Silas
Beloved of All
Thank you for opening your heart and sharing so honestly. We are joining you in prayer for your family, and we hear both your love for your daughters and your desire to see God bring freedom, protection, restoration and breakthrough.
We are praying for your younger daughter in her work. May the Lord grant her favor and help her to do her work well, and may He keep her heart grateful, thankful, respectful and gracious in all she does. Work is a gift from God, and when we offer it to Him with thankfulness, He can use it for His purposes.
We are also praying earnestly for your older daughter. What you are describing, the exhaustion, financial pressure, forgetfulness, division, isolation, risk to her jobs, and the sense of spiritual heaviness, are signs that something is deeply out of order. When the foundation of our life with God is not in its right place, all of our other relationships become unbalanced. God is meant to be at the center, the vertical relationship that holds everything else steady. When another person is put in that central place, when a boyfriend or his family is treated as the source of guidance, identity and authority that only God and godly family should have, the horizontal relationships suffer and confusion and chaos follow.
That is why our greatest prayer for her is that she would come into a vital, life changing relationship with Jesus Christ for herself. Salvation is not just agreeing with ideas about God, it is believing into Jesus, entering into a living relationship with Him that transforms the heart and life. Jesus alone saves, and through Him we become daughters and sons of God. Scripture says whoever believes into Him will not perish but have everlasting life. No person can take the role of God, parent or family in her life, and no person should be idolized or obeyed above the Lord. She belongs to Jesus, and when she hears His voice saying you are Mine, she can find the courage to trust Him and trust the family He has given her.
God understands the pull to return home. When Jacob was far from his family, the Lord told him to return to the land of his fathers and to his family with the promise, I will be with you. That promise is still true. The Lord can give your daughter wisdom and courage and the will to step away swiftly and completely from a relationship and a living arrangement that is not His will, and to come back to the place of safety and support He has provided. He is a redeemer who restores what has been taken, our peace, our self worth, our purpose, our fellowship and our freedom, and He can rebuild what has been broken.
We want to affirm gently what you have already discerned. Living together outside of marriage is not marriage. Marriage in Scripture is a lifelong covenant between one man and one woman, and sharing a home and intimacy belong within that covenant. A beautiful courtship that honors God, like the one you see in your younger daughter, reflects His design and brings peace. An arrangement outside of that design, even when it is encouraged by others, does not create a home and does not carry the blessing and protection God intends for marriage. Rudeness, greed, laziness, control, dishonesty and manipulation are not love, and they are not the marks of a shepherd or provider who is ready for marriage. Love does not exploit finances, isolate from family, work colleagues and friends, or demand obedience that belongs to God alone. Your daughter is not being loved in this way, she is being used, and we pray God will flood her mind with supernatural clarity to see this clearly, to see this young man as he truly is and to stop seeking advice from those who guide her to remain in an ungodly pattern.
There is real spiritual opposition in such situations, but Jesus speaks with authority. When He encountered unclean spirits, He rebuked them and commanded them to leave, and they had to obey. He still has all authority to break schemes and plans meant to control and isolate, and to set captives free. The evidence of His true work in a life is repentance, a change of direction and restoration, turning away from what harms and walking back toward Him and toward healthy fellowship.
We also pray that the Lord will heal the hurts within your family. Jesus taught that there is a deep bond among those who follow Him, a family bond in Christ, and He also honors the family He has given us by birth. Your daughter does not need to put her sister down to please another, nor does she need to see you and her siblings through the eyes of those who look with spite or jealousy. May she see herself and her family as God sees them, with love and value, and may unity, respect and fellowship be restored.
So we pray with you: Lord Jesus, have mercy and open her eyes to see. Give her courage and wisdom to walk away and to trust You and her family. Provide for her, protect her and restore everything that has been diminished. Guide her to move back home without regret, and restore her faith, freedom, independence, peace and joy in fellowship with You and with her family. Fill your whole household with the Holy Spirit, with peace, love, favor and healing.
We agree with your declaration from Ephesians 6 that you and your children would be clothed with the full armor of God, the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, feet fitted with the readiness of the gospel of peace, the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God. May the Lord place a hedge of protection around you and your home, keep you close to Himself, and help you all to stay near to Him day by day. Nothing is impossible for Him, and as you continue to pray and speak truth in love, trust that He is working even now to bring clarity and freedom.
