Chrysostom
Beloved of All
Your honest prayer has been received and I have pondered it with care. You have spoken openly about waiting, about choosing unwisely, about loving one who has not loved you in return, and about your resolve to keep the covenant of marriage for life. That resolve is right and good, for marriage is a lifelong covenant of one man and one woman, and it is within that covenant alone that love is to be lived out. Your sorrow over the past is not to be cast aside lightly, for godly sorrow works repentance unto salvation, not to be regretted, while the sorrow of the world works death. To see your fault and to turn from it is itself a grace.
You ask for prayer for your wife and your child that they may be saved. This is according to the Scriptures, for Paul's heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel was that they might be saved, even when he knew how deep and unfathomable are the judgments of God. Do not grow weary in this. You are called to pray at all seasons in the Spirit and to watch thereunto with all perseverance. Limit it not to certain times of the day, but pray without ceasing. You have heard of the widow who by importunity prevailed, of the friend who at midnight shamed his friend into yielding by perseverance, and of the Canaanite woman who though first told it is not meet to take the children's bread and give it to dogs, yet by constancy called forth the Lord's compassion. Though we be unworthy, we often by perseverance make ourselves ready to receive. Therefore continue to intercede for your wife that God would grant her full repentance unto life and true faith in Jesus Christ, through whom alone is salvation, and for your child that he may be nourished on the Word, kept from evil, and brought up in the instruction of the Lord.
You also ask for grace to do both, to hold fast to intercession without letting go of the duties now set before you, and to turn your focus toward the new things God is doing. This too is wise. Apart from Christ you can do nothing, and without His help no task is finished. The Lord is the Mediator of the new covenant between the Father and us, and He has reconciled us when we were estranged. That salvation is so great, not deliverance from earthly wars only, but deliverance from death, destruction of the power of the devil, and the gift of the kingdom of heaven and everlasting life. Do not neglect it, but shine forth in it by a life ordered aright.
So I exhort you as Paul exhorts all who live in cities and not monks only, to watch with perseverance and supplication and to make no provision for the flesh to fulfill its lusts. Set in order what remains, strengthen what is weak, meet pressing needs, and learn to devote yourself to good works. This is to abide in Christ, to run so as to win, to lay aside every encumbrance and to run the race set before you, looking to Jesus.
Let us pray together. Father in heaven, in the name of Jesus Christ Your Son, who alone is the way of salvation, I ask that You grant this brother grace to abide in Christ and to bear fruit. Grant repentance and new life to his wife and salvation to his child, guard them and keep them in Your truth. Give him wisdom and full knowledge of Your will, love abounding with insight, favor as a shield, open doors for the Gospel, and strength to care for the flock among him and to meet every pressing need. Keep him from temptation and from the evil one, and teach him to take hold of one thing without letting go of the other, that he may glorify You in all things. Amen.
You ask for prayer for your wife and your child that they may be saved. This is according to the Scriptures, for Paul's heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel was that they might be saved, even when he knew how deep and unfathomable are the judgments of God. Do not grow weary in this. You are called to pray at all seasons in the Spirit and to watch thereunto with all perseverance. Limit it not to certain times of the day, but pray without ceasing. You have heard of the widow who by importunity prevailed, of the friend who at midnight shamed his friend into yielding by perseverance, and of the Canaanite woman who though first told it is not meet to take the children's bread and give it to dogs, yet by constancy called forth the Lord's compassion. Though we be unworthy, we often by perseverance make ourselves ready to receive. Therefore continue to intercede for your wife that God would grant her full repentance unto life and true faith in Jesus Christ, through whom alone is salvation, and for your child that he may be nourished on the Word, kept from evil, and brought up in the instruction of the Lord.
You also ask for grace to do both, to hold fast to intercession without letting go of the duties now set before you, and to turn your focus toward the new things God is doing. This too is wise. Apart from Christ you can do nothing, and without His help no task is finished. The Lord is the Mediator of the new covenant between the Father and us, and He has reconciled us when we were estranged. That salvation is so great, not deliverance from earthly wars only, but deliverance from death, destruction of the power of the devil, and the gift of the kingdom of heaven and everlasting life. Do not neglect it, but shine forth in it by a life ordered aright.
So I exhort you as Paul exhorts all who live in cities and not monks only, to watch with perseverance and supplication and to make no provision for the flesh to fulfill its lusts. Set in order what remains, strengthen what is weak, meet pressing needs, and learn to devote yourself to good works. This is to abide in Christ, to run so as to win, to lay aside every encumbrance and to run the race set before you, looking to Jesus.
Let us pray together. Father in heaven, in the name of Jesus Christ Your Son, who alone is the way of salvation, I ask that You grant this brother grace to abide in Christ and to bear fruit. Grant repentance and new life to his wife and salvation to his child, guard them and keep them in Your truth. Give him wisdom and full knowledge of Your will, love abounding with insight, favor as a shield, open doors for the Gospel, and strength to care for the flock among him and to meet every pressing need. Keep him from temptation and from the evil one, and teach him to take hold of one thing without letting go of the other, that he may glorify You in all things. Amen.
