Silas
Beloved of All
Your prayer reflects a heart that wants what God wants, and that is the right place to stand. God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting our trespasses against us, and He has made only one provision for sin, which is Jesus Christ Himself. There is no other way for sin to be atoned for. That provision becomes ours not by merely believing that God exists, for even that acknowledgment only shows a person is not denying what is plain, but by believing into a vital, life changing relationship with Jesus Christ. That is the power of God unto salvation.
What you are asking for your wife is exactly what the Scripture points to as necessary. Repentance is needed. John preached a baptism of repentance for the remission of sins as people confessed their sins, Jesus Himself called sinners to repentance, and when He speaks to His churches He still calls them to turn and change. Repentance is not a feeling or a religious form, it is a turning from sin to God, a change of heart and direction that God grants. Without it there is no forgiveness of sins, as the preaching of the gospel makes clear that repentance and remission of sins should be proclaimed in His name.
You are right to forgive as you have, following the example of Jesus who prayed Father forgive them for they do not know what they do, and Stephen who prayed Lord do not hold this sin against them. Forgiveness on your part releases the debt before God, as Jesus taught. Yet forgiveness does not mean God affirms the sin. Sin, including adultery, is first against God Himself, as David confessed, and Jesus after extending mercy said go and sin no more. True conversion always shows itself in change. When Zacchaeus was truly touched by Christ he offered restoration, giving back what he had taken wrongly. That kind of fruit is the evidence of a new heart.
What you describe as renewal and new birth is the same necessity Jesus spoke of when He said no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again. You must be born again. God promises I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you, I will take away the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh, and to write His law on the heart so that we are His people. That is not reformation of the old life but regeneration by the washing of renewal through the Holy Spirit. Only God can do that, and He does it through the gospel.
You also prayed for light to shine in darkness. That is needed because the god of this age has blinded minds, and only God who commanded light to shine out of darkness can shine in the heart to give the knowledge of His glory in the face of Jesus Christ, to open eyes and turn a person from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God. Your prayers for wisdom and revelation, for the fear of the Lord which is the beginning of wisdom, and for understanding of the Holy One, are fitting.
God indeed desires that none should perish but that all should come to repentance, He takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked but desires that the wicked turn and live, and He desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. Heaven rejoices over one sinner who comes to true repentance. At the same time the Scripture warns that a person can harden his heart by repeatedly refusing the love and salvation Christ offers, yet as long as there is concern for salvation and a desire for truth, that hardening has not become final. Keep praying while there is opportunity.
Your desire to see the covenant of marriage honored is right before God. Marriage is a lifelong covenant of one man and one woman, and intimacy belongs within it. God is not asked to bless what violates that covenant, but to bring repentance, cleansing, and restoration to holiness. Whether that leads to reconciliation or to another path, the greatest need for your wife, for the young ones you mentioned, and for every person, is salvation. It is better to enter life with loss than to keep what is wrong and be lost. Physical protection, emotional healing, and family peace all matter, but salvation is by far the greatest need.
Continue as you are doing, with grace and discipline. Prayer joined with fasting is a biblical pattern for seeking God with greater earnestness, and the early believers understood that it lends strength to prayer. Stay in the Word, for all Scripture is breathed out by God and is useful for teaching what is true, for showing what is wrong, for correction and for training in righteousness. Be a doer of the Word and not a hearer only, so that the Word becomes flesh in daily life and you become a living letter known and read by others. Ask God to keep you and your family from the evil one and to sanctify you by His truth, for His word is truth. And keep asking for wisdom, for God gives generously to those who ask, and for love to abound with knowledge and discernment.
I join you in asking the Father, in the name of Jesus the one mediator between God and man, to soften the heart you are burdened for, to grant repentance that leads to life, to cause light to shine where there is darkness, to give a new heart and new birth, and to protect the little ones from stumbling. I pray He will keep her from temptation and evil, lead her to true faith in the finished work of Christ on the cross, and bring forth the fruit of a changed life. And I pray you will be given wisdom to walk faithfully, to love with discernment, and to say with Christ nevertheless not my will but Yours be done.
