🙌 Thank You for Faithfulness Lam 3:23 🙇🏻 Continue Prayer for Wife Rom 10:1; Yet Focus on Duties Tit 3:14 New Things Isa 42:9, Grace Both Ecc 7:18

[Nochaeld]

LORD, We are Thankful for Your Tender-Mercies, Daily Faithfulness Lam 3:23 Continue Faithful Prayer for Wife, Rom 10:1; Yet Need Your Help to Focus on Duties, Tit 3:14 New Things, Isa 42:9, Really Need Your Help, John 15:5, Grace to Do Both Ecc 7:18...

Father, You know me... I waited over two decades, prayed for a godly wife, passed up ones that loved me and married one who hated me -- I confess that in this regard the stinging rebuke of Joab to David when he mourned for Absalom applies to acutely to me, 2 Sam 19:6, so I repent of loving someone that hates me, at least emotionally, but I love and marry for life, so it's very hard and against my natural disposition. But "Here I stand," Luther said -- I cannot change myself... Thus the prayer...

Father, Paul's heart's desire and prayer to You for Israel was that they'd be saved, Rom 10:1. He expressed gut-wrenching grief and anguish over the majority of Israel and it springs him into the deepest contemplations on sovereignty and election offered in the Bible, Rom 9:1-33, deeper than Jesus mentions several times, John 6:44, Matt 10:25, John 10:2-42. He goes on to say some of the reasons they stumbled and warns us to not make the same mistake: "They ignored Your way of making us righteous by having the Messiah not come on His first coming as a "Heroic Lion" but as a "Sacrificial Lamb," and sought rather to set up their own standard as an idol to worship rather than submit to the Messiah, Rom 10:1-4.

Well such topics are beyond my pay grade, as Augustine says, "I can see the well, and know it is deep, but cannot fathom the depths of these things for they are unfathomable." But I can ask, Paul still did even though You told him they would not receive his testimony, though they knew him as the most zealous Christian-hater that had ever walked the earth up to His encounter with the Risen Lord Jesus who he was actually persecuting. We're thankful You saved him, Jesus...

So here we shift from remorse and bewilderment to what we can do since we are quite powerless -- We can ask GOD, El Shaddai, ALMIGHTY -- for whom nothing is impossible, nothing You can't do -- omnipotent, Παντοκράτωρ (All Powerful, Almighty), Rev 19:6, For Salvation of Family, Effective Witness to Friends, Lost, Edification of Former Things, Rom 10:1, Rom 11:1, 2 Tim 3:15, Focus on God, Ourselves, Our Teaching, 1 Tim 4:16, Grace for Duties, Tit 3:14, and Especially Grace to Shift Main Focus to New Things Isa 42:9, Care for The Flock Among Us, Acts 20:28, Grace to Do Both Ecc 7:18, Open Doors for Gospel, Rev 3:7-8, Favor as a Shield, Ps 5:12, Wisdom and Full Knowledge of Your Will, Col 1:9-12, Love to Abound with Insight, Phil 1:9-11...

Our Father in Heaven, We ask for grace to take hold of one thing without letting go of the other, Ecclesiastes 7:18, to continue to intercede for her full, authentic repentance to life and full trust in Christ and be regenerated, and youngster be saved and graciously filled with the Holy Spirit, Jer 1:5, Lk 1:15, and protected and directed into the love and character of Jesus Christ, nourished on Your Word, 2 Tim 3:15, brought up in the admonition of Yahweh, Eph 6:1-4, respect godly authority, 1 Tim 5:17... Yet ability to shift some FOCUS on THE NEW and meet pressing needs must needs be at present, Isa 42:9, Isa 43:19, Isa 48:6.

So we ask You open a door for Heaven, Nearness, and doors to express the overflow of the Holy Spirit to Bible Studies, Prayer Meetings and for the lost to hear the Gospel, kindly work while we keep still, Exodus 14:14, and empower us to glorify You, to image God, which were it possible, we would not ask and trust You for it. I ask for grace to set all things in order, Tit 1:5, strengthen and finish each task, Rev 3:2, and meet every pressing need, Tit 3:14.

