Silas
Beloved of All
Your hunger to abide in Christ and to have His words abide in you, to abide in His love and to walk by His Word as a lamp to your feet is good and right, and it is the place where true guidance is found. God has spoken in dreams and visions at times, as you noted in Job and Joel and Numbers and Acts, to warn, to turn people from wrongdoing and pride, and to preserve them from the pit. He is able to do all things and nothing is impossible with Him, and He lives to intercede for those who come to God through Jesus.
At the same time Scripture itself teaches us to test everything according to the Law and the Testimony. The Word is the sure standard. Any impression, dream, or vision is to be weighed by what God has already said. That is why abiding is so central. When we remain in Him and His words remain in us, we learn to recognize His voice and to pray according to His will.
Prayer is essential for guidance and for life itself. Even Jesus, the Son of God, made prayer a priority and rose early to pray. If He saw the necessity of prayer, how much more do we need it. Your request reflects that need, and it is right to bring your wife, your children, your extended family, and all who minister alongside you before the Lord continually, asking Him to keep you all from temptation, deception, and the work of the evil one, and to lead you into what is true and holy.
Sin is first of all against God. When David committed adultery and then had Uriah killed, he had broken God's commands not to covet a neighbor's wife and not to murder, and he rightly confessed that his sin was against the Lord. The mark of true conversion is not only sorrow but repentance that brings change and restoration. That is what to pray for in a wayward spouse and in ourselves, a pure heart, a sincere faith, and a clear conscience that turns from wrongdoing and walks in obedience. God desires that restoration, and He is able to save completely those who come to Him through Christ.
Scripture also reminds us that marriage belongs to this life. Jesus taught that in the resurrection people neither marry nor are given in marriage but are like the angels in heaven, and He affirmed the resurrection as real and certain. The law Moses gave about a brother raising up a name for his brother who died without children, seen in the stories of Judah and Tamar and of Naomi's family in Moab, and the question the Sadducees asked about the woman who had been married to seven brothers, all point to God's care for family and for faithfulness in this present life. Because marriage does not continue into eternity, faithfulness and covenant keeping now matter greatly. Pray that God will guard your marriage covenant and draw each of you to honor Him within it.
There is much in the world that encourages people to look within themselves for guidance, to meditate and try to discover an inner person who will direct them. Even children are being taught to seek direction from within. That is not the biblical pattern. We are not to seek guidance from ourselves but from God outside of us, through His Spirit speaking in harmony with His written Word, and through prayer. The world's noise and pollution can easily mislead, but the Lord gives wisdom to those who look to Him.
So continue to seek Him as a little child in faith. Keep His Word before you daily, bring every dream or impression under its light, devote yourself to prayer, and ask Him to pour out His Spirit to make you sensitive to His will in Christ Jesus. He is able to warn, to correct, to keep from pride, and to preserve from destruction, and His arm is not too short to save.
May the Lord grant you and your wife and your children repentance where it is needed, restoration where there has been brokenness, protection from evil and deception, and a growing love from a pure heart as you walk together in His truth.
At the same time Scripture itself teaches us to test everything according to the Law and the Testimony. The Word is the sure standard. Any impression, dream, or vision is to be weighed by what God has already said. That is why abiding is so central. When we remain in Him and His words remain in us, we learn to recognize His voice and to pray according to His will.
Prayer is essential for guidance and for life itself. Even Jesus, the Son of God, made prayer a priority and rose early to pray. If He saw the necessity of prayer, how much more do we need it. Your request reflects that need, and it is right to bring your wife, your children, your extended family, and all who minister alongside you before the Lord continually, asking Him to keep you all from temptation, deception, and the work of the evil one, and to lead you into what is true and holy.
Sin is first of all against God. When David committed adultery and then had Uriah killed, he had broken God's commands not to covet a neighbor's wife and not to murder, and he rightly confessed that his sin was against the Lord. The mark of true conversion is not only sorrow but repentance that brings change and restoration. That is what to pray for in a wayward spouse and in ourselves, a pure heart, a sincere faith, and a clear conscience that turns from wrongdoing and walks in obedience. God desires that restoration, and He is able to save completely those who come to Him through Christ.
Scripture also reminds us that marriage belongs to this life. Jesus taught that in the resurrection people neither marry nor are given in marriage but are like the angels in heaven, and He affirmed the resurrection as real and certain. The law Moses gave about a brother raising up a name for his brother who died without children, seen in the stories of Judah and Tamar and of Naomi's family in Moab, and the question the Sadducees asked about the woman who had been married to seven brothers, all point to God's care for family and for faithfulness in this present life. Because marriage does not continue into eternity, faithfulness and covenant keeping now matter greatly. Pray that God will guard your marriage covenant and draw each of you to honor Him within it.
There is much in the world that encourages people to look within themselves for guidance, to meditate and try to discover an inner person who will direct them. Even children are being taught to seek direction from within. That is not the biblical pattern. We are not to seek guidance from ourselves but from God outside of us, through His Spirit speaking in harmony with His written Word, and through prayer. The world's noise and pollution can easily mislead, but the Lord gives wisdom to those who look to Him.
So continue to seek Him as a little child in faith. Keep His Word before you daily, bring every dream or impression under its light, devote yourself to prayer, and ask Him to pour out His Spirit to make you sensitive to His will in Christ Jesus. He is able to warn, to correct, to keep from pride, and to preserve from destruction, and His arm is not too short to save.
May the Lord grant you and your wife and your children repentance where it is needed, restoration where there has been brokenness, protection from evil and deception, and a growing love from a pure heart as you walk together in His truth.
