Chrysostom
Beloved of All
Your prayer has been received and we join you in lifting it before the Lord with thanksgiving. It is good that you ask that the kindness of God would lead to repentance, for Scripture says it is the kindness of God that leads us to repentance, and that godly sorrow works repentance unto salvation not to be regretted, while the sorrow of the world works death. We pray therefore not for a passing regret or tears alone, but for true turning of the heart. As it has been taught, Esau sought the blessing carefully with tears and yet found no place of repentance, because his grief was not repentance as it ought to be. True repentance condemns sin, turns from it, and bears fruit.
We agree with you that the Word of God does not return void. Like rain and snow that come down from heaven and water the earth, so the Word accomplishes the purpose for which God sends it. The seed is the Word of God, and some plant and others water, but God alone gives the growth. From Him and through Him and to Him are all things, and to Him be all glory. We will continue to pray that the Lord will bring fresh truth across her path, restrain evil, convict by the Holy Spirit, and complete any good work He has begun until the day of Christ.
We also pray with you for humility, for before honor comes humility. As God humbled Nebuchadnezzar that he might come to his senses and lift his eyes to heaven, and as the prodigal came to himself and returned to his father, and as Hosea's wife was hedged in that she might return, so we ask God to grant a humbling and restoring work that leads to life. The Holy Spirit convicts the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment, and the Word is living and active, sharper than any two edged sword, judging the thoughts and intents of the heart.
We hold fast what Scripture teaches concerning marriage and holiness. Marriage is a bond ordained by God, honorable and pure, given to preserve holiness and to keep the body pure. Holiness in this matter is chaste and orderly living within marriage, each man with his own wife, each woman with her own husband, in a lifelong covenant of one man and one woman. To leave or break that covenant, or to defraud a brother in this matter, is unrighteousness. Therefore we do not ask God to bless what is contrary to His design, but we do ask Him to bless repentance, faithfulness, and godly mothering within His design, that the home may be ordered in chasteness, gravity, and love for Christ.
We thank God that He is patient, not wishing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance, and that He desires all to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth through Jesus Christ alone, for salvation belongs to our God who sits upon the throne and to the Lamb. There is no other name by which we are saved. We pray that any who have heard the Word, whether in these last months or over many years, whether patriarchs or matriarchs, children or posterity, would receive the love of the truth and be saved, kept from evil, deception, and temptation.
We will continue to pray fervently, for the fervent prayer of the righteous avails much, and God rewards those who diligently seek Him. We ask for great and mighty things beyond what we can ask or imagine, that all glory may be His alone, not unto us but unto His name, and that His Word would bear fruit in due season. We ask this in the name of Jesus, the Amen and faithful witness, in whom all the promises of God are Yes and Amen.
We agree with you that the Word of God does not return void. Like rain and snow that come down from heaven and water the earth, so the Word accomplishes the purpose for which God sends it. The seed is the Word of God, and some plant and others water, but God alone gives the growth. From Him and through Him and to Him are all things, and to Him be all glory. We will continue to pray that the Lord will bring fresh truth across her path, restrain evil, convict by the Holy Spirit, and complete any good work He has begun until the day of Christ.
We also pray with you for humility, for before honor comes humility. As God humbled Nebuchadnezzar that he might come to his senses and lift his eyes to heaven, and as the prodigal came to himself and returned to his father, and as Hosea's wife was hedged in that she might return, so we ask God to grant a humbling and restoring work that leads to life. The Holy Spirit convicts the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment, and the Word is living and active, sharper than any two edged sword, judging the thoughts and intents of the heart.
We hold fast what Scripture teaches concerning marriage and holiness. Marriage is a bond ordained by God, honorable and pure, given to preserve holiness and to keep the body pure. Holiness in this matter is chaste and orderly living within marriage, each man with his own wife, each woman with her own husband, in a lifelong covenant of one man and one woman. To leave or break that covenant, or to defraud a brother in this matter, is unrighteousness. Therefore we do not ask God to bless what is contrary to His design, but we do ask Him to bless repentance, faithfulness, and godly mothering within His design, that the home may be ordered in chasteness, gravity, and love for Christ.
We thank God that He is patient, not wishing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance, and that He desires all to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth through Jesus Christ alone, for salvation belongs to our God who sits upon the throne and to the Lamb. There is no other name by which we are saved. We pray that any who have heard the Word, whether in these last months or over many years, whether patriarchs or matriarchs, children or posterity, would receive the love of the truth and be saved, kept from evil, deception, and temptation.
We will continue to pray fervently, for the fervent prayer of the righteous avails much, and God rewards those who diligently seek Him. We ask for great and mighty things beyond what we can ask or imagine, that all glory may be His alone, not unto us but unto His name, and that His Word would bear fruit in due season. We ask this in the name of Jesus, the Amen and faithful witness, in whom all the promises of God are Yes and Amen.
