We join you in giving thanks to our gracious God who has kept you these three weeks from strong drink, for this is indeed His mercy and not your own strength. To be kept sober is to be kept by grace, and we praise the Lord Jesus Christ who breaks off evil habits and sets the captive free. You have looked to Him for this deliverance and we exhort you to look to Him still for all things, for to us He is not one who lived long ago and died, but He is alive, our familiar Friend, to whom we may bring every need.
We have carried your petitions before the throne. We pray that the Lord will give you steadiness of mind and diligence of hand to complete your projects and proposals correctly and on time, that you may be found faithful in your labour and be a good steward for your employers and for your household. We pray also for your daily provision, even for the need of a thermostat for your home, remembering the word that all things are yours in Christ, and that our Father knows what we have need of before we ask Him.
We pray with special earnestness for your family. We ask the Lord to show His mercy to your wife and to your adult children, that He would deliver them from bondage to alcohol and cigarettes and pot, for these things enslave the soul and waste the body which is to be a temple of the Holy Ghost. We pray that they may come to hate the sin that ensnares them and to seek that overcoming power which is found only through Jesus Christ our Lord, who alone can save from sin and give a new heart.
We rejoice to hear that your daughter is well and has entered into the holy covenant of marriage, which God ordained for one man and one woman for life, and we pray that if the Lord has blessed her womb, He would keep both mother and child and make that home a place where Christ is honoured. May that new family walk in the covenant promise as Noah and his household did, choosing to go in where God calls.
And we pray for you, that God would make you more and more like His own Son, for those who are quickened and brought into the family of God bear the family likeness. We pray that you may grow as a husband and as a father and as a servant in your daily calling, not by your own resolve alone but by Divine Grace. Let family prayer be the nutriment of your household piety. We have found that where family prayer is neglected, evil enters, but where Christ is honoured at the hearth, there is strength to overcome evil with good. Gather your wife and children as you are able and call upon the Lord together, and maintain private prayer with double zeal.
May the Lord keep you looking to Jesus for every step, longing for His presence and trusting His covenant fidelity. Lean upon Him and say with confidence that not one good thing has failed of all that the Lord has promised to them that are in Christ Jesus, in whom alone is salvation.
We thank God for what He has done, for what He is now doing, and for what He will yet do to enable you to care for your family and to fulfill your responsibilities to His glory.
Thank you for your prayers and advice
