Silas
Beloved of All
Your longing for real fellowship, joyful connection, and a home marked by laughter and peace is a good and godly desire, and God hears it. The fellowship you mention in 1 John is not just human closeness but first fellowship with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ. Jesus taught that no one truly knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son reveals Him, and that to honor the Son is to honor the Father, for He and the Father are one. That is the foundation for every other relationship. Peace with God must come first, as you noted from Romans 5, and from that peace with God comes the possibility of peace with one another.
Scripture shows that Jesus is the only begotten Son, full of grace and truth, while we who believe are brought into the family by adoption. 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. Understanding that difference helps us grasp the love you are praying your family will grasp. It is not a love we earn, but a love that adopts us when we were far off, and it is from His fullness that we receive grace, blessing, and the oil of gladness. The psalm says the Father anointed the Son with the oil of gladness above all others because He loved righteousness and hated evil, and the Gospels show Jesus rejoicing greatly in the Holy Spirit. A cheerful heart is indeed good medicine, and that holy joy is part of what you are asking God to pour out on you and your son.
Your prayer for a set time to see your son by video, for hearts to be turned toward one another, and for the Lord to guide decisions like water in His hand reflects what Malachi promised and what Proverbs teaches about the king's heart. God is sovereign over times and boundaries, and He is also a Father who watches the road. Jesus told of a younger son who demanded his share of the inheritance, which under the law would have been one third, and left for a distant country. When he came to himself he returned saying he was no longer worthy to be called a son and would be content to be a hired servant. While he was still a great way off, his father saw him, had compassion, ran to him, embraced him, and called for the best robe, a ring for his hand, and shoes for his feet. In that culture slaves went barefoot, only sons wore shoes, so the father was declaring that the returning child was still a son, not a servant. He also told the older son, who had remained, that all that he had was his, since the younger had taken his portion. The point is the heart of the Father, always ready to restore, to clothe, to put a son back in the place of a son, and to make whole what sin has torn. That same restoring work is what God does today. Years of sin can damage a life, a body, a family, but God restores what the enemy has taken when we turn to Him.
That restoration is tied to how we walk. You mentioned training in the Scriptures, mutual respect and honor, and pursuing peace and holiness without which no one will see the Lord, and a pure heart that will see God. Those are not separate ideals. Teaching children the Word as you walk along the way, bringing them up in the instruction of the Lord, and honoring father and mother are part of the same life of obedience. Jesus said He did nothing on His own but only what He saw the Father do, and that His works were the Father's works, bearing witness to who He is. In the same way, our homes bear witness when we live in harmony with the Father's will, praying, worshiping, and singing with thankful hearts.
You have also learned through discipline, and Scripture says the Lord disciplines those He loves for our good. You are asking for wisdom, and God promises to give wisdom generously when we ask, that we might walk with discernment and love that abounds in knowledge. You are asking for protection from deception, from evil influences and evil people, from temptation and the evil one. Jesus prayed for His own, not that the Father would take them out of the world, but that He would keep them from the evil one, and He taught us to pray, deliver us from evil. It is right to ask for that covering for yourself, for your son, and for his mother, and to ask that she would be delivered from anything that blinds her and brought into the light of salvation through Christ alone.
For your situation with the three of you, pray first that each of you would have peace with God through faith in Jesus, for that is the only true source of lasting peace between people. God calls His people to pursue peace and reconciliation and to honor the lifelong covenant of marriage between one man and one woman, with intimacy and shared life belonging within that covenant. Where there is division, His desire is unity, as Jesus prayed that His people would be one as He and the Father are one, and divisions grieve His heart. At the same time Scripture speaks of cases where an unbelieving spouse will not remain, and God has called us to peace. Seek the Lord's wisdom step by step for how to walk faithfully, whether toward restoration or toward a peace that comes through a difficult separation, always holding fast to holiness, purity, and love that does not compromise truth.
Continue to ask in Jesus' name, trusting that the promises of God are yes and amen in Him, and that faith and patience inherit those promises. Bring your request for regular time with your son before the Lord who turns hearts, who appoints times, and who is able to open doors no man can shut. Keep praying, keep giving thanks in advance as you trust Him, and keep asking Him to fill your home, however it looks in this season, with His Word, His joy, and His protection.
Father, in the name of Jesus, I bring this father and his son and the mother of his child before You. Let each of them come to know the Son and through the Son to know You, for to honor the Son is to honor You. Adopt them into Your family by grace, fill them with Your Spirit crying Abba, Father, and let them know the love that adopts and restores. Pour out the joy and gladness that belongs to Your Son, give a cheerful heart and a spirit that rejoices in You, and let Your fullness be their supply. Turn hearts toward one another, provide faithful and regular time for this father and son to be together, train the boy in Your Word, build mutual honor and respect, and guard them all from deception, sin, and the evil one. Grant wisdom, grant faith and patience to inherit Your promises, and let Your will be done in this family for Your glory. Amen.