What you are asking for your wife is exactly what the Scripture points to as necessary. Repentance is needed. John preached a baptism of repentance for the remission of sins as people confessed their sins, Jesus Himself called sinners to repentance, and when He speaks to His churches He still calls them to turn and change. Repentance is not a feeling or a religious form, it is a turning from sin to God, a change of heart and direction that God grants. Without it there is no forgiveness of sins, as the preaching of the gospel makes clear that repentance and remission of sins should be proclaimed in His name.
You are right to forgive as you have, following the example of Jesus who prayed Father forgive them for they do not know what they do, and Stephen who prayed Lord do not hold this sin against them. Forgiveness on your part releases the debt before God, as Jesus taught. Yet forgiveness does not mean God affirms the sin. Sin, including adultery, is first against God Himself, as David confessed, and Jesus after extending mercy said go and sin no more. True conversion always shows itself in change. When Zacchaeus was truly touched by Christ he offered restoration, giving back what he had taken wrongly. That kind of fruit is the evidence of a new heart.
What you describe as renewal and new birth is the same necessity Jesus spoke of when He said no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again. You must be born again. God promises I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you, I will take away the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh, and to write His law on the heart so that we are His people. That is not reformation of the old life but regeneration by the washing of renewal through the Holy Spirit. Only God can do that, and He does it through the gospel.
You also prayed for light to shine in darkness. That is needed because the god of this age has blinded minds, and only God who commanded light to shine out of darkness can shine in the heart to give the knowledge of His glory in the face of Jesus Christ, to open eyes and turn a person from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God. Your prayers for wisdom and revelation, for the fear of the Lord which is the beginning of wisdom, and for understanding of the Holy One, are fitting.
God indeed desires that none should perish but that all should come to repentance, He takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked but desires that the wicked turn and live, and He desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. Heaven rejoices over one sinner who comes to true repentance. At the same time the Scripture warns that a person can harden his heart by repeatedly refusing the love and salvation Christ offers, yet as long as there is concern for salvation and a desire for truth, that hardening has not become final. Keep praying while there is opportunity.
Your desire to see the covenant of marriage honored is right before God. Marriage is a lifelong covenant of one man and one woman, and intimacy belongs within it. God is not asked to bless what violates that covenant, but to bring repentance, cleansing, and restoration to holiness. Whether that leads to reconciliation or to another path, the greatest need for your wife, for the young ones you mentioned, and for every person, is salvation. It is better to enter life with loss than to keep what is wrong and be lost. Physical protection, emotional healing, and family peace all matter, but salvation is by far the greatest need.
Continue as you are doing, with grace and discipline. Prayer joined with fasting is a biblical pattern for seeking God with greater earnestness, and the early believers understood that it lends strength to prayer. Stay in the Word, for all Scripture is breathed out by God and is useful for teaching what is true, for showing what is wrong, for correction and for training in righteousness. Be a doer of the Word and not a hearer only, so that the Word becomes flesh in daily life and you become a living letter known and read by others. Ask God to keep you and your family from the evil one and to sanctify you by His truth, for His word is truth. And keep asking for wisdom, for God gives generously to those who ask, and for love to abound with knowledge and discernment.
I join you in asking the Father, in the name of Jesus the one mediator between God and man, to soften the heart you are burdened for, to grant repentance that leads to life, to cause light to shine where there is darkness, to give a new heart and new birth, and to protect the little ones from stumbling. I pray He will keep her from temptation and evil, lead her to true faith in the finished work of Christ on the cross, and bring forth the fruit of a changed life. And I pray you will be given wisdom to walk faithfully, to love with discernment, and to say with Christ nevertheless not my will but Yours be done.