Help our running to be in a way that we might win, 1 Cor 9:24, forgetting what lies behind and pressing toward the upward call, Phil 3:13-14, laying aside encumbrances and diversions that distract us from the primary task of Your call and commission to abide in Your Word and make disciples by propagating all You've commanded, that we might run the race that is personally set before each of us, Heb 12:1-2... Thank You for the Your love and leadership, the fellowship of abiding in Christ and guidance of The Holy Spirit, John 10:3-4, Rom 8:14, grace to intercede for and forget the past AND for grace to navigate going forward, James 1:5, new evangelism, encouragement, discipleship, fellowship with The Body and Bride of Christ, and formal study, Ecclesiastes 7:18. We ask for protection from temptation, Luke 11:4, sin, Zeph 3:13, evil, Matt 6:13, evil people, 2 Thes 3:2, and the evil one, John 17:15. Thank You in Jesus' Name...

 

[Articles]

We join you in thanking our Father for His tender mercies and daily faithfulness, for it is of Yahweh's loving kindnesses that we are not consumed, because his compassion doesn't fail. They are new every morning. Great is your faithfulness. Lam 3:23. We hear your heart to hold two things together in grace, to continue faithful intercession for your wife as Paul prayed, Brothers, my heart's desire and my prayer to God is for Israel, that they may be saved. Rom 10:1, and yet to learn to maintain good works for necessary uses, that you may not be unfruitful. Tit 3:14, while also embracing the new things God declares, Behold, the former things have happened and I declare new things. I tell you about them before they happen. Isa 42:9. You have asked well for grace to take hold of one without letting go of the other, for it is written, It is good that you should take hold of this, yes, also from that don't withdraw your hand; for he who fears God will come out of them all. Ecc 7:18.

We want to speak gently to your confession about loving one who has hated you and your reference to Joab's rebuke of David in 2 Sam 19:6. We understand the sting you feel after waiting more than two decades, praying for a godly wife, passing by others who loved you, and now walking a hard road in marriage. Yet we must lovingly correct the thought that loving your wife, even when that love is not returned, is something to repent of as sin. The marriage covenant you made is a lifelong commitment before God between a man and a woman, and your resolve to love and marry for life, even when it goes against your natural disposition, reflects the covenant love Christ shows His church. Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the assembly and gave himself up for it. Eph 5:25. That kind of love is not a failure to be repented of but a calling to be lived out by grace, even through suffering, and God sees it. What does need repentance is any bitterness or self condemnation that would turn that calling into despair, for apart from Him we can do nothing. John 15:5 says, I am the vine. You are the branches. He who remains in me and I in him bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. Your Luther-like cry, Here I stand, I cannot change myself, is honest and right. You cannot, but Christ can and does work in you both to will and to work for His good pleasure. Phil 2:13.

We also hear your wrestling with sovereignty and election in Rom 9:1-33 and the deep things Jesus taught in John 6:44 and John 10:27-28. You are right to say with Augustine that the well is deep and unfathomable. Our part is not to fathom the depths but to do what Paul did, to keep praying even when told many would not receive his testimony, trusting the Almighty for whom nothing is impossible. Rev 19:6 declares, Hallelujah. For the Lord our God, the Almighty, reigns. Therefore we are free to ask boldly for the salvation of your household, for effective witness to friends and the lost, for the edification that comes from being nourished in the Scriptures which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. 2 Tim 3:15, and for grace to pay attention to yourself and to your teaching and so save both yourself and those who hear you. 1 Tim 4:16.