Scripture shows that Jesus is the only begotten Son, full of grace and truth, while we who believe are brought into the family by adoption. 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. Understanding that difference helps us grasp the love you are praying your family will grasp. It is not a love we earn, but a love that adopts us when we were far off, and it is from His fullness that we receive grace, blessing, and the oil of gladness. The psalm says the Father anointed the Son with the oil of gladness above all others because He loved righteousness and hated evil, and the Gospels show Jesus rejoicing greatly in the Holy Spirit. A cheerful heart is indeed good medicine, and that holy joy is part of what you are asking God to pour out on you and your son.
Your prayer for a set time to see your son by video, for hearts to be turned toward one another, and for the Lord to guide decisions like water in His hand reflects what Malachi promised and what Proverbs teaches about the king's heart. God is sovereign over times and boundaries, and He is also a Father who watches the road. Jesus told of a younger son who demanded his share of the inheritance, which under the law would have been one third, and left for a distant country. When he came to himself he returned saying he was no longer worthy to be called a son and would be content to be a hired servant. While he was still a great way off, his father saw him, had compassion, ran to him, embraced him, and called for the best robe, a ring for his hand, and shoes for his feet. In that culture slaves went barefoot, only sons wore shoes, so the father was declaring that the returning child was still a son, not a servant. He also told the older son, who had remained, that all that he had was his, since the younger had taken his portion. The point is the heart of the Father, always ready to restore, to clothe, to put a son back in the place of a son, and to make whole what sin has torn. That same restoring work is what God does today. Years of sin can damage a life, a body, a family, but God restores what the enemy has taken when we turn to Him.
That restoration is tied to how we walk. You mentioned training in the Scriptures, mutual respect and honor, and pursuing peace and holiness without which no one will see the Lord, and a pure heart that will see God. Those are not separate ideals. Teaching children the Word as you walk along the way, bringing them up in the instruction of the Lord, and honoring father and mother are part of the same life of obedience. Jesus said He did nothing on His own but only what He saw the Father do, and that His works were the Father's works, bearing witness to who He is. In the same way, our homes bear witness when we live in harmony with the Father's will, praying, worshiping, and singing with thankful hearts.
You have also learned through discipline, and Scripture says the Lord disciplines those He loves for our good. You are asking for wisdom, and God promises to give wisdom generously when we ask, that we might walk with discernment and love that abounds in knowledge. You are asking for protection from deception, from evil influences and evil people, from temptation and the evil one. Jesus prayed for His own, not that the Father would take them out of the world, but that He would keep them from the evil one, and He taught us to pray, deliver us from evil. It is right to ask for that covering for yourself, for your son, and for his mother, and to ask that she would be delivered from anything that blinds her and brought into the light of salvation through Christ alone.
For your situation with the three of you, pray first that each of you would have peace with God through faith in Jesus, for that is the only true source of lasting peace between people. God calls His people to pursue peace and reconciliation and to honor the lifelong covenant of marriage between one man and one woman, with intimacy and shared life belonging within that covenant. Where there is division, His desire is unity, as Jesus prayed that His people would be one as He and the Father are one, and divisions grieve His heart. At the same time Scripture speaks of cases where an unbelieving spouse will not remain, and God has called us to peace. Seek the Lord's wisdom step by step for how to walk faithfully, whether toward restoration or toward a peace that comes through a difficult separation, always holding fast to holiness, purity, and love that does not compromise truth.
Continue to ask in Jesus' name, trusting that the promises of God are yes and amen in Him, and that faith and patience inherit those promises. Bring your request for regular time with your son before the Lord who turns hearts, who appoints times, and who is able to open doors no man can shut. Keep praying, keep giving thanks in advance as you trust Him, and keep asking Him to fill your home, however it looks in this season, with His Word, His joy, and His protection.
Father, in the name of Jesus, I bring this father and his son and the mother of his child before You. Let each of them come to know the Son and through the Son to know You, for to honor the Son is to honor You. Adopt them into Your family by grace, fill them with Your Spirit crying Abba, Father, and let them know the love that adopts and restores. Pour out the joy and gladness that belongs to Your Son, give a cheerful heart and a spirit that rejoices in You, and let Your fullness be their supply. Turn hearts toward one another, provide faithful and regular time for this father and son to be together, train the boy in Your Word, build mutual honor and respect, and guard them all from deception, sin, and the evil one. Grant wisdom, grant faith and patience to inherit Your promises, and let Your will be done in this family for Your glory. Amen.
