Silas
Beloved of All
Your prayer reflects a deep trust in what God has said about His own Word and His own work, and that is the right place to stand. Like rain and snow that come down and water the earth and make it bring forth life, His Word does not return empty but accomplishes what He purposes for it. The seed is the Word of God, and when that seed is planted, it is God alone who gives the growth. One plants, another waters, but God brings the increase, and to Him belongs all the glory. Salvation belongs to the Lord.
It is good that you are asking for the kindness of God to do its work, because it is His kindness that leads us to repentance. Repentance is not a minor idea in Scripture. The one who came preparing the way preached a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, and Jesus Himself came preaching repentance. When He speaks to His people, He still calls for repentance, for a real turning and change. That call is needed because without it there is no life change.
That is why it matters that we understand what salvation is. Simply believing that God exists is not salvation. That only shows a person is not denying what is plain. Salvation comes through believing into a vital, life changing relationship with Jesus Christ. It is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes into Him. Jesus is the only provision God has made for sin, and there is no other way for sin to be atoned for. When that relationship is real, it changes a life. As with the tax collector who had defrauded others, the evidence of true conversion was a changed heart that wanted to make things right. And as with David, true repentance acknowledges that sin is ultimately against God and turns from it.
You are right to ask the Holy Spirit to do His work of convicting of sin and bringing people to their senses. We see how God humbled a proud king until he looked up and acknowledged God, and how the prodigal came to himself far from home and turned back, and how the Lord hedged in the way of one who had wandered so she would consider returning. Before honor comes humility, and God in His patience is not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. He desires all to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth, and He uses prayer toward that end.
He also orders the steps of those who are His and brings people across the paths of others at the right moment to speak truth and show kindness. We see it when an evangelist was led to meet a foreign official reading Isaiah, and when a believer was sent to find the future apostle to the Gentiles, and when the apostles were directed to go and help those who needed the gospel. Continue to pray that the Lord will bring faithful people across the path of your wife and your family, your children and those who will come after, and all who have heard the Word in recent months, to water what has been planted and to speak truth with kindness.
Thank you for continuing to pray and to trust the living and active Word which pierces and discerns the thoughts and intentions of the heart. The Father is always working, and the Son is working. He who began a good work is able to carry it on to completion until the day of Christ. Keep receiving the love of the truth, and pray that your wife and loved ones will do the same, that they may be saved. Ask for protection for your household and for all who serve Christ and steward the mysteries of God, that you would be kept from evil, deception, and temptation and from the evil one.
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 beyond all we ask or imagine, and we can thank Him in advance by faith. May the Lord keep working with humbling and restoring grace that leads to godly sorrow and true repentance, and may heaven rejoice over each one who truly turns. May He guard and establish you, and may all glory be to Him, from whom and through whom and to whom are all things, in the name of Jesus, in whom all the promises of God are yes and amen.
It is good that you are asking for the kindness of God to do its work, because it is His kindness that leads us to repentance. Repentance is not a minor idea in Scripture. The one who came preparing the way preached a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, and Jesus Himself came preaching repentance. When He speaks to His people, He still calls for repentance, for a real turning and change. That call is needed because without it there is no life change.
That is why it matters that we understand what salvation is. Simply believing that God exists is not salvation. That only shows a person is not denying what is plain. Salvation comes through believing into a vital, life changing relationship with Jesus Christ. It is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes into Him. Jesus is the only provision God has made for sin, and there is no other way for sin to be atoned for. When that relationship is real, it changes a life. As with the tax collector who had defrauded others, the evidence of true conversion was a changed heart that wanted to make things right. And as with David, true repentance acknowledges that sin is ultimately against God and turns from it.
You are right to ask the Holy Spirit to do His work of convicting of sin and bringing people to their senses. We see how God humbled a proud king until he looked up and acknowledged God, and how the prodigal came to himself far from home and turned back, and how the Lord hedged in the way of one who had wandered so she would consider returning. Before honor comes humility, and God in His patience is not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. He desires all to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth, and He uses prayer toward that end.
He also orders the steps of those who are His and brings people across the paths of others at the right moment to speak truth and show kindness. We see it when an evangelist was led to meet a foreign official reading Isaiah, and when a believer was sent to find the future apostle to the Gentiles, and when the apostles were directed to go and help those who needed the gospel. Continue to pray that the Lord will bring faithful people across the path of your wife and your family, your children and those who will come after, and all who have heard the Word in recent months, to water what has been planted and to speak truth with kindness.
Thank you for continuing to pray and to trust the living and active Word which pierces and discerns the thoughts and intentions of the heart. The Father is always working, and the Son is working. He who began a good work is able to carry it on to completion until the day of Christ. Keep receiving the love of the truth, and pray that your wife and loved ones will do the same, that they may be saved. Ask for protection for your household and for all who serve Christ and steward the mysteries of God, that you would be kept from evil, deception, and temptation and from the evil one.
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 beyond all we ask or imagine, and we can thank Him in advance by faith. May the Lord keep working with humbling and restoring grace that leads to godly sorrow and true repentance, and may heaven rejoice over each one who truly turns. May He guard and establish you, and may all glory be to Him, from whom and through whom and to whom are all things, in the name of Jesus, in whom all the promises of God are yes and amen.
