Silas
Beloved of All
Your prayer shows a heart that wants to forgive as Christ forgave, and that desire is right before God. When Jesus said Father forgive them for they do not know what they are doing, and when Stephen prayed Lord do not hold this sin against them while he was being stoned, they modeled the same mercy you are extending to your wife. To forgive from the heart as you have, for the sake of her coming to repentance and as evidence that you have received forgiveness yourself, is obedience to what Jesus taught about forgiving others as we have been forgiven.
That forgiveness, however, does not make sin safe to remain in. The same Jesus who said neither do I condemn you also said go and sin no more, and to another man he said sin no more lest something worse come upon you. Love speaks the truth about sin because sin deceives, it bears evident works of the flesh, it excludes from the kingdom if it is clung to, and God cannot be mocked. Whatever is sown will be reaped. For that reason your prayer for honesty, for light to expose darkness, and for her to turn from sin is loving and necessary.
Scripture presents repentance as a turning, a change of mind and direction that leads to remission of sins. John baptized with water preaching a baptism of repentance for the remission of sins, and Jesus himself began his ministry calling sinners to repentance. He did not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance, for those who are well do not need a physician but those who are sick. That call has not changed. To the churches at the end of the first century he still said repent, and that same call stands for us today. Repentance is not only sorrow or words, it is a turning back to God that bears fruit. When true conversion came to a tax collector who had defrauded others, the sign was restoration and a changed life, and Jesus could say today salvation has come to this house.
Salvation is more than believing that God exists. Even to acknowledge there is a God only shows one is not a fool, but it does not save. Salvation comes by believing into a vital, life changing relationship with Jesus Christ, so that whoever believes into him will not perish but have everlasting life. God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not counting our trespasses against us, and he has made only one provision for sin. There is no other atonement. Jesus Christ alone is the mediator between God and man, and it is through his work on the cross that we are justified by faith and made heirs of the hope of eternal life.
What you are asking for her is exactly what the gospel promises to do in a heart that turns. That she would be born again, for Jesus said truly no one can see or enter the kingdom of God unless he is born again. That God would take away the heart of stone and give a heart of flesh and put a new spirit within, writing his law on the heart. That the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ would shine into darkness and open eyes that have been blinded, turning from the power of darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, so that she may receive an inheritance among those sanctified by faith in Christ. That she would be washed in regeneration by his mercy, renewed to bear the lawful fruit of the Spirit and to devote herself to good works.
God has made his heart clear. He desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. He takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked but desires that the wicked turn from his way and live. He is patient, not wishing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. Heaven rejoices over one sinner who comes to true repentance. Yet eternal life is not to be toyed with. To hear his offer again and again and to keep rejecting it hardens the heart, and there is a place where a person becomes unable to believe because he has so persistently refused. As long as there is concern for salvation, hope remains, and that is why your continued prayer matters.
Continue to walk in what you have described. Keep forgiving, keep speaking truth in love, keep letting the word of God teach what is true, expose what is wrong, correct and train in righteousness, and keep letting that word become flesh in daily life so your family sees a living letter of Christ. Keep praying and, as you are led, add fasting, which has long been found to lend wings to prayer. Keep asking for wisdom to know his will, for love to abound with knowledge and discernment, and for grace to say nevertheless not my will but yours be done, as Jesus prayed. Guard the children and the home from stumbling, keep them from the evil one, and keep them in the truth that sanctifies, for Jesus prayed not that we be taken out of the world but kept from evil.
Marriage is a lifelong covenant of one man and one woman, and sexual union belongs only within it. God does not bless a relationship that violates that covenant. What he does bless is repentance and faithfulness within it. The prophet Hosea was called to show this pattern, where restoration was based on repentance and returning in faithfulness. Pray for that kind of turning, that any unfaithfulness would be forsaken, that honesty would replace deception, and that faithfulness would be kept.
May the Lord grant her repentance that leads to life, grant you wisdom and steadiness to walk worthily, and cause his light to shine where there has been darkness, that refreshing may come and a clear testimony of his saving grace may be seen.
That forgiveness, however, does not make sin safe to remain in. The same Jesus who said neither do I condemn you also said go and sin no more, and to another man he said sin no more lest something worse come upon you. Love speaks the truth about sin because sin deceives, it bears evident works of the flesh, it excludes from the kingdom if it is clung to, and God cannot be mocked. Whatever is sown will be reaped. For that reason your prayer for honesty, for light to expose darkness, and for her to turn from sin is loving and necessary.
Scripture presents repentance as a turning, a change of mind and direction that leads to remission of sins. John baptized with water preaching a baptism of repentance for the remission of sins, and Jesus himself began his ministry calling sinners to repentance. He did not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance, for those who are well do not need a physician but those who are sick. That call has not changed. To the churches at the end of the first century he still said repent, and that same call stands for us today. Repentance is not only sorrow or words, it is a turning back to God that bears fruit. When true conversion came to a tax collector who had defrauded others, the sign was restoration and a changed life, and Jesus could say today salvation has come to this house.
Salvation is more than believing that God exists. Even to acknowledge there is a God only shows one is not a fool, but it does not save. Salvation comes by believing into a vital, life changing relationship with Jesus Christ, so that whoever believes into him will not perish but have everlasting life. God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not counting our trespasses against us, and he has made only one provision for sin. There is no other atonement. Jesus Christ alone is the mediator between God and man, and it is through his work on the cross that we are justified by faith and made heirs of the hope of eternal life.
What you are asking for her is exactly what the gospel promises to do in a heart that turns. That she would be born again, for Jesus said truly no one can see or enter the kingdom of God unless he is born again. That God would take away the heart of stone and give a heart of flesh and put a new spirit within, writing his law on the heart. That the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ would shine into darkness and open eyes that have been blinded, turning from the power of darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, so that she may receive an inheritance among those sanctified by faith in Christ. That she would be washed in regeneration by his mercy, renewed to bear the lawful fruit of the Spirit and to devote herself to good works.
God has made his heart clear. He desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. He takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked but desires that the wicked turn from his way and live. He is patient, not wishing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. Heaven rejoices over one sinner who comes to true repentance. Yet eternal life is not to be toyed with. To hear his offer again and again and to keep rejecting it hardens the heart, and there is a place where a person becomes unable to believe because he has so persistently refused. As long as there is concern for salvation, hope remains, and that is why your continued prayer matters.
Continue to walk in what you have described. Keep forgiving, keep speaking truth in love, keep letting the word of God teach what is true, expose what is wrong, correct and train in righteousness, and keep letting that word become flesh in daily life so your family sees a living letter of Christ. Keep praying and, as you are led, add fasting, which has long been found to lend wings to prayer. Keep asking for wisdom to know his will, for love to abound with knowledge and discernment, and for grace to say nevertheless not my will but yours be done, as Jesus prayed. Guard the children and the home from stumbling, keep them from the evil one, and keep them in the truth that sanctifies, for Jesus prayed not that we be taken out of the world but kept from evil.
Marriage is a lifelong covenant of one man and one woman, and sexual union belongs only within it. God does not bless a relationship that violates that covenant. What he does bless is repentance and faithfulness within it. The prophet Hosea was called to show this pattern, where restoration was based on repentance and returning in faithfulness. Pray for that kind of turning, that any unfaithfulness would be forsaken, that honesty would replace deception, and that faithfulness would be kept.
May the Lord grant her repentance that leads to life, grant you wisdom and steadiness to walk worthily, and cause his light to shine where there has been darkness, that refreshing may come and a clear testimony of his saving grace may be seen.
