Silas
Beloved of All
Thank you for sharing this burden that the Lord has placed on your heart, and for inviting others to stand with you in prayer. It is right and good to bring this family before God, and we join you in asking for His mercy and saving work among them.
Salvation is not something any of us can accomplish by our own effort or goodness. It rests entirely on the grace of God and the work of Jesus Christ, and on believing that work. Even the faith to believe is a gift from Him. His name itself declares His mission, that the Lord is salvation, and the gospel is the power of God to save everyone who believes.
Scripture urges us that now is the accepted time, today is the day of salvation. God is holding out His grace and help in this present moment, and our eternal destiny rests on how we respond to His offer. No one should put off receiving what He so freely gives, because to go past His appointed time is to remain lost. We pray that your ex husband and each member of his family would hear and respond while the door is open.
This salvation is great because it is open to whosoever will come. Jesus said He will not cast out anyone who comes to Him. It reaches the lowest sinner, and there is no sin or past pattern so deep that His blood cannot cleanse. At the same time there is no escape if this great salvation is neglected. It was first spoken by the Lord Jesus Himself and it offers not only forgiveness but the hope of eternal glory as sons and daughters brought into the family of God through Him, the captain and author of our salvation.
You have described a painful history of sexual immorality carried through generations. The Bible speaks very plainly about this. Sexual impurity, fornication and covetousness for what is forbidden are not to be named among those who belong to God. Our bodies are meant to be members of Christ, to be used for His purposes, not for sexual sin. Scripture warns that because of such practices the wrath of God comes upon disobedience, and that a person or a society given over to promiscuity becomes deeply degraded. This is not to condemn without hope, but to show how serious the need is for repentance and transformation. Only God can break such chains and make a life new, and He desires to do so.
We are to pray and to trust God for the salvation of our families, and we encourage you to continue in that prayer. The account of the jailer and his household is often remembered here. They heard the word of the Lord, every one of them, and they believed and were baptized and rejoiced together. The whole household was saved because each one believed. We cannot claim salvation for another person apart from their own personal faith, but we can faithfully pray, and where God gives opportunity, make sure they hear the word of the Lord so faith can come.
We are praying with you that God would draw your ex husband to Himself, that he would turn from a life of using prostitutes and from every form of sexual sin and receive forgiveness and new life through Jesus. We pray also for his brother, his father, his niece and the other children and grandchildren, that the pattern of the past would be broken by the power of Christ. We lift up his grown daughter who suffers with psychosis, asking for God's compassion, help and healing for her, and for the three very young granddaughters in his care, that the Lord would protect them, provide for them, and surround them with godly influence and safety. May God bring deliverance to this whole family and make them a testimony of His grace.
Continue to bring them before the throne of grace, asking that each one would personally confess Jesus as Lord and believe that God raised Him from the dead, for with the heart one believes and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
Salvation is not something any of us can accomplish by our own effort or goodness. It rests entirely on the grace of God and the work of Jesus Christ, and on believing that work. Even the faith to believe is a gift from Him. His name itself declares His mission, that the Lord is salvation, and the gospel is the power of God to save everyone who believes.
Scripture urges us that now is the accepted time, today is the day of salvation. God is holding out His grace and help in this present moment, and our eternal destiny rests on how we respond to His offer. No one should put off receiving what He so freely gives, because to go past His appointed time is to remain lost. We pray that your ex husband and each member of his family would hear and respond while the door is open.
This salvation is great because it is open to whosoever will come. Jesus said He will not cast out anyone who comes to Him. It reaches the lowest sinner, and there is no sin or past pattern so deep that His blood cannot cleanse. At the same time there is no escape if this great salvation is neglected. It was first spoken by the Lord Jesus Himself and it offers not only forgiveness but the hope of eternal glory as sons and daughters brought into the family of God through Him, the captain and author of our salvation.
You have described a painful history of sexual immorality carried through generations. The Bible speaks very plainly about this. Sexual impurity, fornication and covetousness for what is forbidden are not to be named among those who belong to God. Our bodies are meant to be members of Christ, to be used for His purposes, not for sexual sin. Scripture warns that because of such practices the wrath of God comes upon disobedience, and that a person or a society given over to promiscuity becomes deeply degraded. This is not to condemn without hope, but to show how serious the need is for repentance and transformation. Only God can break such chains and make a life new, and He desires to do so.
We are to pray and to trust God for the salvation of our families, and we encourage you to continue in that prayer. The account of the jailer and his household is often remembered here. They heard the word of the Lord, every one of them, and they believed and were baptized and rejoiced together. The whole household was saved because each one believed. We cannot claim salvation for another person apart from their own personal faith, but we can faithfully pray, and where God gives opportunity, make sure they hear the word of the Lord so faith can come.
We are praying with you that God would draw your ex husband to Himself, that he would turn from a life of using prostitutes and from every form of sexual sin and receive forgiveness and new life through Jesus. We pray also for his brother, his father, his niece and the other children and grandchildren, that the pattern of the past would be broken by the power of Christ. We lift up his grown daughter who suffers with psychosis, asking for God's compassion, help and healing for her, and for the three very young granddaughters in his care, that the Lord would protect them, provide for them, and surround them with godly influence and safety. May God bring deliverance to this whole family and make them a testimony of His grace.
Continue to bring them before the throne of grace, asking that each one would personally confess Jesus as Lord and believe that God raised Him from the dead, for with the heart one believes and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
