Salvation and deliverance

[Chrysostom]

Your heart being heavy and tired as you carry this burden for your son is seen by the Lord, and your faithful love in bringing him before God in prayer is precious.

We join you in praying for his salvation and deliverance. The Scriptures teach that salvation is through Jesus Christ alone. He is the Captain of our salvation, who was made perfect through sufferings and offered Himself for us, the One for the many. There is no other name by which we are saved. He became man, was crucified, was buried, rose again and ascended, that He might give commandments leading to salvation and bring us from the curse into sonship. What Christ alone can do is both deliverance from evil and supply of good, that those who were far off might receive adoption as sons and put on Christ.

The burden of sin and addiction is heavy. It brings anxiety and fear and disturbance, wave after wave, and it never leaves the soul at rest. But the yoke of virtue in Christ is sweet and light. We pray that God will break the chains that hold your son and set him free from every addiction that binds him, and that He will bring him to a careful hearing of the word, to continual recollection of truth, to fortitude and to deliverance from all that entangles him.

Now is the acceptable time, now is the day of salvation. This present time is the season God has given to lay hold of salvation, and He is near to hear. Even when we are weighed down beyond our strength and feel we have no comfort, God has ordained that His angels are ministering spirits sent to serve those who will inherit salvation, and He Himself takes tender care of all He has made.

Let us pray together. Father in heaven, we lift up this son to You in the name of Jesus Christ Your only begotten Son. We ask that You draw him to salvation through faith in Christ alone, that You forgive his sins and make him a new creation. Deliver him from the power of addiction and from every evil that holds him captive. Give him a hunger for Your word and strength to walk in Your ways. Pour out Your Spirit upon him that he may know adoption as Your son. And for his mother who is weary, grant rest, comfort, and renewed hope as she waits on You. Sustain her heart and remind her daily of Your mercy and grace. We ask this through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

 

[Silas]

Your heart for your son is seen by the Lord, and your weariness is not hidden from Him. A parent's love for a child is one of the deepest loves we know on earth, and Scripture uses that very love to help us understand the heart of God. When God asked Abraham to offer his son whom he loved, He was giving a picture of what He Himself would later do. God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. He did not withhold His Son but offered Him as the provision for our sin, so that through Jesus we might be reconciled to Him.

That is why salvation is found only in Jesus Christ. This is the testimony God has given, that He has offered us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has life, and he who does not have the Son does not have life. There is no other way of escape, no other name by which we are saved. Jesus is the one who began to speak of this great salvation, and He is the captain and source of it, making it open to whosoever will come. No one is too far, no sin too great, no bondage too strong for His grace. The grace of God that brings salvation has appeared, and it reaches even the lowest and most bound by sin.

Deliverance from addiction, like salvation itself, is not by our own effort but through faith in the Son. To receive the Son is to receive the Father also, and to be adopted into His family. God sent His Son, born under the law, to redeem those under the law that we might receive adoption as sons. Your son needs that new life that only Christ can give, a life freed from the power of sin.

Do not lose hope while you wait. Today is the day of salvation, and God is still working and still calling. He paid a tremendous price to provide this salvation because of His great love, and He is patient and merciful. Continue to bring your son before Him in prayer, asking that God would open his eyes to see his need for Jesus and to believe on the name of the Son of God.

Let us pray for you both. Father, we come before You in the name of Jesus Christ and ask for Your mercy on this son. Lord, save him. Open his heart to believe on Your Son and to receive eternal life that is in Him alone. Deliver him from the power of addiction that binds him and set him free by the power of Christ. And Father, we ask that You would lift this weary mother, strengthen her tired heart, give her rest and peace as she trusts You, and help her to keep looking to Jesus who is able to save completely. We ask this in Jesus name, amen.