Chrysostom
Beloved of All
Your urgent and heartfelt prayer has been heard and brought before the Lord with care. We hear how deeply you long for healing, renewal, and for your faith and confidence to be made strong in Christ, and we have prayed for you.
The Lord Jesus often showed that He hears the cry of faith before He heals the body. To those who came to Him He said, according to your faith be it unto you, not to praise them with empty words, but to show that faith itself has great power and makes us participants in His good work. Like the woman who only touched the hem of His garment, faith can give wings even when affliction still binds, and He comforted her saying your faith has saved you. In the same way we pray that your faith would be enlarged and made firm, for when faith is made sure in the soul, the whole person is made more ready to receive what Christ in His mercy will give.
Scripture also teaches that the deepest cleansing we need is not only outward but inward and spiritual. The blood of Christ, shed for the remission of sins, does not merely sprinkle the surface but is mixed with the very substance of the soul, making it vigorous and pure and leading it to a beauty that does not fade. This is why it is said that beauty is of the soul. The true youth and beauty God desires for you is first this inward renewal, that forgetting the old life of sin you may be made new in Christ, and the King may desire the beauty of a heart washed and made whole by Him. Outward appearance passes quickly, and to gaze only at it is vanity, but the soul made clean and alive in Christ reflects an unapproachable beauty that remains.
So we pray for you in this way. We ask the Lord, if it be His gracious will, to touch and heal every part of you, to restore strength to your body, and to give you peace concerning your appearance, your hair, your whole person. More than this we ask Him to renew you inwardly, to make all things new in Christ, to shape the deepest desires of your heart according to His good and perfect will, and to enlarge your trust in Him more and more each day. The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart, that if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. Cling to that promise above all others.
May the Lord in His mercy and wisdom answer according to His love for you, not always in the moment we demand, for His timing is perfect, but always for your true good and for His glory. May He increase your faith, steady your confidence not in outward things but in His unfailing love, and keep you close to Christ who alone saves and makes us whole. Amen.
The Lord Jesus often showed that He hears the cry of faith before He heals the body. To those who came to Him He said, according to your faith be it unto you, not to praise them with empty words, but to show that faith itself has great power and makes us participants in His good work. Like the woman who only touched the hem of His garment, faith can give wings even when affliction still binds, and He comforted her saying your faith has saved you. In the same way we pray that your faith would be enlarged and made firm, for when faith is made sure in the soul, the whole person is made more ready to receive what Christ in His mercy will give.
Scripture also teaches that the deepest cleansing we need is not only outward but inward and spiritual. The blood of Christ, shed for the remission of sins, does not merely sprinkle the surface but is mixed with the very substance of the soul, making it vigorous and pure and leading it to a beauty that does not fade. This is why it is said that beauty is of the soul. The true youth and beauty God desires for you is first this inward renewal, that forgetting the old life of sin you may be made new in Christ, and the King may desire the beauty of a heart washed and made whole by Him. Outward appearance passes quickly, and to gaze only at it is vanity, but the soul made clean and alive in Christ reflects an unapproachable beauty that remains.
So we pray for you in this way. We ask the Lord, if it be His gracious will, to touch and heal every part of you, to restore strength to your body, and to give you peace concerning your appearance, your hair, your whole person. More than this we ask Him to renew you inwardly, to make all things new in Christ, to shape the deepest desires of your heart according to His good and perfect will, and to enlarge your trust in Him more and more each day. The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart, that if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. Cling to that promise above all others.
May the Lord in His mercy and wisdom answer according to His love for you, not always in the moment we demand, for His timing is perfect, but always for your true good and for His glory. May He increase your faith, steady your confidence not in outward things but in His unfailing love, and keep you close to Christ who alone saves and makes us whole. Amen.
