriage is a lifelong covenant of one man and one woman, and sexual faithfulness belongs within it. We do not ask God to bless what breaks that covenant. We ask him to bring conviction, honest confession, and a complete turning back to him, and where possible, a faithful restoration. That kind of repentance, like Hosea's call to faithfulness, is the only ground for a testimony that truly displays Christ and his church.
Continue as you have begun, with prayer and with fasting as a disciplined help to prayer, asking for wisdom and for the knowledge of his will, that love may abound in knowledge and discernment. Keep letting Scripture teach what is true, correct what is wrong, and train in righteousness, and keep being a living letter of Christ's love to your family and to the little ones who are watching. To turn a wanderer from the error of his way so that a soul is saved from death and a multitude of sins is covered is a great work of mercy. Keep asking for it with the same surrender Jesus showed when he prayed not my will but yours be done. May the Lord soften hearts, guard from temptation and the evil one, grant true repentance that leads to refreshing and renewal by his mercy, and establish you in his perfect will.
Scripture puts repentance at the very center. John baptized in the wilderness preaching a baptism of repentance for the remission of sins, and people came confessing their sins. Jesus came preaching the same call to repent and change. He said he did not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance, that those who are sick need a physician. Even to the churches in Revelation he called for repentance. This is not a one time religious word but a real turning, a change of mind and direction that bears fruit. David understood this when he said his sin was against God. True conversion is shown by that turning and by a changed life, as seen when tax collectors and sinners who followed Jesus left their old way to walk with him.
That is why forgiveness and holiness belong together. Jesus pronounced forgiveness to the woman caught in sin and then said go and sin no more. To the man healed at the pool he said do not sin again lest something worse befalls you. God forgives freely through the cross, yet he calls us to walk in the holiness without which no one will see the Lord. Sins of the flesh are deceptive and Scripture warns plainly that they keep people from the kingdom, and that God cannot be mocked. What is needed is what you are praying for, a new heart and new spirit as promised in Ezekiel, to be born again as Jesus said no one can see or enter the kingdom without the new birth, and to have the light of the knowledge of the glory of God shine in the heart as described in Second Corinthians, so that darkness is scattered and the beauty of God's ways is seen.
God's heart in this is clear. He takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked but desires that all come to repentance and be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth. The heavens rejoice over one sinner who truly repents. Your prayer for your wife, that her eyes would be opened and turned from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that she would receive a new heart, walk in honesty, bear the fruit of the Spirit and be sanctified by the truth of God's word, is exactly in line with his will. Marriage is a lifelong covenant of one man and one woman, and sexual faithfulness belongs within it. We do not ask God to bless what breaks that covenant. We ask him to bring conviction, honest confession, and a complete turning back to him, and where possible, a faithful restoration. That kind of repentance, like Hosea's call to faithfulness, is the only ground for a testimony that truly displays Christ and his church.
Continue as you have begun, with prayer and with fasting as a disciplined help to prayer, asking for wisdom and for the knowledge of his will, that love may abound in knowledge and discernment. Keep letting Scripture teach what is true, correct what is wrong, and train in righteousness, and keep being a living letter of Christ's love to your family and to the little ones who are watching. To turn a wanderer from the error of his way so that a soul is saved from death and a multitude of sins is covered is a great work of mercy. Keep asking for it with the same surrender Jesus showed when he prayed not my will but yours be done. May the Lord soften hearts, guard from temptation and the evil one, grant true repentance that leads to refreshing and renewal by his mercy, and establish you in his perfect will.
