Silas
Beloved of All
Your prayer for fellowship, joy, and peace in your family is heard, and the desires you bring before the Lord are good ones. You have asked for the kind of fellowship that Scripture describes, for laughter and a cheerful heart, for your son to be taught the Word, for mutual honor, and for protection from evil and deception. These are things God cares about deeply.
The foundation for all true fellowship is the relationship between the Father and the Son. No one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son reveals Him, and no one truly knows the Son except the Father. Jesus said that all should honor the Son just as they honor the Father, and that He and the Father are one. That perfect fellowship between Father and Son is what we are invited into. As John writes, our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ. When that vertical fellowship is real, it becomes the source for every other healthy relationship. In the upper room and in His prayer to the Father, Jesus spoke of coming from the Father into the world and returning to the Father, and He prayed that those the Father had given Him would be kept by the Father's name and be one even as He and the Father are one. To pray in Jesus name is to come directly to the Father through the Son, and whatever belongs to the Father belongs to the Son.
You mentioned the oil of gladness and Jesus rejoicing in the Holy Spirit. Scripture says the Father anointed the Son with the oil of gladness above all others because He loved righteousness and hated evil, and that Jesus rejoiced greatly in the Holy Spirit. From His fullness we receive grace and blessing. A joyful heart is good medicine, and God does intend for His people to know cheerfulness and even laughter as a gift, as Sarah knew when God gave her joy. Ask the Lord to fill your home with that kind of holy joy, not just as an emotion but as fruit of walking in truth and in love.
Your longing for a consistent time with your son and for hearts to be turned toward one another reflects the promise that God turns the hearts of fathers to children and children to fathers. God has appointed times and boundaries for our lives, and there is a time for every purpose under heaven. Continue to ask the Father, whose hand is like channels of water that He directs as He wills, to open the right doors for regular fellowship with your son. As you have that time, follow the pattern Scripture gives for parents. Talk of the Word when you sit in your house and when you walk along the way, bring him up in the training and instruction of the Lord, and let him see in you the faith that lives by the Son of God who loved us and gave Himself for us. Teach him that the Scriptures are able to make him wise for salvation through faith in Christ. And as you teach honor, remember the call for children to honor their parents and for parents not to provoke their children, but to nurture them with respect and love.
You also prayed for peace among the three of you, first through reconciliation with God and then, if God wills, through the peace spoken of in 1 Corinthians 7. The best ground for peace in a home is peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, which then gives us hope even in trials and shapes us through those trials. Pursue peace and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord, and keep a pure heart that seeks to see God. God does call us to peace, and at the same time He calls marriage to be a lifelong covenant of one man and one woman. Keep seeking the wisdom you asked for in James and Colossians and Philippians, wisdom to discern what is best and to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord. The Lord's discipline, though painful for a time, is given in love to train us, and He uses both His Word and His correction to teach us. Trust His providential care even when you cannot see His hand. As in the story of Esther, God overrules the plans of men and the schemes of the enemy to protect His people, even when His name is not openly mentioned. He is able to make a way for deliverance and to speak peace to His people.
You asked for deliverance from deception, sin, evil influences, and the evil one, and for keeping from the evil one. That is exactly how Jesus prayed for His own. He did not pray that we would be taken out of the world, but that the Father would keep us from the evil one, and He taught us to pray, deliver us from evil. The Father is faithful and will guard you. Stay in the Word, stay in prayer and worship, and give no place to the flesh, reckoning it crucified with Christ and living now by faith in the Son of God.
Continue in faith and patience so that you may inherit the promises, which are all yes and amen in Christ. God is able to keep what you commit to Him. Bring your requests in the name of Jesus, believing that the Father hears, and thank Him in advance as you wait for His answer.
Father, in the name of Jesus we bring this family before You. Give them fellowship with You and with each other, fill them with Your joy and gladness, and grant them a cheerful heart. Provide a regular, protected time for this father and son to be together, turn their hearts toward one another, and help this father to train his son faithfully in Your Word. Grant to each of them peace with You through faith in Christ, a pure heart, and a love for holiness. Grant wisdom for every decision regarding this marriage, and keep them from deception, temptation, and every evil influence. Keep them from the evil one as Jesus prayed. Direct hearts as You direct water, and let Your will be done in this home. We ask this in Jesus name, trusting Your promises. Amen.
