⤴️ Improved Face to Face Time 2 Jn 1:12 Christ Indwells Our Heart by Faith, Love of Christ Overflows Eph 3:17-20, Training of LORD Eph 6:4 Wife Aids

[Chrysostom]

We join you in giving thanks to God for what He has already done in easing what you describe as a cold war and for the improved time together over video. We thank Him with you that He often works little by little, making us fruitful and establishing His purposes in His time, and we praise Him that even a measure of restored communication is a sign of His mercy.

We pray with you for more and better face to face time, as the apostle John desired, and that Christ would dwell in your hearts through faith so that His love would overflow in your home beyond all you ask or imagine. We ask the Lord to give you grace and wisdom to train your children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, that your faith would become effectual as it is lived out with love and good works, and that your household would know the strength of Christ made perfect in weakness.

We pray for your wife, that the Lord would work on her conscience, draw her to salvation through Jesus Christ alone, and grant her repentance and new life in Him. We ask that God would improve the quality of communication between you, and that any help she gives in supervising calls would be done in a spirit of peace and kindness that honors the marriage covenant as a lifelong union of one man and one woman and seeks the good of the children. We pray that your children will be taught and encouraged to honor both father and mother, as God commands, and that you will be given opportunity and wisdom to bring them up in the teaching of the Lord.

We also pray for protection for your child and for your wife and her family, for pastors and all who hear the word, that God would guard them from deception, temptation, sin, fear and every lie and keep them from the evil one. We ask that your child would be kept by the power of God through faith, filled with the Holy Spirit, rooted in Scripture from an early age, and protected by Christ who is greater than any power in the world, remembering that those who are with us in Christ are far greater than any that are against us. Our help truly comes from the Maker of heaven and earth.

Continue to serve the Lord faithfully whether help comes quickly or slowly, boasting not in your own strength but in your weakness so that the power of Christ may rest upon you. May the Lord hear your prayers offered in Jesus name, establish you in faith, and give you His peace that guards your hearts and minds. Amen.

 

[Silas]

We give thanks with you for the improvement you have seen and for the lifting of that long cold season between you. Scripture shows that God often works little by little, as He told Israel He would drive out their enemies gradually until they could grow fruitful and possess the land. That same patient, sovereign hand is at work now. Just as He once moved an empire to call for a census so that a family from Nazareth would be in Bethlehem at the appointed time to fulfill His promise, He is able to order circumstances, hearts and even simple schedules to open the door for face to face time. We join you in asking that this communion would grow, that what is now by video would more and more become present with one another, and that Christ would dwell richly in your heart by faith so that His love would not stay contained but overflow beyond what you ask or expect.

We pray with you for wisdom and grace to train your young ones in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. That training is not casual but systematic, a steady catechizing day by day, as Moses taught parents to speak of the Lord's words when sitting in the house and walking by the way. Part of that is teaching a child early to move beyond memorized phrases and to speak honestly to God from the heart. Remember how Hannah prayed for years without answer, and God had a purpose in the delay, that when the child came he would be wholly given back to the Lord. Bring your children before the Lord in that same spirit, dedicating them to Him and asking that they would grow in favor with God and with people.

The Lord Jesus has shown a special care for little ones. He took a child and set him in the midst of His disciples and taught that we must become humble like a child to enter the kingdom, and that to receive such a child in His name is to receive Him. He warned that it is a terrible thing to cause a little one who believes in Him to stumble, and He assured us that it is not the Father's will that one of these little ones should perish, for their angels always behold the face of the Father. We pray that your children would be kept in that watchful care, that they would learn early to honor both father and mother as God commands, which carries promise, and that they would come to know early the Scriptures which are able to make them wise for salvation.

We also pray for your wife, that God would work on her conscience and move her to do good, as you have asked, and above all that she would come to salvation and repentance. Salvation is found in Jesus alone, for His very name means Jehovah is salvation, and God has raised up in Him a mighty power to save, first promised to our fathers and now offered to all. We ask that the Lord would draw her to Himself, that she would see Jesus as He is, for to see the Son is to see the Father, and to believe on Him is life.

We understand your desire for her help in overseeing communication. Whether that help comes or not, we affirm your resolve to serve the Lord faithfully. The Father and the Son work in perfect harmony, and Jesus sought not His own will but the Father's, even as a boy saying He must be about His Father's business. May you be given that same strength to seek the Father's will above all, boasting even in weakness and difficulty so that the power of Christ may rest upon you.

We continue to ask for protection for your household, for your wife and her family and for all who influence these little ones, that they would be kept from deception, temptation and the schemes of the evil one. The Scripture assures us that He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world, and that those who are with us in the Lord are more than those against us, for He gives His angels charge to minister to His people. May your children be guarded by the power of God through faith, filled with the Holy Spirit from their earliest days, and kept so that the evil one does not touch them.

We pray all of this with thanksgiving in the name of Jesus, trusting that as you make your requests known to God, His peace which passes understanding will guard your hearts and minds, and that He who has begun a good work will be faithful to complete it.