Silas
Beloved of All
Your heart for fellowship, joy, and peace in your family is a good and godly desire, and it is right to bring it to the Father in the name of Jesus.
True fellowship begins with God Himself. Scripture teaches that our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son, and that no one truly knows the Father except through the Son and no one knows the Son except the Father reveals Him. Jesus said that all should honor the Son just as they honor the Father, and that He and the Father are one. When you have that fellowship through faith in Christ, you are brought into the family of God. Jesus is the only begotten Son, full of grace and truth, the one whom the Father loves and anointed with the oil of gladness above all others. We are not begotten as He is, we are adopted. God sent His Son, born under the law, to redeem those under the law so that we might receive adoption as sons, and because we are sons He has sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts crying Abba, Father. It is a wonderful thing to be an adopted child of God, born again by His Spirit, with all the privileges of an heir, even while we wait for the full inheritance.
That understanding helps shape how you love your son and pray for your family. Like a child who is heir to a great estate but is still under guardians and tutors until the time appointed by his father, your son is in a season of growth and training. God has appointed times and boundaries for our lives, and He is sovereign over the heart of every person, turning it like channels of water as He wills. It is right to ask Him to turn hearts toward one another as promised when He said He would turn the hearts of fathers to children and children to fathers, and to ask for wisdom as James says to ask generously, for discernment to know how to pursue peace.
You asked for laughter and joy, for a cheerful heart which is like good medicine, and for the gladness that belongs to Christ. Jesus Himself rejoiced greatly in the Holy Spirit, and from His fullness we receive grace. That joy is not opposed to holiness. You are right to desire both peace and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord, and a purity of heart that desires to see God. Part of that holiness is the faithful training of a child, teaching the Scriptures which are able to make wise for salvation, speaking of them diligently at home and along the way, bringing him up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. And part of it is mutual honor and respect in the home, where children honor parents and parents do not provoke children, but all seek the Lord together in prayer, worship and the Word.
In your prayers for your wife and for protection, continue to seek the Lord for what is righteous. God loves righteousness and hates evil, and His discipline, though painful, is the discipline of a Father who loves His children and trains them for good. Ask Him to deliver all of you from deception, from evil influences and from temptation, and to keep you from the evil one, as Jesus prayed for His own. Pray for her to come to true peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, for that is the only foundation for lasting peace between people. The peace that comes from being justified by faith and learning to rejoice even in trials because of the hope of God's love poured out by the Holy Spirit is the peace that can sustain a family.
At the same time, Scripture calls us to pursue peace with all people as far as it depends on us, and it acknowledges that there are situations where an unbelieving spouse may choose to leave, and the believer is then called to peace. Do not pursue that outcome hastily, but continue to pray for restoration and for a proper understanding of adoption and of God's love, while also trusting God's wisdom to show you how to walk faithfully whether God grants reconciliation or calls you to live at peace in a difficult separation. In either case you are called to remain faithful, pure, and prayerful.
Keep asking in Jesus name, thanking God in faith, and waiting with patience. The promises of God are yes and amen in Christ, and they are inherited through faith and patience. God is faithful to restore what has been broken. As with the father who saw his returning son while he was still a long way off and ran to him with compassion, putting the best robe on him and a ring on his hand and shoes on his feet as a son in the house and not a servant, so God delights to restore and to put lives back together. Trust Him to do His restoring work in you, in your son, and as He wills, in your whole household, and keep your hope anchored in Christ alone.
True fellowship begins with God Himself. Scripture teaches that our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son, and that no one truly knows the Father except through the Son and no one knows the Son except the Father reveals Him. Jesus said that all should honor the Son just as they honor the Father, and that He and the Father are one. When you have that fellowship through faith in Christ, you are brought into the family of God. Jesus is the only begotten Son, full of grace and truth, the one whom the Father loves and anointed with the oil of gladness above all others. We are not begotten as He is, we are adopted. God sent His Son, born under the law, to redeem those under the law so that we might receive adoption as sons, and because we are sons He has sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts crying Abba, Father. It is a wonderful thing to be an adopted child of God, born again by His Spirit, with all the privileges of an heir, even while we wait for the full inheritance.
That understanding helps shape how you love your son and pray for your family. Like a child who is heir to a great estate but is still under guardians and tutors until the time appointed by his father, your son is in a season of growth and training. God has appointed times and boundaries for our lives, and He is sovereign over the heart of every person, turning it like channels of water as He wills. It is right to ask Him to turn hearts toward one another as promised when He said He would turn the hearts of fathers to children and children to fathers, and to ask for wisdom as James says to ask generously, for discernment to know how to pursue peace.
You asked for laughter and joy, for a cheerful heart which is like good medicine, and for the gladness that belongs to Christ. Jesus Himself rejoiced greatly in the Holy Spirit, and from His fullness we receive grace. That joy is not opposed to holiness. You are right to desire both peace and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord, and a purity of heart that desires to see God. Part of that holiness is the faithful training of a child, teaching the Scriptures which are able to make wise for salvation, speaking of them diligently at home and along the way, bringing him up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. And part of it is mutual honor and respect in the home, where children honor parents and parents do not provoke children, but all seek the Lord together in prayer, worship and the Word.
In your prayers for your wife and for protection, continue to seek the Lord for what is righteous. God loves righteousness and hates evil, and His discipline, though painful, is the discipline of a Father who loves His children and trains them for good. Ask Him to deliver all of you from deception, from evil influences and from temptation, and to keep you from the evil one, as Jesus prayed for His own. Pray for her to come to true peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, for that is the only foundation for lasting peace between people. The peace that comes from being justified by faith and learning to rejoice even in trials because of the hope of God's love poured out by the Holy Spirit is the peace that can sustain a family.
At the same time, Scripture calls us to pursue peace with all people as far as it depends on us, and it acknowledges that there are situations where an unbelieving spouse may choose to leave, and the believer is then called to peace. Do not pursue that outcome hastily, but continue to pray for restoration and for a proper understanding of adoption and of God's love, while also trusting God's wisdom to show you how to walk faithfully whether God grants reconciliation or calls you to live at peace in a difficult separation. In either case you are called to remain faithful, pure, and prayerful.
Keep asking in Jesus name, thanking God in faith, and waiting with patience. The promises of God are yes and amen in Christ, and they are inherited through faith and patience. God is faithful to restore what has been broken. As with the father who saw his returning son while he was still a long way off and ran to him with compassion, putting the best robe on him and a ring on his hand and shoes on his feet as a son in the house and not a servant, so God delights to restore and to put lives back together. Trust Him to do His restoring work in you, in your son, and as He wills, in your whole household, and keep your hope anchored in Christ alone.
