Silas
Beloved of All
Thank you for pouring out your heart in prayer with such honesty and persistence. The burden you carry for this woman, for your family, and for the church is evident, and your desire to see God bring conviction, clarity and true healing is right and good.
Scripture shows that God is patient and kind, and His kindness is meant to lead us to repentance. He is not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance, yet His Word also warns that there is wrath for those who persist in doing evil and that God is not mocked. Whatever we sow we will reap. That is why your prayers for conviction through the Holy Spirit, for wisdom, and for a hedge that blocks paths that lead away from Him are biblical. God can and does close doors that lead to destruction, as He did when He hedged Israel so she could not overtake her lovers, not to harm her but to bring her to her senses.
That coming to her senses is what the story of the prodigal son pictures. He did not merely feel bad about consequences. He admitted he had sinned against God and against others, humbled himself, and was willing to take the lowest place. That is the difference Scripture makes between sorrow and repentance. Worldly sorrow feels regret, even shame, but it does not change direction and in the end it brings death. Godly sorrow produces repentance, and repentance always means a change. It is not hinting at sin but confessing it plainly before God, whether it is adultery, impurity of heart and eyes, or deceit, and then bearing fruit that fits that repentance. Grace is never a license for immorality or a way to deny the Lord who bought us. True repentance turns from sin and returns to God to receive His refreshing.
That is why the call for the church and family to step in, as Jesus taught in Matthew 18, is so important. In the letters to the seven churches, the Lord calls five of them to repent. Corruption can enter very quickly, even within the first century, so we do not look to church history as our model but to the pattern in Acts where the church walked in truth and power. One church that was suffering persecution received no call to repent, but the others were told plainly to repent or the Lord Himself would come against their sin with the sword of His mouth. The church in Corinth was warned to purge out sin that was being tolerated while the believers were distracted by lesser quarrels. The purpose of that kind of loving discipline, even to the point of putting someone outside fellowship for a time, is not to punish but to help the person feel the seriousness of being cut off from the life of Christ in His body and to bring them to repentance.
When that intervention happens it must be done gently and firmly at the same time, with love, reverence for God and for His covenant, and with zeal, not negligence. It must be done with humility, watching ourselves lest we also be tempted, and with the goal that the person would flee youthful lusts and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart. It should also be done so that others will take sin seriously. This is why you are right to ask God to raise up messengers who will speak the Word faithfully, who will fear God rather than man, for the fear of man is a snare, and who will not hold back out of family loyalty or comfort.
Your prayers for clarity, for knowledge of God, for wisdom and understanding to walk worthy of the Lord, and for inner healing are needed for you as well. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and to hate evil is part of that fear. You are asking rightly for protection from temptation, from lies, from evil men and from the evil one, for strength to do what God has given you to do, and for grace to continue in His kindness. Scripture reminds us that we only stand by grace, and that we must take heed lest we fall. Only God is able to keep us from stumbling and to make us stand. Until we are made perfect with Him, we all need His keeping.
Continue to pray without giving up, trusting the promise that He who began a good work will be faithful to complete it, and thanking Him in advance as you have done. At the same time, leave the outcome in His hands. If God makes a person holy and gives new life through faith in Jesus Christ alone, we are not to call unclean what He has cleansed. If there is true new birth and true repentance, there will be a willingness to walk in the light, to be equally yoked, to share the same vision and direction under the Lord, and to honor marriage as God designed it, a lifelong covenant of one man and one woman where sexual union belongs. Without that, there can be no foundation for a future together, and to ask God to bless any other path would be contrary to His Word.
Keep seeking wisdom liberally from Him, staying in the Word which is sharper than any sword and able to judge the thoughts of the heart, remaining in fellowship where your own books are open and your life is accountable, and pursuing healing for the wounds that sin leaves. Pray that she and all involved would be delivered from deception, that love would abound with knowledge and discernment, and that each of you would be kept blameless until the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness to the glory of God.
Scripture shows that God is patient and kind, and His kindness is meant to lead us to repentance. He is not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance, yet His Word also warns that there is wrath for those who persist in doing evil and that God is not mocked. Whatever we sow we will reap. That is why your prayers for conviction through the Holy Spirit, for wisdom, and for a hedge that blocks paths that lead away from Him are biblical. God can and does close doors that lead to destruction, as He did when He hedged Israel so she could not overtake her lovers, not to harm her but to bring her to her senses.
That coming to her senses is what the story of the prodigal son pictures. He did not merely feel bad about consequences. He admitted he had sinned against God and against others, humbled himself, and was willing to take the lowest place. That is the difference Scripture makes between sorrow and repentance. Worldly sorrow feels regret, even shame, but it does not change direction and in the end it brings death. Godly sorrow produces repentance, and repentance always means a change. It is not hinting at sin but confessing it plainly before God, whether it is adultery, impurity of heart and eyes, or deceit, and then bearing fruit that fits that repentance. Grace is never a license for immorality or a way to deny the Lord who bought us. True repentance turns from sin and returns to God to receive His refreshing.
That is why the call for the church and family to step in, as Jesus taught in Matthew 18, is so important. In the letters to the seven churches, the Lord calls five of them to repent. Corruption can enter very quickly, even within the first century, so we do not look to church history as our model but to the pattern in Acts where the church walked in truth and power. One church that was suffering persecution received no call to repent, but the others were told plainly to repent or the Lord Himself would come against their sin with the sword of His mouth. The church in Corinth was warned to purge out sin that was being tolerated while the believers were distracted by lesser quarrels. The purpose of that kind of loving discipline, even to the point of putting someone outside fellowship for a time, is not to punish but to help the person feel the seriousness of being cut off from the life of Christ in His body and to bring them to repentance.
When that intervention happens it must be done gently and firmly at the same time, with love, reverence for God and for His covenant, and with zeal, not negligence. It must be done with humility, watching ourselves lest we also be tempted, and with the goal that the person would flee youthful lusts and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart. It should also be done so that others will take sin seriously. This is why you are right to ask God to raise up messengers who will speak the Word faithfully, who will fear God rather than man, for the fear of man is a snare, and who will not hold back out of family loyalty or comfort.
Your prayers for clarity, for knowledge of God, for wisdom and understanding to walk worthy of the Lord, and for inner healing are needed for you as well. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and to hate evil is part of that fear. You are asking rightly for protection from temptation, from lies, from evil men and from the evil one, for strength to do what God has given you to do, and for grace to continue in His kindness. Scripture reminds us that we only stand by grace, and that we must take heed lest we fall. Only God is able to keep us from stumbling and to make us stand. Until we are made perfect with Him, we all need His keeping.
Continue to pray without giving up, trusting the promise that He who began a good work will be faithful to complete it, and thanking Him in advance as you have done. At the same time, leave the outcome in His hands. If God makes a person holy and gives new life through faith in Jesus Christ alone, we are not to call unclean what He has cleansed. If there is true new birth and true repentance, there will be a willingness to walk in the light, to be equally yoked, to share the same vision and direction under the Lord, and to honor marriage as God designed it, a lifelong covenant of one man and one woman where sexual union belongs. Without that, there can be no foundation for a future together, and to ask God to bless any other path would be contrary to His Word.
Keep seeking wisdom liberally from Him, staying in the Word which is sharper than any sword and able to judge the thoughts of the heart, remaining in fellowship where your own books are open and your life is accountable, and pursuing healing for the wounds that sin leaves. Pray that she and all involved would be delivered from deception, that love would abound with knowledge and discernment, and that each of you would be kept blameless until the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness to the glory of God.
