Chrysostom
Beloved of All
Your prayer has been received and we join with you in seeking the Lord according to His Word. We give thanks that you desire to abide in Christ and to have His words abide in you, to abide in His love, and to walk by His Word as a lamp to your feet and a light to your path. This is the sure way, for we are to speak according to the Law and the Testimony, and to hold the truth in righteousness, for the ways of truth are one while error is many and various.
We agree with you that God is able to save forever those who come to God through Jesus, because He lives to make intercession for us, and that nothing is impossible with God, though many things are impossible with man. He alone is the Savior, and salvation is through Jesus Christ alone, and we look to Him with humble confidence as little children, asking for love from a pure heart and a sincere faith and a blameless conscience.
Concerning marriage, we hear your burden for this husband, his wife, their children and family. Scripture teaches that marriage is a bond ordained of God, and it is honorable. It is not itself holiness, but it preserves the holiness which comes through faith, by keeping husband and wife from fornication and from union with another. To live chastely and orderly within marriage, each with his own wife and each with her own husband, is to follow peace with all and holiness. Fornication and adultery and the breaking of this covenant do not come from marriage itself, but from an unrestrained heart that makes ill use of good things. The profit of marriage is to preserve the body pure, and when that purity is forsaken there is great harm to house and honor and character and to the souls of children.
Therefore we do not ask God to bless waywardness or any union outside the lifelong covenant of one man and one woman, for sex and living together belong within that covenant alone. Instead we pray that God would grant warning and mercy, to turn hearts from wrongdoing and keep them from pride, to preserve them from the pit. We pray that this wife would be brought to repentance, that she would turn from every defilement and be restored to faithfulness in her marriage, and that this husband would be kept in steadfastness, in chastity, in patience and in prayer, using marriage with moderation and reverence as God intends.
We also hear your desire for dreams and visions and prophecy. God is sovereign and His arm is not too short to save, and He has spoken in various ways in ages past. Yet we urge you to seek Him first in the settled Word that He has given, for His Word is the lamp by which we test all things. Let every impression, dream or vision be weighed by Scripture, and let your confidence rest not in seeking signs but in abiding in Christ, in continual prayer, and in a life that is grave, orderly and chaste. If God in His wisdom grants any warning or comfort, it will accord with His written testimony and lead toward repentance, humility and holiness, not away from it.
So we pray together now for you all. Father, in the name of Jesus, keep this husband, his wife, their children, their extended family, their prayer partners and ministry partners, and their church leaders in Your care. Cause them to abide in Christ and in His love. Keep them from temptation, from sin and evil, from lies and fear, from deception and from the evil one. Grant to the husband endurance and wisdom, to the wife a heart to return to You and to her covenant, to the children protection and instruction in righteousness, and to all a diligent following of every good work and perseverance in prayer. Lead them to honor marriage as You have ordained it, and to live in a way that is pure and faithful, that their home may be ordered and blessed and their lives may show the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, with whom to the Father and the Holy Spirit be glory forever. Amen.
We agree with you that God is able to save forever those who come to God through Jesus, because He lives to make intercession for us, and that nothing is impossible with God, though many things are impossible with man. He alone is the Savior, and salvation is through Jesus Christ alone, and we look to Him with humble confidence as little children, asking for love from a pure heart and a sincere faith and a blameless conscience.
Concerning marriage, we hear your burden for this husband, his wife, their children and family. Scripture teaches that marriage is a bond ordained of God, and it is honorable. It is not itself holiness, but it preserves the holiness which comes through faith, by keeping husband and wife from fornication and from union with another. To live chastely and orderly within marriage, each with his own wife and each with her own husband, is to follow peace with all and holiness. Fornication and adultery and the breaking of this covenant do not come from marriage itself, but from an unrestrained heart that makes ill use of good things. The profit of marriage is to preserve the body pure, and when that purity is forsaken there is great harm to house and honor and character and to the souls of children.
Therefore we do not ask God to bless waywardness or any union outside the lifelong covenant of one man and one woman, for sex and living together belong within that covenant alone. Instead we pray that God would grant warning and mercy, to turn hearts from wrongdoing and keep them from pride, to preserve them from the pit. We pray that this wife would be brought to repentance, that she would turn from every defilement and be restored to faithfulness in her marriage, and that this husband would be kept in steadfastness, in chastity, in patience and in prayer, using marriage with moderation and reverence as God intends.
We also hear your desire for dreams and visions and prophecy. God is sovereign and His arm is not too short to save, and He has spoken in various ways in ages past. Yet we urge you to seek Him first in the settled Word that He has given, for His Word is the lamp by which we test all things. Let every impression, dream or vision be weighed by Scripture, and let your confidence rest not in seeking signs but in abiding in Christ, in continual prayer, and in a life that is grave, orderly and chaste. If God in His wisdom grants any warning or comfort, it will accord with His written testimony and lead toward repentance, humility and holiness, not away from it.
So we pray together now for you all. Father, in the name of Jesus, keep this husband, his wife, their children, their extended family, their prayer partners and ministry partners, and their church leaders in Your care. Cause them to abide in Christ and in His love. Keep them from temptation, from sin and evil, from lies and fear, from deception and from the evil one. Grant to the husband endurance and wisdom, to the wife a heart to return to You and to her covenant, to the children protection and instruction in righteousness, and to all a diligent following of every good work and perseverance in prayer. Lead them to honor marriage as You have ordained it, and to live in a way that is pure and faithful, that their home may be ordered and blessed and their lives may show the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, with whom to the Father and the Holy Spirit be glory forever. Amen.
