Silas
Beloved of All
Your longing to hear from God and to see Him work in your family is a good and right desire, and it is encouraging to see your hunger for His Word and for prayer.
Prayer is not an extra to the Christian life, it is the life itself. Even Jesus, the Son of God, showed how necessary it was by rising early to seek the Father. If He, being perfect, depended on that communion for guidance and strength, how much more do we need to abide in Christ and let His words abide in us, to abide in His love, and to seek Him consistently.
God does lead His people. Jesus said His sheep hear His voice and follow Him, and Paul writes that those who are led by the Spirit of God are the sons of God. That leading comes most clearly and safely through Scripture, which is a lamp to our feet and a light to our path. The prophet Isaiah reminds us to speak according to the law and the testimony, and any impression, counsel, message from the pulpit, divine appointment, or even a dream or vision must be tested by that written Word. When the Lord opened the minds of His disciples to understand the Scriptures, He showed that true understanding comes from Him through the Bible illuminated by the Spirit, and we can ask with Paul for the Spirit of wisdom and revelation to know Him better.
Scripture does record that God has spoken at times through dreams and visions of the night, as with Job, Daniel, Joseph and the wise men, and Joel prophesied a pouring out of the Spirit. We can thank God that nothing is impossible with Him and that His arm is not too short to save, and He is able to warn, convict, and turn a heart from wrongdoing and from pride to preserve a life from the pit. Yet the sure and steady way He guides today is through His Word, through prayer, and through godly counsel in keeping with the Spirit of wisdom and understanding. There is a lot of teaching now, even for children, that tells people to look within themselves through meditation to find guidance from an inner person. That is not the biblical pattern. We are not to look within for answers, but to look to Christ and to what is written.
For your marriage and family, hold fast to what God has shown about marriage. From the beginning He made them male and female, and the two become one flesh. That oneness reflects His own nature as a compound unity, two becoming one. It is a lifelong covenant, and His desire is faithfulness within it. The surest sign of His true work in any of our hearts is not simply a striking experience, but repentance, a real change of mind and direction that leads to restoration. When Jesus ate with sinners, the evidence that hearts had been touched was that they turned and followed Him.
So we join you in praying for you, for your wife, for your children, and for your extended family and all who support you. We ask the Father to draw each of you to salvation through Jesus Christ alone, for there is no other name by which we are saved and He ever lives to intercede for those who come to God through Him. We pray that He would grant a pure heart, sincere faith, and a clear conscience, that He would keep you all from temptation, deception, and the schemes of the evil one, and that He would produce genuine repentance where there has been wandering. We ask Him to give you wisdom, to guard your home with His peace that passes understanding as you make your requests known to Him with thanksgiving, and to help you continue steadfast in prayer and in the Word, trusting that He is able to do all things and that no purpose of His can be thwarted.
May the Lord keep you abiding in Him, faithful to what is written, and confident that light is stronger than darkness.
Prayer is not an extra to the Christian life, it is the life itself. Even Jesus, the Son of God, showed how necessary it was by rising early to seek the Father. If He, being perfect, depended on that communion for guidance and strength, how much more do we need to abide in Christ and let His words abide in us, to abide in His love, and to seek Him consistently.
God does lead His people. Jesus said His sheep hear His voice and follow Him, and Paul writes that those who are led by the Spirit of God are the sons of God. That leading comes most clearly and safely through Scripture, which is a lamp to our feet and a light to our path. The prophet Isaiah reminds us to speak according to the law and the testimony, and any impression, counsel, message from the pulpit, divine appointment, or even a dream or vision must be tested by that written Word. When the Lord opened the minds of His disciples to understand the Scriptures, He showed that true understanding comes from Him through the Bible illuminated by the Spirit, and we can ask with Paul for the Spirit of wisdom and revelation to know Him better.
Scripture does record that God has spoken at times through dreams and visions of the night, as with Job, Daniel, Joseph and the wise men, and Joel prophesied a pouring out of the Spirit. We can thank God that nothing is impossible with Him and that His arm is not too short to save, and He is able to warn, convict, and turn a heart from wrongdoing and from pride to preserve a life from the pit. Yet the sure and steady way He guides today is through His Word, through prayer, and through godly counsel in keeping with the Spirit of wisdom and understanding. There is a lot of teaching now, even for children, that tells people to look within themselves through meditation to find guidance from an inner person. That is not the biblical pattern. We are not to look within for answers, but to look to Christ and to what is written.
For your marriage and family, hold fast to what God has shown about marriage. From the beginning He made them male and female, and the two become one flesh. That oneness reflects His own nature as a compound unity, two becoming one. It is a lifelong covenant, and His desire is faithfulness within it. The surest sign of His true work in any of our hearts is not simply a striking experience, but repentance, a real change of mind and direction that leads to restoration. When Jesus ate with sinners, the evidence that hearts had been touched was that they turned and followed Him.
So we join you in praying for you, for your wife, for your children, and for your extended family and all who support you. We ask the Father to draw each of you to salvation through Jesus Christ alone, for there is no other name by which we are saved and He ever lives to intercede for those who come to God through Him. We pray that He would grant a pure heart, sincere faith, and a clear conscience, that He would keep you all from temptation, deception, and the schemes of the evil one, and that He would produce genuine repentance where there has been wandering. We ask Him to give you wisdom, to guard your home with His peace that passes understanding as you make your requests known to Him with thanksgiving, and to help you continue steadfast in prayer and in the Word, trusting that He is able to do all things and that no purpose of His can be thwarted.
May the Lord keep you abiding in Him, faithful to what is written, and confident that light is stronger than darkness.
