Chrysostom
Beloved of All
Your request has been heard and I join you in lifting ### before the Lord with a heavy heart for his sleeplessness and distress. To love the Lord with all his heart and yet to feel condemned at every mistake, to be tormented by anxiety and unable to sleep, is a deep affliction, and it is right to bring it to Christ for deliverance.
Be assured that the doubt he feels does not tell the truth about God. God chose to show mercy to Paul when he called himself the chief of sinners, a blasphemer and persecutor, precisely so that no one after him would despair of finding mercy. As it has been taught, if God pardons one so guilty, there can be no doubt for others. He showed not a part of His longsuffering but all His longsuffering, so that each person might feel sure of obtaining the same favor. Your loved one does not need to be perfect to be kept. His salvation rests on the mercy of God, not on his own flawless performance.
The enemy is wicked and never despairs of our destruction, and this should shame us when we despair of our own salvation. The Lord Jesus did not come to call us to account but to take away our sins. He said, Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. He did not say He will condemn you, but that He will place you in security. He came not to judge the world but to save the world. He who paid not money but His own blood as the price for us will not despise those He has purchased at so great a cost. He died and rose again to be Lord of our lives and to keep us with exact care, and He will not waste such pains.
Now is the acceptable time, now is the day of salvation. The Lord is at hand and His mercies are ready. When the heart condemns itself, God is greater than the heart, and His comfort abounds even as sufferings abound.
Let us pray together.
Father in heaven, in the name of Jesus Christ Your Son, I ask for complete deliverance for this dear one. You see his sleepless nights, his anxiety, his torment and his fear that he is condemned. Lord, lift the weight of condemnation from him and let him hear Your voice that saves and does not condemn. Grant him assurance that his salvation is in Christ alone, by Your mercy and longsuffering, and that You are faithful to keep what You have purchased with blood. Rebuke the torment of the enemy and break the power of anxiety that keeps him from rest. Give him peace that guards heart and mind, and grant him deep and restoring sleep as one who rests in Your care. Comfort him as one who shares in the sufferings of Christ, that he may also share abundantly in Your comfort. Let him know today that he is Yours, that You desire his salvation and his rest, and that You will not cast out any who come to You. In Jesus Name, amen.
Encourage him to keep looking to Christ and not to his own feelings, to come again and again to the One who promises rest, and to remember that the God who invited him to His table is the same God who has already made a way for him to remain there.
Be assured that the doubt he feels does not tell the truth about God. God chose to show mercy to Paul when he called himself the chief of sinners, a blasphemer and persecutor, precisely so that no one after him would despair of finding mercy. As it has been taught, if God pardons one so guilty, there can be no doubt for others. He showed not a part of His longsuffering but all His longsuffering, so that each person might feel sure of obtaining the same favor. Your loved one does not need to be perfect to be kept. His salvation rests on the mercy of God, not on his own flawless performance.
The enemy is wicked and never despairs of our destruction, and this should shame us when we despair of our own salvation. The Lord Jesus did not come to call us to account but to take away our sins. He said, Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. He did not say He will condemn you, but that He will place you in security. He came not to judge the world but to save the world. He who paid not money but His own blood as the price for us will not despise those He has purchased at so great a cost. He died and rose again to be Lord of our lives and to keep us with exact care, and He will not waste such pains.
Now is the acceptable time, now is the day of salvation. The Lord is at hand and His mercies are ready. When the heart condemns itself, God is greater than the heart, and His comfort abounds even as sufferings abound.
Let us pray together.
Father in heaven, in the name of Jesus Christ Your Son, I ask for complete deliverance for this dear one. You see his sleepless nights, his anxiety, his torment and his fear that he is condemned. Lord, lift the weight of condemnation from him and let him hear Your voice that saves and does not condemn. Grant him assurance that his salvation is in Christ alone, by Your mercy and longsuffering, and that You are faithful to keep what You have purchased with blood. Rebuke the torment of the enemy and break the power of anxiety that keeps him from rest. Give him peace that guards heart and mind, and grant him deep and restoring sleep as one who rests in Your care. Comfort him as one who shares in the sufferings of Christ, that he may also share abundantly in Your comfort. Let him know today that he is Yours, that You desire his salvation and his rest, and that You will not cast out any who come to You. In Jesus Name, amen.
Encourage him to keep looking to Christ and not to his own feelings, to come again and again to the One who promises rest, and to remember that the God who invited him to His table is the same God who has already made a way for him to remain there.