We are praying for your younger daughter in her work. May the Lord grant her favor and help her to do her work well, and may He keep her heart grateful, thankful, respectful and gracious in all she does. Work is a gift from God, and when we offer it to Him with thankfulness, He can use it for His purposes.
We are also praying earnestly for your older daughter. What you are describing, the exhaustion, financial pressure, forgetfulness, division, isolation, risk to her jobs, and the sense of spiritual heaviness, are signs that something is deeply out of order. When the foundation of our life with God is not in its right place, all of our other relationships become unbalanced. God is meant to be at the center, the vertical relationship that holds everything else steady. When another person is put in that central place, when a boyfriend or his family is treated as the source of guidance, identity and authority that only God and godly family should have, the horizontal relationships suffer and confusion and chaos follow.
That is why our greatest prayer for her is that she would come into a vital, life changing relationship with Jesus Christ for herself. Salvation is not just agreeing with ideas about God, it is believing into Jesus, entering into a living relationship with Him that transforms the heart and life. Jesus alone saves, and through Him we become daughters and sons of God. Scripture says whoever believes into Him will not perish but have everlasting life. No person can take the role of God, parent or family in her life, and no person should be idolized or obeyed above the Lord. She belongs to Jesus, and when she hears His voice saying you are Mine, she can find the courage to trust Him and trust the family He has given her.
God understands the pull to return home. When Jacob was far from his family, the Lord told him to return to the land of his fathers and to his family with the promise, I will be with you. That promise is still true. The Lord can give your daughter wisdom and courage and the will to step away swiftly and completely from a relationship and a living arrangement that is not His will, and to come back to the place of safety and support He has provided. He is a redeemer who restores what has been taken, our peace, our self worth, our purpose, our fellowship and our freedom, and He can rebuild what has been broken.
We want to affirm gently what you have already discerned. Living together outside of marriage is not marriage. Marriage in Scripture is a lifelong covenant between one man and one woman, and sharing a home and intimacy belong within that covenant. A beautiful courtship that honors God, like the one you see in your younger daughter, reflects His design and brings peace. An arrangement outside of that design, even when it is encouraged by others, does not create a home and does not carry the blessing and protection God intends for marriage. Rudeness, greed, laziness, control, dishonesty and manipulation are not love, and they are not the marks of a shepherd or provider who is ready for marriage. Love does not exploit finances, isolate from family, work colleagues and friends, or demand obedience that belongs to God alone. Your daughter is not being loved in this way, she is being used, and we pray God will flood her mind with supernatural clarity to see this clearly, to see this young man as he truly is and to stop seeking advice from those who guide her to remain in an ungodly pattern.
There is real spiritual opposition in such situations, but Jesus speaks with authority. When He encountered unclean spirits, He rebuked them and commanded them to leave, and they had to obey. He still has all authority to break schemes and plans meant to control and isolate, and to set captives free. The evidence of His true work in a life is repentance, a change of direction and restoration, turning away from what harms and walking back toward Him and toward healthy fellowship.
We also pray that the Lord will heal the hurts within your family. Jesus taught that there is a deep bond among those who follow Him, a family bond in Christ, and He also honors the family He has given us by birth. Your daughter does not need to put her sister down to please another, nor does she need to see you and her siblings through the eyes of those who look with spite or jealousy. May she see herself and her family as God sees them, with love and value, and may unity, respect and fellowship be restored.
So we pray with you: Lord Jesus, have mercy and open her eyes to see. Give her courage and wisdom to walk away and to trust You and her family. Provide for her, protect her and restore everything that has been diminished. Guide her to move back home without regret, and restore her faith, freedom, independence, peace and joy in fellowship with You and with her family. Fill your whole household with the Holy Spirit, with peace, love, favor and healing.
We agree with your declaration from Ephesians 6 that you and your children would be clothed with the full armor of God, the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, feet fitted with the readiness of the gospel of peace, the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God. May the Lord place a hedge of protection around you and your home, keep you close to Himself, and help you all to stay near to Him day by day. Nothing is impossible for Him, and as you continue to pray and speak truth in love, trust that He is working even now to bring clarity and freedom.
