Silas
Beloved of All
Thank you for sharing your burden for your grandson. We are praying with you for his deliverance and for strength for you as you love him through this.
The story of Job speaks to situations like this in a powerful way. Job lived long ago, yet the deepest problems he faced are the same problems people face today. Cultures change but the human heart, its sorrows and its needs, remains the same. Job was a man whom God Himself described as upright, one who loved what is good and hated what is evil. He lost his possessions, his livelihood, and his health, and was left with little more than the bare awareness of his own existence. He did not understand why it was happening and he cried out from the weight of his grief, a grief he said felt heavier than the sand of the sea.
Scripture pulls back the curtain to show us something Job could not see at the time. There was a real spiritual conflict concerning him. The adversary had been watching him closely, studying him and forming a view of him. His argument was that Job only honored God because God had put a hedge of blessing around him and made him prosperous, and that if those blessings were removed he would turn away. God permitted the testing, but He remained sovereign over it, and Job, though he did not understand, bowed and worshiped and did not turn against God.
When Job suffered, three friends came intending to comfort him, but their comfort failed. They assumed that such great loss must mean hidden sin and told him he must be a hypocrite who needed to get right with God before God would help him. They were wrong. They spoke as if God only allows suffering as direct punishment for secret wickedness, and they added to his pain instead of lifting it. One truth they did speak is still true and worth holding onto, that God is fair and God is just. He sees clearly and judges righteously, and He does not abandon those who call on Him.
In his pain Job also said things about life and death that came from anguish, not from settled truth. The Bible faithfully records what he said, but those cries of distress are not to be taken as doctrine. God heard him even when his words were imperfect, and God hears us the same way when we pray through tears and confusion.
Job also cried out for someone to stand between him and God, to lay a hand on both and bring him near. That longing is answered in Jesus Christ, who alone is the mediator between God and man. Through Him we can come to God for mercy, forgiveness, and power to be changed.
We are bringing your grandson before the Lord in that name. Alcohol is a cruel bondage, and the loss of a job can leave a person feeling stripped and without hope, much as Job felt. We are asking God to break the hold of alcohol in his life, to put a hedge of protection around him from the one who studies our weaknesses and seeks to destroy, to give him a true hatred for evil and a love for what is good, and to draw him to salvation and new life in Jesus. We are praying that God will bring clarity to his mind, strength to turn from what enslaves him, help toward honest work again, and people around him who will offer true comfort and wise counsel rather than mere accusation.
We will continue to pray for you as well, that God will give you peace as you trust His justice and His mercy, and that you will see Him work in your grandson's life for deliverance and restoration.
The story of Job speaks to situations like this in a powerful way. Job lived long ago, yet the deepest problems he faced are the same problems people face today. Cultures change but the human heart, its sorrows and its needs, remains the same. Job was a man whom God Himself described as upright, one who loved what is good and hated what is evil. He lost his possessions, his livelihood, and his health, and was left with little more than the bare awareness of his own existence. He did not understand why it was happening and he cried out from the weight of his grief, a grief he said felt heavier than the sand of the sea.
Scripture pulls back the curtain to show us something Job could not see at the time. There was a real spiritual conflict concerning him. The adversary had been watching him closely, studying him and forming a view of him. His argument was that Job only honored God because God had put a hedge of blessing around him and made him prosperous, and that if those blessings were removed he would turn away. God permitted the testing, but He remained sovereign over it, and Job, though he did not understand, bowed and worshiped and did not turn against God.
When Job suffered, three friends came intending to comfort him, but their comfort failed. They assumed that such great loss must mean hidden sin and told him he must be a hypocrite who needed to get right with God before God would help him. They were wrong. They spoke as if God only allows suffering as direct punishment for secret wickedness, and they added to his pain instead of lifting it. One truth they did speak is still true and worth holding onto, that God is fair and God is just. He sees clearly and judges righteously, and He does not abandon those who call on Him.
In his pain Job also said things about life and death that came from anguish, not from settled truth. The Bible faithfully records what he said, but those cries of distress are not to be taken as doctrine. God heard him even when his words were imperfect, and God hears us the same way when we pray through tears and confusion.
Job also cried out for someone to stand between him and God, to lay a hand on both and bring him near. That longing is answered in Jesus Christ, who alone is the mediator between God and man. Through Him we can come to God for mercy, forgiveness, and power to be changed.
We are bringing your grandson before the Lord in that name. Alcohol is a cruel bondage, and the loss of a job can leave a person feeling stripped and without hope, much as Job felt. We are asking God to break the hold of alcohol in his life, to put a hedge of protection around him from the one who studies our weaknesses and seeks to destroy, to give him a true hatred for evil and a love for what is good, and to draw him to salvation and new life in Jesus. We are praying that God will bring clarity to his mind, strength to turn from what enslaves him, help toward honest work again, and people around him who will offer true comfort and wise counsel rather than mere accusation.
We will continue to pray for you as well, that God will give you peace as you trust His justice and His mercy, and that you will see Him work in your grandson's life for deliverance and restoration.