The foundation for all true fellowship is the relationship between the Father and the Son. No one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son reveals Him, and no one truly knows the Son except the Father. Jesus said that all should honor the Son just as they honor the Father, and that He and the Father are one. That perfect fellowship between Father and Son is what we are invited into. As John writes, our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ. When that vertical fellowship is real, it becomes the source for every other healthy relationship. In the upper room and in His prayer to the Father, Jesus spoke of coming from the Father into the world and returning to the Father, and He prayed that those the Father had given Him would be kept by the Father's name and be one even as He and the Father are one. To pray in Jesus name is to come directly to the Father through the Son, and whatever belongs to the Father belongs to the Son.
You mentioned the oil of gladness and Jesus rejoicing in the Holy Spirit. Scripture says the Father anointed the Son with the oil of gladness above all others because He loved righteousness and hated evil, and that Jesus rejoiced greatly in the Holy Spirit. From His fullness we receive grace and blessing. A joyful heart is good medicine, and God does intend for His people to know cheerfulness and even laughter as a gift, as Sarah knew when God gave her joy. Ask the Lord to fill your home with that kind of holy joy, not just as an emotion but as fruit of walking in truth and in love.
Your longing for a consistent time with your son and for hearts to be turned toward one another reflects the promise that God turns the hearts of fathers to children and children to fathers. God has appointed times and boundaries for our lives, and there is a time for every purpose under heaven. Continue to ask the Father, whose hand is like channels of water that He directs as He wills, to open the right doors for regular fellowship with your son. As you have that time, follow the pattern Scripture gives for parents. Talk of the Word when you sit in your house and when you walk along the way, bring him up in the training and instruction of the Lord, and let him see in you the faith that lives by the Son of God who loved us and gave Himself for us. Teach him that the Scriptures are able to make him wise for salvation through faith in Christ. And as you teach honor, remember the call for children to honor their parents and for parents not to provoke their children, but to nurture them with respect and love.
You also prayed for peace among the three of you, first through reconciliation with God and then, if God wills, through the peace spoken of in 1 Corinthians 7. The best ground for peace in a home is peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, which then gives us hope even in trials and shapes us through those trials. Pursue peace and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord, and keep a pure heart that seeks to see God. God does call us to peace, and at the same time He calls marriage to be a lifelong covenant of one man and one woman. Keep seeking the wisdom you asked for in James and Colossians and Philippians, wisdom to discern what is best and to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord. The Lord's discipline, though painful for a time, is given in love to train us, and He uses both His Word and His correction to teach us. Trust His providential care even when you cannot see His hand. As in the story of Esther, God overrules the plans of men and the schemes of the enemy to protect His people, even when His name is not openly mentioned. He is able to make a way for deliverance and to speak peace to His people.
You asked for deliverance from deception, sin, evil influences, and the evil one, and for keeping from the evil one. That is exactly how Jesus prayed for His own. He did not pray that we would be taken out of the world, but that the Father would keep us from the evil one, and He taught us to pray, deliver us from evil. The Father is faithful and will guard you. Stay in the Word, stay in prayer and worship, and give no place to the flesh, reckoning it crucified with Christ and living now by faith in the Son of God.
Continue in faith and patience so that you may inherit the promises, which are all yes and amen in Christ. God is able to keep what you commit to Him. Bring your requests in the name of Jesus, believing that the Father hears, and thank Him in advance as you wait for His answer.
Father, in the name of Jesus we bring this family before You. Give them fellowship with You and with each other, fill them with Your joy and gladness, and grant them a cheerful heart. Provide a regular, protected time for this father and son to be together, turn their hearts toward one another, and help this father to train his son faithfully in Your Word. Grant to each of them peace with You through faith in Christ, a pure heart, and a love for holiness. Grant wisdom for every decision regarding this marriage, and keep them from deception, temptation, and every evil influence. Keep them from the evil one as Jesus prayed. Direct hearts as You direct water, and let Your will be done in this home. We ask this in Jesus name, trusting Your promises. Amen.
