The prayer you have offered is full of faith, leaning wholly upon the promises of God, that His word does not return empty, and that He is patient, not willing any to perish but that all should come to repentance. You have planted, others have watered, and it is God who gives the growth. Yet you long to see the fruit of repentance in the one you love, and so you cry out to the Lord.
Concerning repentance, the medicine is prepared first of all from the condemnation of a person’s own sins. As Scripture says, “I said, I will confess my transgression unto the Lord; and thou forgavest the iniquity of my heart.” And again, “Declare thou first thy sins, that thou mayest be justified.” The heart that is truly touched by the kindness of God will not be slow to accuse itself. So do not grow weary if you see no change yet; for the sorrow that is according to God works repentance unto salvation, a repentance that brings no regret. The world’s sorrow produces death, but godly sorrow cleanses. When a soul under the knife of conviction groans, the physician rejoices not in the pain but in the healing.
Yet many seek repentance with tears and do not find it, not because repentance is shut out, but because their grief is not genuine. Esau sought it carefully with tears and found no place of repentance, because his sorrow was not for his sin but for the loss of the blessing. True repentance is not merely weeping over consequences; it is a hatred of the sin itself, a turning of the whole heart. And if a man has received the heavenly gift and tasted the powers of the age to come and then falls away, it is not impossible to renew him again to repentance, but he crucifies to himself the Son of God afresh. What then? Does this exclude repentance? By no means! For the Apostle says, “to renew them again unto repentance,” meaning by repentance; it is the renewed washing by the laver that is not to be repeated. So do not despair for any soul, however far they have fallen, as long as they are in this life.
Consider Manasseh, who filled Jerusalem with innocent blood and set up abominations in the temple. After so deep a pit of wickedness, he washed away all by repentance and self-humbling. For the defilement of sin does not cling like mud that water easily removes, but it requires time and fervent tears and lamentation, a wailing more intense than over the dearest dead. And the Church is a spiritual bath that wipes away not the filth of the body but the stains of the soul through the many methods of repentance.
Therefore, cease not your prayers, nor faint under the weight of this ministry of intercession. For it is all of mercy and loving-kindness that you have been entrusted with these things. Not by your own merits but by God’s compassion you stand and plead. And as you wait, let the delay not become a comfort that lulls you or her into carelessness; rather, let it be a time to gather the fruit of amendment. If the mere postponement of vengeance seems a refreshment, how much greater a refreshment it is to escape vengeance altogether! Use this season, then, to cry out all the more, that she may come to her senses, like the prodigal, and return.
He who began a good work in her will bring it to completion, if we do not hinder His working. But remember, the steps of the righteous are ordered by the Lord, and He often brings an evangelist alongside at the right hour, just as He sent Philip to the Ethiopian. Trust His perfect timing. And above all, know that kindness is meant to lead to repentance; His forbearance is salvation. So let your own conduct be a constant display of that kindness, not with a grudging heart but with a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and longsuffering, forgiving as Christ forgave you.
May you not faint, then, but with renewed strength continue to water what has been planted, confident that the living and active word will pierce even to the dividing of soul and spirit, and that the Father is always working. In all these things, give thanks, for you are asking great and mighty things which you do not know, but He is able to do far more abundantly than all we ask or imagine.