Silas
Beloved of All
Your honest prayer reflects a deep sorrow and a heavy burden, and it is right to bring that anguish openly before the Lord. To feel pursued, talked about unjustly, cast out and coldly rejected in your own home is a painful form of suffering, especially when you have not attacked or hurt those who are hurting you. God sees it all. He knows what it is to be an outsider, and He does not overlook injustice or rejection.
You echoed Psalm 59, and David knew that same distress of enemies pressing in and words spoken against him without cause. The Psalms also give the assurance you are asking for, that God is a refuge from terror by night and the arrow by day, that though a thousand may fall at your side and ten thousand at your right hand, He remains near to keep you. You asked for His angels to watch over your family and home, and Scripture shows He does give His angels charge to guard His people and that a mother or father praying at home can be part of His protection while a loved one is away. It is right to ask Him to encamp around you and your household.
Your choice to lift up your enemies in prayer is following Jesus Himself. He taught us to pray for those who oppose us, and He prayed for His own disciples that they would be kept and sanctified, while His heart remained full of love for the world. To pray that the eyes of those who are cold toward you would be opened and their hearts softened, that they would turn to Him and follow His way, is the best thing you could desire for them, because His way is always the best way. God loves all and desires all to come to repentance, and He hears that kind of intercession.
In your prayer you spoke of feeling like an outsider in your own home and life. There is a beautiful picture in Scripture of Christ dwelling in our hearts. The word means to settle down and make Himself at home, to be comfortable and at ease there, with no strain or tension. There are places where we feel instantly out of place and unwelcome, and other places where we feel completely at rest. The Lord wants your heart to be that second kind of place for Him, a place so in tune with Him that even when your earthly home feels unwelcoming, you are rooted and grounded in His love and He is truly at home within you.
Do not lose heart because of this tribulation. The apostle Paul suffered beatings, stonings and imprisonment for the sake of the gospel, yet he urged believers not to faint at his tribulations. Persecution is painful and it often comes from those closest to us, and following Jesus can cost us deeply in family and home because love for Him must be supreme. Yet that same pressure often purifies faith and binds believers together. Scripture teaches that it is a righteous thing with God to repay those who trouble His people, and to give rest to those who are troubled when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with His mighty angels. You can rest in that future hope while you wait for His timing in the present.
Prayer is the great work God has given us in such seasons. To pray without ceasing, night and day, for those we love and even for those who oppose us, is a glorious calling. Keep asking the Holy Spirit to guard your thoughts, your feelings and your tongue while you wait. He is the Comforter who gives wisdom beyond our own and peace that steadies a troubled heart.
So we join you in prayer now. Father, in the name of Jesus Christ we lift up this hurting heart, its sorrow and its bitterness, and we lift up those who have caused the coldness and rejection. Open their eyes and soften their hearts, draw them to Yourself through Jesus alone. Grant protection over this family and home, command Your angels to watch over them, and let Your Holy Spirit grant wisdom, comfort and self control in every word and thought. Help Christ to be fully at home in this heart, rooted and grounded in love, and give rest and strength to wait for Your perfect way and timing. Amen.
You echoed Psalm 59, and David knew that same distress of enemies pressing in and words spoken against him without cause. The Psalms also give the assurance you are asking for, that God is a refuge from terror by night and the arrow by day, that though a thousand may fall at your side and ten thousand at your right hand, He remains near to keep you. You asked for His angels to watch over your family and home, and Scripture shows He does give His angels charge to guard His people and that a mother or father praying at home can be part of His protection while a loved one is away. It is right to ask Him to encamp around you and your household.
Your choice to lift up your enemies in prayer is following Jesus Himself. He taught us to pray for those who oppose us, and He prayed for His own disciples that they would be kept and sanctified, while His heart remained full of love for the world. To pray that the eyes of those who are cold toward you would be opened and their hearts softened, that they would turn to Him and follow His way, is the best thing you could desire for them, because His way is always the best way. God loves all and desires all to come to repentance, and He hears that kind of intercession.
In your prayer you spoke of feeling like an outsider in your own home and life. There is a beautiful picture in Scripture of Christ dwelling in our hearts. The word means to settle down and make Himself at home, to be comfortable and at ease there, with no strain or tension. There are places where we feel instantly out of place and unwelcome, and other places where we feel completely at rest. The Lord wants your heart to be that second kind of place for Him, a place so in tune with Him that even when your earthly home feels unwelcoming, you are rooted and grounded in His love and He is truly at home within you.
Do not lose heart because of this tribulation. The apostle Paul suffered beatings, stonings and imprisonment for the sake of the gospel, yet he urged believers not to faint at his tribulations. Persecution is painful and it often comes from those closest to us, and following Jesus can cost us deeply in family and home because love for Him must be supreme. Yet that same pressure often purifies faith and binds believers together. Scripture teaches that it is a righteous thing with God to repay those who trouble His people, and to give rest to those who are troubled when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with His mighty angels. You can rest in that future hope while you wait for His timing in the present.
Prayer is the great work God has given us in such seasons. To pray without ceasing, night and day, for those we love and even for those who oppose us, is a glorious calling. Keep asking the Holy Spirit to guard your thoughts, your feelings and your tongue while you wait. He is the Comforter who gives wisdom beyond our own and peace that steadies a troubled heart.
So we join you in prayer now. Father, in the name of Jesus Christ we lift up this hurting heart, its sorrow and its bitterness, and we lift up those who have caused the coldness and rejection. Open their eyes and soften their hearts, draw them to Yourself through Jesus alone. Grant protection over this family and home, command Your angels to watch over them, and let Your Holy Spirit grant wisdom, comfort and self control in every word and thought. Help Christ to be fully at home in this heart, rooted and grounded in love, and give rest and strength to wait for Your perfect way and timing. Amen.
