Silas
Beloved of All
Your heartfelt prayer before the throne of grace has been heard, and I join you in lifting your family to our Father who hears the cries of His children. The heaviness you feel over the division, exhaustion and financial strain in your home is real, and the Lord sees it all. He has adopted us into His own family through Jesus Christ, and He invites us to come to Him not in a distant ritual but as a Father, in a close and loving relationship. That intimate fellowship with Him is the foundation for every other relationship.
Scripture teaches that our relationship with God is primary. When that relationship is right, the other relationships in our lives begin to find their proper balance, and when it is broken, we can trace much of our struggle there. The call to return to a first love for the Lord is the place to begin for you and for your daughters and your son. As you abide in Him, His peace which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds, and His victory on the cross, where He disarmed every power of darkness, stands as your assurance that no weapon formed against you will finally prosper, for greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world.
You are right to be concerned about your older daughter living together outside of marriage. That arrangement is not marriage in God's sight. Marriage is a lifelong covenant of one man and one woman, and when that design is set aside, the Scriptures warn that it opens the door to bondage, deception, jealousy and rivalry. We see throughout the Bible that when God's pattern for marriage is departed from, strife and sorrow follow. Living together in this way also dishonors the Lord and harms the very person involved, as you have seen in her exhaustion, financial hardship and loss of confidence. Our prayer is not that God would bless that arrangement, but that He would open her eyes to the truth of His Word, remove stubbornness and pride and shame, and give her a hunger for righteousness. Like the call that came to Jacob to return to the land of his fathers and to his family with the promise I will be with you, we pray that your daughter would hear the Lord drawing her back to safety, stability and wisdom, away from an environment that harms even her health, and into the place where she can rebuild her strength and her future. We pray she would see that she belongs to the Lord first, that this young man is not her husband and not her responsibility to carry, and that she would be given freedom and joy in letting go of that false burden.
I also pray for your younger daughter, that the Lord would protect her heart from being swayed by a wrong example. There is a beautiful bond that God intends between family members, like the loyal love seen between Ruth and Naomi, where commitment and honor strengthen the family rather than divide it. Pray that she will be surrounded by godly friendships and mentors who encourage her in the Lord, that she will never come to see living together outside of marriage as an acceptable path, and that she will honor you as her parent, which is the first commandment with promise concerning our relationships with one another. May the Lord guard the sweet bond between the siblings and keep her from ungratefulness or hatred toward her brother.
For your son, know that he is not a burden but a precious blessing, fully loved and valued by God and by your family. The Lord sees how a polluted and mocking influence can wound a vulnerable heart, and it is hard to live near such an influence and not be touched by it. We ask the Father to surround your son with love, acceptance and protection, to silence every hurtful word and curse spoken over him, to remove any friendship that looks down on him and to give him instead those who will uplift and cherish him, strengthening his fellowship with you, his sisters and your extended family.
We pray for the complete restoration of your home as a sanctuary of love, unity and peace. We ask the Lord to frustrate every plan to isolate and divide your family and to turn hearts back to one another, to heal what has been wounded, to restore communication, respect and gratefulness, and to provide for your financial needs according to His riches so that you may continue to be a blessing to others. We pray for godly husbands in the Lord's time for your daughters, men who will love them as Christ loves the church and honor the covenant of marriage, and we ask that the Lord would correct and restrain the disruptive influence of this young man and his mother, leading each to take responsibility for their own lives rather than placing undue burdens on your daughter.
The Lord fights for you. Continue to plead the blood of Jesus over your household, to stand in His finished victory, and to seek that close, loving fellowship with your heavenly Father each day. He is able to do what is impossible for us, to break every chain, to guard your family, and to bring your daughter home with no regret but with a sense of freedom, safety and satisfaction in Him.
Scripture teaches that our relationship with God is primary. When that relationship is right, the other relationships in our lives begin to find their proper balance, and when it is broken, we can trace much of our struggle there. The call to return to a first love for the Lord is the place to begin for you and for your daughters and your son. As you abide in Him, His peace which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds, and His victory on the cross, where He disarmed every power of darkness, stands as your assurance that no weapon formed against you will finally prosper, for greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world.
You are right to be concerned about your older daughter living together outside of marriage. That arrangement is not marriage in God's sight. Marriage is a lifelong covenant of one man and one woman, and when that design is set aside, the Scriptures warn that it opens the door to bondage, deception, jealousy and rivalry. We see throughout the Bible that when God's pattern for marriage is departed from, strife and sorrow follow. Living together in this way also dishonors the Lord and harms the very person involved, as you have seen in her exhaustion, financial hardship and loss of confidence. Our prayer is not that God would bless that arrangement, but that He would open her eyes to the truth of His Word, remove stubbornness and pride and shame, and give her a hunger for righteousness. Like the call that came to Jacob to return to the land of his fathers and to his family with the promise I will be with you, we pray that your daughter would hear the Lord drawing her back to safety, stability and wisdom, away from an environment that harms even her health, and into the place where she can rebuild her strength and her future. We pray she would see that she belongs to the Lord first, that this young man is not her husband and not her responsibility to carry, and that she would be given freedom and joy in letting go of that false burden.
I also pray for your younger daughter, that the Lord would protect her heart from being swayed by a wrong example. There is a beautiful bond that God intends between family members, like the loyal love seen between Ruth and Naomi, where commitment and honor strengthen the family rather than divide it. Pray that she will be surrounded by godly friendships and mentors who encourage her in the Lord, that she will never come to see living together outside of marriage as an acceptable path, and that she will honor you as her parent, which is the first commandment with promise concerning our relationships with one another. May the Lord guard the sweet bond between the siblings and keep her from ungratefulness or hatred toward her brother.
For your son, know that he is not a burden but a precious blessing, fully loved and valued by God and by your family. The Lord sees how a polluted and mocking influence can wound a vulnerable heart, and it is hard to live near such an influence and not be touched by it. We ask the Father to surround your son with love, acceptance and protection, to silence every hurtful word and curse spoken over him, to remove any friendship that looks down on him and to give him instead those who will uplift and cherish him, strengthening his fellowship with you, his sisters and your extended family.
We pray for the complete restoration of your home as a sanctuary of love, unity and peace. We ask the Lord to frustrate every plan to isolate and divide your family and to turn hearts back to one another, to heal what has been wounded, to restore communication, respect and gratefulness, and to provide for your financial needs according to His riches so that you may continue to be a blessing to others. We pray for godly husbands in the Lord's time for your daughters, men who will love them as Christ loves the church and honor the covenant of marriage, and we ask that the Lord would correct and restrain the disruptive influence of this young man and his mother, leading each to take responsibility for their own lives rather than placing undue burdens on your daughter.
The Lord fights for you. Continue to plead the blood of Jesus over your household, to stand in His finished victory, and to seek that close, loving fellowship with your heavenly Father each day. He is able to do what is impossible for us, to break every chain, to guard your family, and to bring your daughter home with no regret but with a sense of freedom, safety and satisfaction in Him.
