Silas
Beloved of All
Your longing to enter with confidence into the holy place through the blood of Jesus is exactly what Scripture invites you to do. Hebrews 10:19 tells us we have boldness to enter the holiest by that blood, behind the veil, and Hebrews 9:13 and 14 tells us that the sprinkling of that blood cleanses the conscience from dead works so we can serve the living God. Hebrews 4:15 and 16 reminds us that we have a sympathetic High Priest who understands us, so we can come freely to receive mercy and find grace for help in time of need. Like a branch drawing life from the vine in John 15, we do not earn this life, we receive it as we abide in Him.
This confidence rests on one sufficient proof of the love of God. Our fallen nature cannot tell us that God loves us, and feelings cannot prove it. God has chosen to prove His love in one place, and it is enough so you never need to doubt again. Here is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the offering for our sins. God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, and hereby we perceive love, because He laid down His life for us. When you look to the cross you see the full measure of His love for you in all your imperfection and failure.
Because He first loved us, we are able to love Him in return. We are only responding to grace already given. It is hard to respond to what we do not know, so the prayer you have prayed to know Him better is central. As Ephesians 1:17 says, we need wisdom and revelation to know Him more, and as Luke 24:45 says, we need understanding to grasp His Word. As you draw near to God, James 4:8 promises He will draw near to you. That nearness restores first love. When that first, intense love grows cold, as Jesus warned in Revelation 2:4, the call is to remember, to repent, and to return and do the first works again, to come back to that deep, intimate fellowship between the Father and the Son into which you have been invited.
The evidence that His Spirit is truly at work in you will be seen in love. One test of the spirits is what they confess about Jesus Christ, and another test is love. We know we have passed from death to life because we love the brethren, and we know we are of the truth as His love is perfected in us. To walk in love as Christ loved us and gave Himself for us is to follow His example with a self giving love that forgives as we have been forgiven. That love is simple and pure in devotion to Christ, as 2 Corinthians 11:3 describes, and it overflows to family, to friends, to fellow believers with whom we labor together, and to those who do not yet know Him.
I join you in thanking God that you can tend the vineyard and garden He has given you to keep, as in Genesis 2:15, with clarity and order, for God is not a God of confusion as 1 Corinthians 14:33 says. May He give you happy grace for daily duties and wisdom for pressing needs, and keep your heart in simplicity toward Christ as you study His Word, pray, and intercede for others.
And I pray with you for protection from temptation and evil, as Jesus taught us to pray in Matthew 6:13, and from stumbling blocks, fear, lies, and deception. May the Lord guard you from the evil one, as John 17:15 asks, and keep you from wrongdoing, and keep your path free from what would cause others to stumble, as Romans 14:13 and 1 Corinthians 8 and 10 warn. May He keep you in faith and assurance, with the joy of forgiveness renewed through fresh repentance, so that your life proclaims repentance and forgiveness in His name as Luke 24:47 declares, and others may come to believe and have life through His name as John 20:31 promises. In the name of Jesus Christ, the one Mediator between God and man according to 1 Timothy 2:5, our Priest forever after the order of Melchizedek, I ask this for you.
This confidence rests on one sufficient proof of the love of God. Our fallen nature cannot tell us that God loves us, and feelings cannot prove it. God has chosen to prove His love in one place, and it is enough so you never need to doubt again. Here is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the offering for our sins. God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, and hereby we perceive love, because He laid down His life for us. When you look to the cross you see the full measure of His love for you in all your imperfection and failure.
Because He first loved us, we are able to love Him in return. We are only responding to grace already given. It is hard to respond to what we do not know, so the prayer you have prayed to know Him better is central. As Ephesians 1:17 says, we need wisdom and revelation to know Him more, and as Luke 24:45 says, we need understanding to grasp His Word. As you draw near to God, James 4:8 promises He will draw near to you. That nearness restores first love. When that first, intense love grows cold, as Jesus warned in Revelation 2:4, the call is to remember, to repent, and to return and do the first works again, to come back to that deep, intimate fellowship between the Father and the Son into which you have been invited.
The evidence that His Spirit is truly at work in you will be seen in love. One test of the spirits is what they confess about Jesus Christ, and another test is love. We know we have passed from death to life because we love the brethren, and we know we are of the truth as His love is perfected in us. To walk in love as Christ loved us and gave Himself for us is to follow His example with a self giving love that forgives as we have been forgiven. That love is simple and pure in devotion to Christ, as 2 Corinthians 11:3 describes, and it overflows to family, to friends, to fellow believers with whom we labor together, and to those who do not yet know Him.
I join you in thanking God that you can tend the vineyard and garden He has given you to keep, as in Genesis 2:15, with clarity and order, for God is not a God of confusion as 1 Corinthians 14:33 says. May He give you happy grace for daily duties and wisdom for pressing needs, and keep your heart in simplicity toward Christ as you study His Word, pray, and intercede for others.
And I pray with you for protection from temptation and evil, as Jesus taught us to pray in Matthew 6:13, and from stumbling blocks, fear, lies, and deception. May the Lord guard you from the evil one, as John 17:15 asks, and keep you from wrongdoing, and keep your path free from what would cause others to stumble, as Romans 14:13 and 1 Corinthians 8 and 10 warn. May He keep you in faith and assurance, with the joy of forgiveness renewed through fresh repentance, so that your life proclaims repentance and forgiveness in His name as Luke 24:47 declares, and others may come to believe and have life through His name as John 20:31 promises. In the name of Jesus Christ, the one Mediator between God and man according to 1 Timothy 2:5, our Priest forever after the order of Melchizedek, I ask this for you.
