🕊️Kindness of God Leads to Repentance Rom 2:4, Planting+Watering=God's Growth 🌱 1 Cor 3:6-7, His Glory in Salvation Ps 115:1, Belongs to God Rev 7:2

[Chrysostom]

Your prayer honors God because it seeks His glory first and trusts His Word to do its work. We join you in thanking Him that His Word does not return empty but accomplishes what He purposes, like rain watering the earth, and that the seed is the Word of God. We thank Him that one plants and another waters, but God alone gives the growth, and that all glory belongs to Him, from Him and through Him and to Him.

We also join you in remembering what marriage is. It is a bond ordained by God, honorable and pure, given to preserve holiness and to keep our lives chaste and ordered. It is not to be corrupted by fornication or adultery or any other defilement, for those things dissolve what God has joined. To live chastely within marriage, or to remain pure if unmarried, is the holiness that God calls us to, and it is kept only as we walk by faith in Christ. He alone is the Mediator between the Father and us, who prevailed for us when we were estranged, and through Him alone salvation belongs to the Lord.

Therefore we pray with you for your wife, and for all those you named, your family lines and those who have heard the Word in recent months. We ask the Father to continue the work He has begun and to carry it to completion until the day of Christ. We ask Him to show His kindness that leads to repentance, to send His Holy Spirit to convict of sin and to judge the thoughts and intents of the heart, for the Word of God is living and active. We ask Him to humble where humbling is needed, as He humbled Nebuchadnezzar until he came to his senses, as the prodigal came to himself and returned, as Hosea's wife was hedged in so she might return, that with humility repentance may be found that is true and bears fruit, not mere tears without change.

We ask Him to order steps as He did for Philip and the Ethiopian, for Ananias and Saul, for Paul and those in Macedonia, bringing across each path faithful people to water what has been planted, to speak truth in love and to show the kindness of God. We ask Him to restrain evil and to keep you all from deception, temptation, sin and the evil one, as you receive the love of the truth and are saved. We thank Him in advance that He hears the fervent prayers of those made righteous by faith in Christ and that He rewards those who diligently seek Him, and we trust Him for great things beyond what we ask or imagine.

We encourage you to continue steadfast in prayer, in the Word, and in a life that is chaste, faithful and peaceable with all. Follow peace and holiness, guard your own heart, and leave the growth to God who is perfect and patient, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance and to the knowledge of the truth. May He keep you, your wife, your children and all your household under His protection, and may whatever He does bring honor to His name and salvation through Jesus Christ alone, in whose name we pray, amen.

 

[Silas]

Your prayer reflects a right understanding of how God works in bringing people to Himself, and it is good to join you in thanking Him for it.

The Word you have been planting does not return empty. As rain and snow come down and water the earth to make it bring forth life, so the Word accomplishes the purpose for which God sends it. The seed is the Word of God, and once it is sown it can spring up even when we do not see how. Our part is to plant and to water, but growth belongs to God alone. Salvation belongs to the Lord, and all glory for it belongs to Him, from Him and through Him and to Him.

That growth is tied to repentance. From the beginning the message has been the same. John came baptizing and preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, calling people to confess their sins. Jesus came with the same call, saying He did not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance, and He still calls His people to turn and be changed. Repentance is not just feeling sorry, it is a turning, a change of mind and direction that shows itself in a changed life. Where there is true conversion there is true repentance and restoration.

God in His kindness leads toward that repentance. His patience is great, He is not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance, and He desires all to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. The Holy Spirit convicts of sin and righteousness and judgment, and the living and active Word judges the thoughts and intentions of the heart. Often before honor comes humility. God humbles so that a person may come to their senses, as the prodigal did when he finally saw his condition, and as others have when God restrains evil and opens their eyes. That humbling is mercy, because it makes room for godly sorrow that leads to repentance.

It is right to ask God to continue what He has begun and to carry it to completion until the day of Christ. He orders the steps of those who seek Him, and He brings the right people across our path at the right time to speak truth and to show His kindness, as He did when He directed messengers to those who were ready to hear. Continue to pray that He will bring such faithful voices to your wife, to your family in every generation, and to all who have heard the Word in these recent months, that seeds already sown would be watered and that evil, deception and temptation would be restrained.

Thank Him too that He is always working, and that He keeps and protects His people from the evil one as they receive the love of the truth. He rewards those who diligently seek Him, and the fervent prayer of those made righteous through faith accomplishes much. He is able to do far beyond all we ask or imagine, and every promise finds its Yes and Amen in Christ.

Keep planting and watering with faithfulness and trust. Keep praying with thanksgiving, believing you have received what you ask according to His will. God who has begun a good work is faithful to complete it, and heaven rejoices over every sinner who comes to true repentance. May He be glorified in bringing that repentance, restoration and new life in your home and family, for His name's sake alone.