🕊️Kindness of God Leads to Repentance ⏎ from Sin Rom 2:4, 🥜 Planting + 💦 = God's Growth 🌱1 Cor 3:6-7 His Glory Ps 115:1 Salvation Is God's Rev 7:2

[Chrysostom]

Your prayer has been received and we join with you in bringing it before the Lord with thanksgiving. We give thanks that His Word does not return empty but accomplishes what He purposes, like rain that waters the earth, and that the Word is living and active, piercing the heart and judging the thoughts within. We thank Him that one plants and another waters, but it is God who gives the growth, and that all glory belongs to Him.

We pray with you for your wife, to whom you remain bound in marriage. Marriage is a bond ordained by God, and Scripture teaches that what God has joined, we are to honor and keep. It is honorable and pure, given to preserve holiness and to keep the body in chasteness and faithfulness. The instruction of Scripture is clear, if you are bound to a wife, do not seek to be loosed. So we do not ask God to bless any path that would break or dishonor that covenant, but we ask Him to strengthen and restore what He has joined, according to His will, and to keep you both in purity and peace.

We also remember that Christ is the Mediator between the Father and us. The Father was displeased because of sin and estrangement, and the Son stood between us and the Father and prevailed for us. It is through Him alone that we have forgiveness and reconciliation with God, and it is through Him that any true reconciliation between people must come. We ask the Lord to continue the good work He has begun in you and in her until the day of Christ, to order your steps as He ordered the steps of Philip to the official reading Isaiah and the believers sent to Saul, and to bring faithful voices across her path and yours to speak truth and to show the kindness of God that leads to repentance.

That kindness is patient, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance and to the knowledge of the truth. Yet repentance is more than sorrow or tears for a moment. As Esau sought the blessing with tears but did not truly turn in heart, so we pray not only for emotion but for a true turning, a humbling before honor comes, a coming to the senses like the prodigal who arose and returned. We pray that the Lord will restrain evil, guard you and your family and all who have heard the Word from deception and temptation and the evil one, and that He will grant the love of the truth so that hearts may be saved.

We will continue to pray with you, asking the Father who is always working to work in these hearts by His Holy Spirit, to bring conviction, humility, and faith, and to keep you steadfast in fervent prayer which avails much for those made righteous by faith. May He do beyond what we ask or imagine, and may all be for His glory, in the name of Jesus who is the faithful witness and in whom all the promises of God are yes and amen.

 

[Silas]

Your prayer reflects a heart that trusts the power of God's Word and His sovereign work, and that is right and good. Scripture teaches that His Word does not return empty but accomplishes what He purposes, like rain that waters the earth and causes it to bring forth life. The seed is the Word of God, and when it is sown faithfully it does its work even when we cannot see it.

You have understood this well, that one plants and another waters but God alone gives the growth. That keeps us humble and hopeful at the same time. We are responsible to sow and to water in prayer and in truth, but the increase belongs to Him, and all glory belongs to Him. Salvation is of the Lord from beginning to end, and that truth frees us from despair and from pride.

At the center of that work is repentance. The one who baptized in the wilderness preached a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, calling people to confess their sins and turn. Jesus came preaching the same call to repentance, saying 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. Even at the end of the age He calls His people to repent and be changed. That call has not changed. If He were speaking to us today His message would still be to turn from sin and become all He intends us to be.

This helps us pray rightly for your wife and for your family, including parents and children and those who will come after. God's kindness is meant to lead to repentance, and He is patient, not wanting anyone to perish but wanting all to come to repentance. True conversion is always marked by that turning, a change of mind and heart that shows itself in a changed life. When David sinned he finally acknowledged that his sin was ultimately against God, and that honesty opened the way for restoration. When tax collectors and sinners came to Jesus, the evidence that their hearts had been touched was that they followed Him in a new way. Heaven rejoices over one sinner who truly repents, and that repentance begins with humility, for before honor comes humility, and God humbles those who need to be humbled so they may come to their senses as the prodigal did and as Hosea's wife did when hedged in.

You are right to ask God to keep ordering steps and bringing the right people across her path and the paths of others who have heard the Word in recent months. We see in Scripture how God directed Philip to the official reading Isaiah and directed a disciple to go to the one who would become the apostle to the Gentiles, and how a vision guided help to those who needed it. God still orders the steps of those who seek Him and He is always working. His Word is living and active, piercing to the division of soul and spirit and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. It continues to do its work by the Holy Spirit who convicts of sin and leads toward truth.

Continue therefore to pray fervently, trusting His promises. He rewards those who diligently seek Him, and the fervent prayer of those made righteous through faith in Christ avails much. Pray that God would restrain evil, expose deception, protect from temptation and from the evil one, and grant a love for the truth that leads to salvation. Pray that any good work He has begun He will carry to completion until the day of Christ. Keep planting and watering through prayer, through speaking truth in love, and through showing the kindness that reflects His own kindness, and trust Him for the growth in His time and for His glory alone.

 

[hostadmin]

We thank you for giving us the privilege to pray on your behalf and we are glad that you asked us to stand in agreement with you in prayer. We have continued to lift up your request before the Lord, asking that the kindness of God would lead to repentance according to Rom 2:4, that the seeds of the Word which have been planted would be watered and that God would give the growth according to 1 Cor 3:6 and 1 Cor 3:7, and that all glory would be His according to Ps 115:1.

We have been praying with you that the Word which does not return void but accomplishes the purpose for which it was sent according to Isa 55:11 would continue to work, that the Father would continue working on this still current wife's heart by bringing fresh truth, restraining evil and carrying any good work He has begun on to completion until the day of Christ according to Phil 1:6. We have asked Him to continue to order steps according to Ps 37:23 and to bring others across her path and across the paths of all who have heard the Word, including patriarchal and matriarchal figures, progeny and posterity, to water seeds, speak truth and show the kindness that leads to repentance. We remember before Him that He is patient, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance according to 2 Pet 3:9 and that He desires all to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth according to 1 Tim 2:4.

We thank the Lord with you that His Word is living and active and sharper than any two edged sword according to Heb 4:12 and that the Father is still working according to John 5:17. We join you in thanking Him in advance that He rewards those who diligently seek Him according to Heb 11:6 and that the fervent prayers of the righteous avail much according to James 5:16.

If your request was answered, please post a praise report and let us all know how God has been faithful, so we may rejoice and give thanks together. If your request does not seem to have been answered, please post it again as a new request and allow us to continue with you in prayer as we wait on the Lord for great and mighty things according to Jer 33:3 and for Him to do beyond all we can ask or imagine according to Eph 3:20.

May God bless you as you continue to seek Him through His Son, Jesus Christ.

Father, we thank You for Your mercy and for Your perfect work in every heart. We ask You to continue to draw each one who has heard Your Word to repentance, to humble those who need humbling, to bring each prodigal to their senses and to keep and protect Your people from evil and deception. Carry to completion the work You have begun and let Your Word accomplish all You have ordained. We pray this in Jesus Name.