Silas
Beloved of All
Your prayer for unity and love in your family is beautiful and it reflects the very heart of God. He hears this desire and He delights to answer it, because God is love and all true love comes from Him.
The love that will truly bind your family together is more than natural family affection and more than mere emotion. Natural affection is real and precious, and emotional love is important in a home, but the love Scripture calls us to is deeper still. It is a giving, selfless love, the divine love that God has poured out toward us. Hollywood often presents love as a feeling or a physical attraction that is centered on self, but that is not the love that sustains a family. The love that sustains is the love that gives, as God so loved the world that He gave His Son. Everyone who knows God and is born of His Spirit learns this kind of love, and when we dwell in this love, God dwells in us and His love is made complete in us.
That is why forgiveness in the family must be measured by how God has forgiven us. We are called to love as Christ loved us and to forgive as Christ forgave us. That is a high calling, far beyond our own strength, but it is possible because He first loved us. When we come to understand how much we have been loved and forgiven, without cause and without price, something answers within us. His love cannot be bought and it cannot be quenched, it simply flows to us as a gift, and as we receive it we are able to give it to one another. In your home this will look like choosing humility over pride, patience over irritation, and kindness over harshness. These are not just good ideas, they are the fruit of the Holy Spirit at work in a life that is abiding in Christ.
Unity in a family is like the unity God describes in marriage, where two become one. It is not that differences disappear, but that love creates a deeper oneness that holds you together. That unity is built as each person stops living to please self and instead walks in consideration for the other, bearing with one another in love. God Himself is the God of patience and comfort, and He will give you His patience as you wait on Him and trust Him together.
I pray that the Lord will strengthen your faith and draw each of you closer to Himself, for as you each draw closer to Him you will draw closer to one another. May He fill your home with His presence, teach you to walk in His love as Christ loved you and gave Himself for you, and help you to forgive freely as you have been forgiven. May His love dwell in you richly and be perfected among you, so that your family reflects His grace in all you do.
Father, thank You for Your uncaused, unquenchable love toward us through Jesus Christ. Pour that love anew into this family. Help them to abide in You, to walk in humility, patience and kindness, and to forgive one another from the heart. Knit them together in the unity that comes from Your Spirit and deepen their relationship with You each day. In the name of Jesus, Amen.
The love that will truly bind your family together is more than natural family affection and more than mere emotion. Natural affection is real and precious, and emotional love is important in a home, but the love Scripture calls us to is deeper still. It is a giving, selfless love, the divine love that God has poured out toward us. Hollywood often presents love as a feeling or a physical attraction that is centered on self, but that is not the love that sustains a family. The love that sustains is the love that gives, as God so loved the world that He gave His Son. Everyone who knows God and is born of His Spirit learns this kind of love, and when we dwell in this love, God dwells in us and His love is made complete in us.
That is why forgiveness in the family must be measured by how God has forgiven us. We are called to love as Christ loved us and to forgive as Christ forgave us. That is a high calling, far beyond our own strength, but it is possible because He first loved us. When we come to understand how much we have been loved and forgiven, without cause and without price, something answers within us. His love cannot be bought and it cannot be quenched, it simply flows to us as a gift, and as we receive it we are able to give it to one another. In your home this will look like choosing humility over pride, patience over irritation, and kindness over harshness. These are not just good ideas, they are the fruit of the Holy Spirit at work in a life that is abiding in Christ.
Unity in a family is like the unity God describes in marriage, where two become one. It is not that differences disappear, but that love creates a deeper oneness that holds you together. That unity is built as each person stops living to please self and instead walks in consideration for the other, bearing with one another in love. God Himself is the God of patience and comfort, and He will give you His patience as you wait on Him and trust Him together.
I pray that the Lord will strengthen your faith and draw each of you closer to Himself, for as you each draw closer to Him you will draw closer to one another. May He fill your home with His presence, teach you to walk in His love as Christ loved you and gave Himself for you, and help you to forgive freely as you have been forgiven. May His love dwell in you richly and be perfected among you, so that your family reflects His grace in all you do.
Father, thank You for Your uncaused, unquenchable love toward us through Jesus Christ. Pour that love anew into this family. Help them to abide in You, to walk in humility, patience and kindness, and to forgive one another from the heart. Knit them together in the unity that comes from Your Spirit and deepen their relationship with You each day. In the name of Jesus, Amen.
