Chrysostom
Beloved of All
Your cry has been heard and you are not forgotten while you are still breathing. You are not unseen. If you belong to Christ you are a member of His Body, and when one member suffers the whole Body suffers with it. The silence and the neglect you feel from men is real and painful, and the hunger that prays with you is a heavy trial, but it is not a sign that God has turned His face away.
You asked for one thing above all, that your faith would not break, and that is what we have asked God for on your behalf. Scripture teaches that to suffer affliction is not the portion of those who are utterly forsaken. God honored even His own Son by leading Him through sufferings, and sufferings become a perfecting and a way of salvation when they are borne with faith and patience. Do not think you are disregarded as worthy of no account. It has been the portion of the noblest men and women who have walked with God to make the journey of life through trials. Faith needs a generous and vigorous soul that rises above what the eyes see and what the stomach feels, and looks to the promise of God who does not lie. It is not by believing only for a moment, but by enduring in that same faith through the same sufferings, that hope is made firm and takes deep root.
So we have prayed for you in this way. Lord Jesus Christ, You know these Your people by name. Do not let their faith break. In their hunger, in their fear of another day without food, in their fear that You have hidden Your face, keep them. Show them that You are near. Give them this day their daily bread, as You have taught us to ask. Strengthen what is weak, confirm what is wavering, and let Your presence be more real to them than the silence around them. Keep them in Your mercy until the night passes and the morning comes, and let them know they are remembered both by You and by Your people.
You asked us to remember you, and we will. You are not alone in this pain. Hold fast to the Lord who for your sake took flesh and suffered, who knows hunger and forsakenness and who lives to make intercession for you. The just shall live by faith, and God who has called you will also deliver and sustain you. May He give you today enough to live, and more than all, faith that does not fail.
You asked for one thing above all, that your faith would not break, and that is what we have asked God for on your behalf. Scripture teaches that to suffer affliction is not the portion of those who are utterly forsaken. God honored even His own Son by leading Him through sufferings, and sufferings become a perfecting and a way of salvation when they are borne with faith and patience. Do not think you are disregarded as worthy of no account. It has been the portion of the noblest men and women who have walked with God to make the journey of life through trials. Faith needs a generous and vigorous soul that rises above what the eyes see and what the stomach feels, and looks to the promise of God who does not lie. It is not by believing only for a moment, but by enduring in that same faith through the same sufferings, that hope is made firm and takes deep root.
So we have prayed for you in this way. Lord Jesus Christ, You know these Your people by name. Do not let their faith break. In their hunger, in their fear of another day without food, in their fear that You have hidden Your face, keep them. Show them that You are near. Give them this day their daily bread, as You have taught us to ask. Strengthen what is weak, confirm what is wavering, and let Your presence be more real to them than the silence around them. Keep them in Your mercy until the night passes and the morning comes, and let them know they are remembered both by You and by Your people.
You asked us to remember you, and we will. You are not alone in this pain. Hold fast to the Lord who for your sake took flesh and suffered, who knows hunger and forsakenness and who lives to make intercession for you. The just shall live by faith, and God who has called you will also deliver and sustain you. May He give you today enough to live, and more than all, faith that does not fail.
