Silas
Beloved of All
Your heart for your child and for peace is clear in this prayer, and it is right to bring these details before the Lord who made the heavens and the earth and formed them to be inhabited.
God is sovereign over circumstances. Just as He moved events to bring Mary and Joseph to the place where prophecy would be fulfilled, He is able to order the practical details of visitation and time together. It is good to thank Him when agreements are honored and to keep asking Him to help those hours be respected, so that work can be done and time with your youngster can be fruitful and unhurried.
Scripture puts a high value on a child. Jesus placed a little child in the midst of His disciples and taught that we must become humble like a child to enter the kingdom, and that to receive such a child in His name is to receive Him. He also gave a strong warning not to despise one of these little ones and not to do anything that would damage a child's simple trust in Him. Your prayer that your time together would show a gracious and compassionate view of God, that He is slow to anger and abounding in love, and that your child would learn to love God with heart and soul and mind and strength and to love others, is exactly in line with that. Ministry to a child is a blessed privilege, and God hears prayer for that child's protection.
That is why the call to train up a child matters so much. The word in the Hebrew speaks of a steady, systematic forming, a kind of catechizing. The goal is not simply success as the world counts it, but raising a child in the training and instruction of the Lord, so that through the Scriptures he may gain the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith in Jesus Christ. This takes patience, like teaching a child to walk. You expect stumbles and you guard against falls, and you keep guiding with love and consistent discipline, because foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child and needs loving correction to be driven far from him. Recognizing the unique way God has made your child will help you train him according to his way.
It is also right to pray for his mother. God alone saves through Jesus Christ, and marriage is His lifelong covenant of one man and one woman, with intimacy belonging within it. We do not ask God to bless what is outside His design, but we do ask Him to work by His Spirit to bring conviction of sin, to turn hearts toward wisdom and righteousness, and to bring repentance that leads to life. As you prayed, the Lord can use many means to pursue one who has wandered, like a shepherd leaving the ninety nine to seek the one, and love covers a multitude of sins when a wanderer is brought back from the way of death. Praying that she would be hedged in where she would otherwise run into harm, that she would come to her senses as in the story of the prodigal, and that she would turn from sin, is a loving and biblical prayer. We can also pray that any love of money would give way to genuine concern for the child, and that calls and video time would be facilitated with kindness and respect, as love seeks the good of the other and not its own way.
Continue to pray persistently, as those who prayed for years for a child and did not cease. Bring your child to the Lord as Hannah did, offering him back to God and asking that the Lord would keep him from temptation, from deception, from fear and lies, and from the influence of the evil one. Ask for the promise of Psalm 91, that God would command His angels concerning him and keep him, and for the work of the Spirit who brings understanding, that your son would know God and be kept in truth.
May the Lord give you peace as you trust Him, guard your child in his coming and going, make your time together a place where the character of Christ is seen, and work in both homes to turn hearts of parents to children and children to parents according to His will. May He keep your son in faith, keep you in His peace, and draw each of you closer to salvation and growth through Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray, amen.
God is sovereign over circumstances. Just as He moved events to bring Mary and Joseph to the place where prophecy would be fulfilled, He is able to order the practical details of visitation and time together. It is good to thank Him when agreements are honored and to keep asking Him to help those hours be respected, so that work can be done and time with your youngster can be fruitful and unhurried.
Scripture puts a high value on a child. Jesus placed a little child in the midst of His disciples and taught that we must become humble like a child to enter the kingdom, and that to receive such a child in His name is to receive Him. He also gave a strong warning not to despise one of these little ones and not to do anything that would damage a child's simple trust in Him. Your prayer that your time together would show a gracious and compassionate view of God, that He is slow to anger and abounding in love, and that your child would learn to love God with heart and soul and mind and strength and to love others, is exactly in line with that. Ministry to a child is a blessed privilege, and God hears prayer for that child's protection.
That is why the call to train up a child matters so much. The word in the Hebrew speaks of a steady, systematic forming, a kind of catechizing. The goal is not simply success as the world counts it, but raising a child in the training and instruction of the Lord, so that through the Scriptures he may gain the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith in Jesus Christ. This takes patience, like teaching a child to walk. You expect stumbles and you guard against falls, and you keep guiding with love and consistent discipline, because foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child and needs loving correction to be driven far from him. Recognizing the unique way God has made your child will help you train him according to his way.
It is also right to pray for his mother. God alone saves through Jesus Christ, and marriage is His lifelong covenant of one man and one woman, with intimacy belonging within it. We do not ask God to bless what is outside His design, but we do ask Him to work by His Spirit to bring conviction of sin, to turn hearts toward wisdom and righteousness, and to bring repentance that leads to life. As you prayed, the Lord can use many means to pursue one who has wandered, like a shepherd leaving the ninety nine to seek the one, and love covers a multitude of sins when a wanderer is brought back from the way of death. Praying that she would be hedged in where she would otherwise run into harm, that she would come to her senses as in the story of the prodigal, and that she would turn from sin, is a loving and biblical prayer. We can also pray that any love of money would give way to genuine concern for the child, and that calls and video time would be facilitated with kindness and respect, as love seeks the good of the other and not its own way.
Continue to pray persistently, as those who prayed for years for a child and did not cease. Bring your child to the Lord as Hannah did, offering him back to God and asking that the Lord would keep him from temptation, from deception, from fear and lies, and from the influence of the evil one. Ask for the promise of Psalm 91, that God would command His angels concerning him and keep him, and for the work of the Spirit who brings understanding, that your son would know God and be kept in truth.
May the Lord give you peace as you trust Him, guard your child in his coming and going, make your time together a place where the character of Christ is seen, and work in both homes to turn hearts of parents to children and children to parents according to His will. May He keep your son in faith, keep you in His peace, and draw each of you closer to salvation and growth through Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray, amen.
