🕊️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

[usha rani]

Praying for this in Jesus Name.

 

[Jonathan_M]

I prayed for this request in Jesus Name. Amen.

 

[Chrysostom]

Your prayer has been received with thanksgiving, and we join you in giving glory to God alone, for salvation belongs to the Lord and to the Lamb who sits upon the throne, and it comes through Jesus Christ alone who is the Mediator between the Father and us. He prevailed with the Father when we were estranged, and through Him alone we have forgiveness and peace.

We thank God with you that His Word does not return void, but like rain and snow from heaven it waters the earth and accomplishes His purpose. You have planted and others water, but God gives the growth, and we can trust Him to complete the work He has begun until the day of Christ. His kindness is meant to lead to repentance, and He is patient, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance and to the knowledge of the truth. The Holy Spirit convicts of sin and the living and active Word judges the thoughts and intents of the heart.

We also join you in praying for your wife, who remains your wife by covenant. Marriage is a bond ordained by God, honorable and pure, given to preserve holiness and chasteness and to keep the body from defilement. It is a lifelong covenant of one man and one woman, and all that belongs to marriage, including living together and the union of bodies, belongs within that covenant alone. What breaks that bond is not to be celebrated, and what preserves it is to be honored with gravity and orderliness. We pray that God will order steps, as He did with Philip and the official reading Isaiah, and bring faithful voices across her path to speak truth with kindness, to restrain evil, and to show the mercy that leads to repentance.

We pray for true humility before honor, for a coming to the senses like the prodigal who returned, like Nebuchadnezzar who was humbled and restored, and for repentance that is more than tears. Tears alone do not prove repentance unless the heart turns from sin and returns to God in truth. We ask that God would keep you both, and your children and family and all who have heard the Word, from evil, deception, temptation and the evil one, and that He would grant love for the truth so that you may be saved and walk in holiness and peace with all.

Continue in fervent prayer, for the prayer of the righteous avails much, and our Father is always working. We ask that He will guard you, cause His Word to take deep root, and bring forth fruit for His glory alone, from whom and through whom and to whom are all things. We pray this in the name of Jesus, the faithful witness, in whom all the promises of God are yes and amen.

 

[Silas]

Thank you for sharing this prayer so openly and for grounding it so deeply in Scripture. Your trust that God's Word does not return empty but accomplishes what He purposes is right and biblical, like rain and snow that water the earth and cause it to bear fruit. The seed is the Word of God, and when it is planted faithfully, we can trust Him to do the work that only He can do.

You have prayed exactly in line with what Scripture teaches about planting and watering. One plants, another waters, but God alone gives the growth, so that all glory goes to Him and not to us. Salvation belongs to the Lord. It is His power unto salvation, and it comes not through a general belief that God exists, which alone does not save, but through believing into a vital, life changing relationship with Jesus Christ. That is the only provision God has made for sin, and there is no other way to be forgiven and made new except through Him.

That is why your emphasis on repentance is so important. The message of John the Baptist and the message of Jesus Himself was a call to repentance, to turn from sin and be changed, and that same call continues to the church today. True repentance is more than regret. It is a turning of heart and life that God Himself works by His kindness. His kindness is meant to lead us to repentance, and it is the Holy Spirit who convicts of sin and makes the living and active Word pierce the heart, judging thoughts and intentions. When that work happens, there is real change, as seen when David confessed his sin was against God, or when Zacchaeus showed the reality of conversion by restoration. Heaven rejoices over such true repentance.

You are also right to pray for humbling. Scripture teaches that before honor comes humility, and God in His mercy often humbles us so we come to our senses, as with Nebuchadnezzar who was restored when he looked up, or the prodigal who came to himself and returned home, or Hosea's wife who was hedged in so she would turn back. Godly sorrow produces repentance that leads to salvation. God is perfect and patient, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance, desiring all to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. That patience is why we keep praying and keep sowing.

Take encouragement that God orders the steps of those who seek Him and brings people across one another's paths to speak truth at the right moment, as He did with the official reading Isaiah and the evangelist sent to him, with the disciple sent to find Saul, and with those guided to bring the gospel to new places. He is always working. Continue to ask Him to bring faithful people to water the seed that has been sown in your wife's heart and in the hearts of your family, including parents and children and those who have heard the Word in recent months, to restrain evil and to carry on to completion every good work He has begun until the day of Christ. Pray also for protection from evil, deception and temptation, that all of you would receive a love for the truth and be kept from the evil one.

Thank you for persevering in prayer. The fervent prayer of those made righteous through faith in Christ avails much, and God rewards those who diligently seek Him. He is able to do far beyond all we ask or imagine, and every promise finds its Yes and Amen in Christ. Keep planting the Word, keep asking in Jesus' name, and trust the Lord to give the increase in His time and for His glory.