Chrysostom
Beloved of All
We have heard your urgent cry and we join you in bringing it before the Lord Jesus Christ with thanksgiving for His grace that has sustained you from your first breath until now.
We pray first for your daily needs, for work and income for your business and your household. Scripture teaches us to make provision for the flesh only so far as health requires, and not to kindle wanton desire, and to spend our energy above all on spiritual things. The church was not built to display earthly riches, which are but earth and ashes, but to receive spiritual riches. So we ask God not for excess or for treasure stored up without purpose, but that He would give you sufficient work each day, that your income may be as a fountain from which you may live with contentment and be a good steward, sharing with those in need and supporting the work of the Gospel. May He keep you from being weighed down by anxious desire for prosperity, and teach you to seek first His kingdom.
We also pray for the newly built church and for the hindrance you describe. Nothing provokes the Lord more than the division of His Church, and nothing so divides it as love of power. When we bring the business of the marketplace and discord into the place where God is speaking, we cease to listen in silence to His word. We do not pray for the destruction of any person, for Christ sits at the right hand of God expecting His enemies to be put under His feet in His own time and for the sake of those who will yet believe. His enemies are every unbelief and every work of the evil one. So we pray that every evil plan, every secret counsel and every work meant to spoil the opening of this house of prayer, would be brought to nothing, that those who oppose the salvation of perishing souls would be convicted and brought to repentance, and that the minister in charge and all who serve there would be reconciled in love and unity. May Isaiah 41 verses 11 and 12 be fulfilled in God's just and merciful way, that those who contend against His purposes would see their designs fail, and may the desire of the Lord in Luke 12 verse 49, that He came to cast fire upon the earth, be fulfilled in you as a purifying fire of love, zeal and holiness, and not as strife.
For your family we ask the protection of Almighty God. If even in the harbor of the church the waves can run high, how much more do we need His keeping when we go out into the cares of home and public life. We pray that He would guard your peace and joy, that no witchcraft, black magic or demonic work would have power over those who are sanctified by the one offering of Christ, who has perfected forever those who belong to Him. We do not trust in charms or counter charms, but in Christ alone, who is our salvation and our only hope. May every work of darkness be exposed and burnt away by the light of His presence, and may your household walk in health, in sober mind and in faith.
Therefore we pray: Lord Jesus Christ, grant this family daily bread and honest labor, keep them from want and from excess, frustrate every evil agenda and heal every division in Your Church, open the doors of this new congregation for the preaching of Your Gospel, and cover this family, their children, their ministry and their business under Your mighty hand. Let Your will be done, let Your name be hallowed, and let Your people be kept in unity and love until You put all enemies under Your feet. In the name of Jesus Christ we ask this, Amen.
We pray first for your daily needs, for work and income for your business and your household. Scripture teaches us to make provision for the flesh only so far as health requires, and not to kindle wanton desire, and to spend our energy above all on spiritual things. The church was not built to display earthly riches, which are but earth and ashes, but to receive spiritual riches. So we ask God not for excess or for treasure stored up without purpose, but that He would give you sufficient work each day, that your income may be as a fountain from which you may live with contentment and be a good steward, sharing with those in need and supporting the work of the Gospel. May He keep you from being weighed down by anxious desire for prosperity, and teach you to seek first His kingdom.
We also pray for the newly built church and for the hindrance you describe. Nothing provokes the Lord more than the division of His Church, and nothing so divides it as love of power. When we bring the business of the marketplace and discord into the place where God is speaking, we cease to listen in silence to His word. We do not pray for the destruction of any person, for Christ sits at the right hand of God expecting His enemies to be put under His feet in His own time and for the sake of those who will yet believe. His enemies are every unbelief and every work of the evil one. So we pray that every evil plan, every secret counsel and every work meant to spoil the opening of this house of prayer, would be brought to nothing, that those who oppose the salvation of perishing souls would be convicted and brought to repentance, and that the minister in charge and all who serve there would be reconciled in love and unity. May Isaiah 41 verses 11 and 12 be fulfilled in God's just and merciful way, that those who contend against His purposes would see their designs fail, and may the desire of the Lord in Luke 12 verse 49, that He came to cast fire upon the earth, be fulfilled in you as a purifying fire of love, zeal and holiness, and not as strife.
For your family we ask the protection of Almighty God. If even in the harbor of the church the waves can run high, how much more do we need His keeping when we go out into the cares of home and public life. We pray that He would guard your peace and joy, that no witchcraft, black magic or demonic work would have power over those who are sanctified by the one offering of Christ, who has perfected forever those who belong to Him. We do not trust in charms or counter charms, but in Christ alone, who is our salvation and our only hope. May every work of darkness be exposed and burnt away by the light of His presence, and may your household walk in health, in sober mind and in faith.
Therefore we pray: Lord Jesus Christ, grant this family daily bread and honest labor, keep them from want and from excess, frustrate every evil agenda and heal every division in Your Church, open the doors of this new congregation for the preaching of Your Gospel, and cover this family, their children, their ministry and their business under Your mighty hand. Let Your will be done, let Your name be hallowed, and let Your people be kept in unity and love until You put all enemies under Your feet. In the name of Jesus Christ we ask this, Amen.
