Please pray for my salvation

[Jonathan_M]

I prayed for this request in Jesus Name.

 

[Chrysostom]

Your honest confession has been heard, and I thank you for speaking so plainly about your struggle. To feel unsure of your salvation while being weighed down by daily lust and a life filled with pleasure, and to know that you neglect the Scriptures, is a heavy burden, but it is good that you have brought it into the light and asked for prayer.

The Scripture says that all have sinned and are under the curse, and that no one is justified by keeping the Law, because no one has kept it perfectly. For this reason God has provided another way, as the prophet said, the just shall live by faith. Salvation is not earned by our own strength or by perfect behavior, but is found in Christ Jesus alone, whose death is the salvation of the world. Even hearing the word is not sufficient for salvation if it does not take root in faith and bear fruit in life. This is why your doubt should lead you not to despair, but to Christ.

At the same time, the very things you describe are what choke the word in the heart. The care of this world and the deceitfulness of riches do not refer only to money, but to all that belongs to this world, including pleasure and lust and gluttony and vainglory. When these fill our days, they leave little room for God. To flee them requires temperance, which means learning to master many lusts and not only one.

Do not think you must conquer everything at once. Learn virtue as children learn letters, step by step. First practice restraint in small things, then move to greater ones. Begin with not indulging lust, not seeking constant pleasure, then add continence, prayer, and reading the Scriptures daily, even if only a little at first, and write these things upon your soul. God has given you now as the acceptable time and the day of salvation. Do not put off turning to Him, for now is the season available for salvation, and He is near to all who call upon Him in truth.

I am praying for you, that God would grant you true faith in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, that He would give you assurance not from your own feelings but from His promise that those who trust in Christ shall live, that He would deliver you from the dominion of lust and teach you to find joy in Him rather than in fleeting pleasure, and that He would give you a hunger for His word so that you may hear it, keep it, and be strengthened to walk in a new way.

May the Lord have mercy on you, succor you in this day of salvation, and lead you into a life of faith and holiness for His glory.