Silas
Beloved of All
Your prayer for your family reflects the very heart of God for His people. To ask for unity, for love that binds you together, for humility and patience and kindness, is to ask for what He most desires to give.
Scripture teaches that God is love in His very essence, and that love comes from Him. When His Spirit is at work in us, the evidence will be love, a genuine love for one another. Everyone who loves in this way shows that he is born of God and knows God, because to know God is to begin to love as He loves.
The love the Bible calls us to is not the shallow sentiment that is often called love in our culture, nor is it only the natural affection we have for family and friends. That family affection is real and precious, but the love God pours into our hearts is deeper. It is a giving, self sacrificing love, the kind that seeks the good of the other rather than its own gratification. It is the love with which God loved us when we had nothing to offer Him, a love we did not earn and cannot purchase, a love that flows freely from Him and cannot be quenched.
That is why Scripture continually points us to Christ as our example. We are to love as He loved us and to forgive as He forgave us. The measure of our forgiveness is His forgiveness toward us. Jesus said to love one another even as He has loved us, which is a high calling, but it is possible because we love in response to His love. We love Him because He first loved us, and as we come to understand how fully we have been loved and forgiven, our hearts respond with love for Him and for one another.
When that love dwells in a home, God dwells there and His love is made complete among you. To dwell in love is to dwell in God and to have God dwell in you. This love is patient and kind, it suffers long, it does not insist on its own way. It is superior to all other strengths because it embraces faith and hope within it. It believes and hopes and endures for the good of others.
Unity in a family is created and preserved by this kind of love. It does not live to please itself but walks in consideration for the feelings and needs of others. It chooses not to use its own freedom or preferences in a way that wounds another, but rather bears with one another in humility. That patience reflects the patience of God Himself, who is the God of patience and comfort. As you walk in that love together, forgiving as you have been forgiven and giving of yourselves to one another as Christ gave Himself for us, you reflect Him in all you do.
I join you in praying that the Lord will strengthen your faith and deepen your walk with Him, that He will fill your home with His presence. May you abide in His love, walk in His love, and see His love perfected among you, binding you together in true unity. In Jesus name, may He continue that work in each of you and in your family as a whole.
Scripture teaches that God is love in His very essence, and that love comes from Him. When His Spirit is at work in us, the evidence will be love, a genuine love for one another. Everyone who loves in this way shows that he is born of God and knows God, because to know God is to begin to love as He loves.
The love the Bible calls us to is not the shallow sentiment that is often called love in our culture, nor is it only the natural affection we have for family and friends. That family affection is real and precious, but the love God pours into our hearts is deeper. It is a giving, self sacrificing love, the kind that seeks the good of the other rather than its own gratification. It is the love with which God loved us when we had nothing to offer Him, a love we did not earn and cannot purchase, a love that flows freely from Him and cannot be quenched.
That is why Scripture continually points us to Christ as our example. We are to love as He loved us and to forgive as He forgave us. The measure of our forgiveness is His forgiveness toward us. Jesus said to love one another even as He has loved us, which is a high calling, but it is possible because we love in response to His love. We love Him because He first loved us, and as we come to understand how fully we have been loved and forgiven, our hearts respond with love for Him and for one another.
When that love dwells in a home, God dwells there and His love is made complete among you. To dwell in love is to dwell in God and to have God dwell in you. This love is patient and kind, it suffers long, it does not insist on its own way. It is superior to all other strengths because it embraces faith and hope within it. It believes and hopes and endures for the good of others.
Unity in a family is created and preserved by this kind of love. It does not live to please itself but walks in consideration for the feelings and needs of others. It chooses not to use its own freedom or preferences in a way that wounds another, but rather bears with one another in humility. That patience reflects the patience of God Himself, who is the God of patience and comfort. As you walk in that love together, forgiving as you have been forgiven and giving of yourselves to one another as Christ gave Himself for us, you reflect Him in all you do.
I join you in praying that the Lord will strengthen your faith and deepen your walk with Him, that He will fill your home with His presence. May you abide in His love, walk in His love, and see His love perfected among you, binding you together in true unity. In Jesus name, may He continue that work in each of you and in your family as a whole.