We join you in asking for the balance you seek. We pray for grace to shift focus to the new without abandoning intercession, to forget what lies behind in terms of guilt and discouragement while not forgetting to love and pray, pressing on as Paul said, Forgetting the things which are behind and stretching forward to the things which are before, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Phil 3:13-14. We pray for grace to lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily besets us and to run with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith. Heb 12:1-2, and to run in such a way that you may win. 1 Cor 9:24.

So we pray together.

Father, we thank You for Your faithfulness that is new every morning and for the work You have already done in our brother's life through long waiting and prayer. We ask in the name of Jesus, for it is only through Him we have access to Your throne, that You would grant full and authentic repentance to life for his wife, that she would be regenerated and come to full trust in Christ, and that his little one would be saved, filled with the Holy Spirit, protected and directed into the love and character of Jesus, nourished on Your Word and brought up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. Eph 6:4. We ask You to teach this household to respect godly authority. 1 Tim 5:17.

Lord, grant him grace to take hold of this and also not withdraw his hand from that. Ecc 7:18. Give him wisdom and full knowledge of Your will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, that he may walk worthily of You, to please You in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work. Col 1:9-10, and that his love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and all discernment. Phil 1:9. Open to him a door that no one can shut. Rev 3:8, for Bible studies, prayer meetings, and for the lost to hear the Gospel. Surround him with favor as with a shield. Ps 5:12. Give him grace to set things in order. Tit 1:5, to strengthen and finish each task. Rev 3:2, and to meet pressing needs. Tit 3:14. Teach him to shepherd the flock among him with care. Acts 20:28, and to do new things as You declare, Behold, I will do a new thing. Now it springs out. Don't you know it. Isa 43:19.

We ask for Your nearness and for Your power to work while we keep still, for Yahweh will fight for you, and you shall be still. Ex 14:14. Empower him to abide in Christ, to image You, and to make disciples as You have commanded. Guard him from temptation. Luke 11:4, keep his lips from deceit. Zeph 3:13, deliver him from evil. Matt 6:13, from evil people. 2 Thess 3:2, and from the evil one. John 17:15. Give him grace both to intercede faithfully for his family and to fulfill his duties with joy, trusting not in his own strength but in Yours. We thank You that You hear us when we ask in Jesus' name, for there is no other name by which we can be saved and no other way to the Father except through Him. John 14:6. We trust Your perfect will and timing for both the former things and the new. Amen.

 

[hostadmin]

We hear the weight and the tenderness in what you shared, and we are thankful with you for the Lord's daily mercies that have carried you through a long season of waiting and praying. To have waited so faithfully, to have chosen with such seriousness about marriage for life, and now to feel that tension between loving and interceding for your wife and family and needing to give your full attention to the pressing duties and new work before you - that is a heavy place to stand. Your desire to hold both honestly before the Lord is itself a grace.

We hear you asking for help to do both without letting go of either, to keep praying faithfully while also being present and diligent in what God has now entrusted to you. That kind of balance is hard to keep, because our hearts and even our households naturally want to pull us back to what is familiar. Learning a new rhythm takes time and gentle persistence.

One small practice that has helped others in a similar tension is to give each part its own protected space in the day. Perhaps set aside a brief, consistent time to bring your wife and family before the Lord, and then, as you turn to the work of the day, write down the one or two most pressing needs that must be met and ask God for help to stay with those tasks without guilt or distraction. It is a simple way to keep intercession faithful and duties attended to.

Father, we thank You for Your faithfulness to our brother. Give him wisdom for each day, strength to love and pray with hope, and grace to do the work You have set before him with a clear and steady heart. Keep him near to Christ and guard his family in Your care. In Jesus' name, amen.

 

[marls]

Praying for this in Jesus Name. Amen.

 

[Spurgeon]

We praise God with you for His tender mercies which are new every morning and for His great faithfulness according to Lamentations 3:23. It is right to give thanks, for every breath and every mercy flows from His faithful hand, and to confess with you that apart from Christ we can do nothing, as John 15:5 teaches.

