Chrysostom
Beloved of All
We have heard your prayer and we join with you in asking the Lord to answer it according to His mercy and truth.
Your desire for an unquenchable thirst for righteousness is itself pleasing to God. As our Lord said, If any man thirst, let him come unto Me and drink, and again, Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness for they shall be filled. God does not draw us by force, but He calls those who are inflamed with desire for Him. To come to His word as a thirsty man comes to water, to eagerly receive and retain what He says, this is the hunger He blesses. Pray that this thirst would be kindled and sustained both in you and in those for whom you intercede.
We agree with you in praying for the team and for their lawyers and representatives. It is right to pray that God would save them, that He would uncover the lies that bind them and bring them to the truth that is in Christ alone. There is a righteousness that is only outward, a form of law and learning, and there is a righteousness and holiness of truth that comes from being made new in Christ. The first is a shadow, the second is the reality worked in us when we are born anew. What they need, as we all do, is not only legal knowledge but a new heart.
You prayed well from Psalm 51. God does not delight in outward sacrifice alone, but in a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart He will not despise. This is the beginning of true change. We pray with you that God would work on their hearts to convict them of sin, to make them hate sin and turn from it, to regard human life with reverence and to love honest communication. For righteousness is like a breastplate. When a life is fixed in righteous deeds before God, it stands firm and cannot be easily pierced by the enemy. That is the life we ask God to form in them.
We also pray that their sorrow, if God grants it, would be true repentance. Scripture warns us that Esau sought the blessing with tears yet found no place of repentance, because his grief was not a true turning from sin. Tears alone do not save. Renewal comes through true repentance toward God and faith in Jesus Christ, whose blood alone covers sin and brings peace and understanding to those who are His. We ask that God would grant them that true repentance, that they would crucify the old life and not continue in what is evil in His sight.
We commend your humility, that you do not boast and do not look down on those who fall short of the glory of God, for all have sinned. Continue in this relentless prayer. Ask that the Holy Spirit who intercedes for us would stir in them and in you a deeper love for truth, for compassion, and for holiness. May the Lord cover His people with the precious blood of Christ, keep them in peace, and teach all of us to walk in righteousness with hunger that does not grow weary until we are filled by Him.
We pray this in the name of Jesus Christ, that the Father's will be done. Amen.
Your desire for an unquenchable thirst for righteousness is itself pleasing to God. As our Lord said, If any man thirst, let him come unto Me and drink, and again, Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness for they shall be filled. God does not draw us by force, but He calls those who are inflamed with desire for Him. To come to His word as a thirsty man comes to water, to eagerly receive and retain what He says, this is the hunger He blesses. Pray that this thirst would be kindled and sustained both in you and in those for whom you intercede.
We agree with you in praying for the team and for their lawyers and representatives. It is right to pray that God would save them, that He would uncover the lies that bind them and bring them to the truth that is in Christ alone. There is a righteousness that is only outward, a form of law and learning, and there is a righteousness and holiness of truth that comes from being made new in Christ. The first is a shadow, the second is the reality worked in us when we are born anew. What they need, as we all do, is not only legal knowledge but a new heart.
You prayed well from Psalm 51. God does not delight in outward sacrifice alone, but in a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart He will not despise. This is the beginning of true change. We pray with you that God would work on their hearts to convict them of sin, to make them hate sin and turn from it, to regard human life with reverence and to love honest communication. For righteousness is like a breastplate. When a life is fixed in righteous deeds before God, it stands firm and cannot be easily pierced by the enemy. That is the life we ask God to form in them.
We also pray that their sorrow, if God grants it, would be true repentance. Scripture warns us that Esau sought the blessing with tears yet found no place of repentance, because his grief was not a true turning from sin. Tears alone do not save. Renewal comes through true repentance toward God and faith in Jesus Christ, whose blood alone covers sin and brings peace and understanding to those who are His. We ask that God would grant them that true repentance, that they would crucify the old life and not continue in what is evil in His sight.
We commend your humility, that you do not boast and do not look down on those who fall short of the glory of God, for all have sinned. Continue in this relentless prayer. Ask that the Holy Spirit who intercedes for us would stir in them and in you a deeper love for truth, for compassion, and for holiness. May the Lord cover His people with the precious blood of Christ, keep them in peace, and teach all of us to walk in righteousness with hunger that does not grow weary until we are filled by Him.
We pray this in the name of Jesus Christ, that the Father's will be done. Amen.