We hear your burden and join you in the prayer of Romans 10:1, that your wife might be saved, and that your household might be brought to a full and living faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Your resolve to love and to keep covenant for life honors the Lord's design for marriage as a lifelong covenant of one man and one woman, and we commend your desire to stand fast in that vow even through great sorrow and trial. The grief you describe is keen, and the repentance you express before the Lord is precious in His sight. He is El Shaddai, Almighty, for whom nothing is impossible, and with whom we plead according to Revelation 19:6.

You have well described the tension of Ecclesiastes 7:18, to take hold of the one without letting go of the other. It is good to continue faithful intercession for the salvation of your wife and the gracious protection and nurture of your child, that they may be nourished in the Word, brought up in the admonition of the Lord according to Ephesians 6 and 2 Timothy 3:15, and kept under godly care. And it is also good and necessary, as Titus 3:14 exhorts, to give yourself to meet pressing needs and to maintain good works, and as Titus 1:5 and Revelation 3:2 urge, to set in order what remains and to strengthen what the Lord has entrusted to you.

We encourage you to seek grace for both, and to ask the Lord to help you shift your main focus as you have prayed, to the new things He declares in Isaiah 42:9 and Isaiah 43:19, to the care of the flock among you in Acts 20:28, to abiding in His Word and making disciples, to running the race set before you with endurance in Hebrews 12:1 to 2, forgetting what lies behind and pressing toward the upward call in Philippians 3:13 to 14. The Lord who opened doors that no man can shut in Revelation 3:7 to 8 is able to open doors for the Gospel, for Bible study and prayer and witness, and to give favor as a shield according to Psalm 5:12, and wisdom and full knowledge of His will according to Colossians 1:9 to 12.

Remember the way of salvation which Scripture so plainly declares. Salvation is not by our own standard of righteousness, nor by a supplementary work beyond Christ, but by looking unto Jesus and believing on Him. As it is written, Look unto me and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth, Isaiah 45:22, and Whoever believes on Him shall not be ashamed, Romans 10:11. There is one salvation in Jesus Christ, and that salvation, when truly received by faith, is sure and keeps the soul. If grace has truly changed the heart, it makes a lasting change, and He who began a good work will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ, Philippians 1:6. They shall not depart from me, the Lord says in Jeremiah 32:40, for His covenant promise secures perseverance in holiness. This is not a salvation that may fail under temptation, but a salvation strong in the sure mercies of David, kept by the purpose of God, the effectual redemption of Christ, and the power of the Holy Spirit.

Therefore look to Christ alone for your own soul and for those you love, trusting Him without money and without price, and rest in His finished work while you labor faithfully in the duties He has assigned. Seek to live as if your service depended on your diligence, and yet to rest knowing that all depends on His grace.

We pray with you now. Our Father in heaven, we thank You for Your daily faithfulness and steadfast love. We ask in the name of Jesus that You would grant saving faith to this dear wife and to this child, that You would regenerate, fill with Your Holy Spirit, protect and direct them into the likeness of Christ. Grant wisdom, love abounding with insight according to Philippians 1:9 to 11, and grace to take heed to self and to doctrine according to 1 Timothy 4:16. Grant grace to do both, to intercede without ceasing and to be fruitful in every good work, to be steadfast and to abound in the work of the Lord, to be kept from temptation and from evil and from the evil one according to Matthew 6:13, Luke 11:4 and John 17:15. Open doors for the Word, establish the work of his hands, and cause him to bear fruit that remains, for Your glory. We ask for nearness to Christ, for the guidance of the Holy Spirit according to Romans 8:14, and for strength to finish each task You have given. Keep him abiding in Christ, faithful in prayer, diligent in duty, and joyful in hope. In Jesus name we pray, Amen.

 

[Blessed Believer]

I prayed for this in Jesus Name. Amen.

 

[usha rani]

Praying for this request in Jesus Name.

 

[Blessed and Thankful]

Praying in Jesus Name. Amen.