Silas
Beloved of All
Your cry has been heard and I want you to know that what you are enduring is not small or unseen. To live under daily threats, to have no peace day or night, to be physically assaulted and then to face a weapon like a metal rod, and to feel that those who should protect you will not act, is a heavy and frightening trial. It is understandable that you are exhausted and that your faith feels worn thin. You are not forgotten in this.
Scripture speaks of faith not as a feeling but as something that holds us when what we hope for cannot yet be seen. Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. It does something in us. It gives weight and reality to the hope that God is present, that He is just, and that He will not abandon His own, even when circumstances say otherwise.
The Bible is honest that those who follow Jesus are appointed to face tribulation in this world. That does not mean God wills the evil done to you, but it means you are not strange or forsaken because you are suffering. The concern of Scripture in such times is always for faith itself, that faith would continue, that it would be proved genuine through the testing. Temptation and trial in that sense are the proving of faith. When you say you believe God, the trial asks whether that belief will hold. God allows the proving not to destroy you but to strengthen and refine you, and He promises to give wisdom freely to anyone who asks, without scolding or shaming, if you ask in faith without wavering.
That kind of faith is often richest when resources are smallest. When you have little and cannot buy your way to safety, you are forced to lean more fully on God than when you have abundance. God has often chosen those who are poor in this world to be rich in faith, because wealth can tempt us to trust in its uncertainty. Your need for an extra thousand dollars a month to move is real, and God knows the exact cost of safety for you. He is not distant from that practical need.
At the same time, faith does not always look like immediate deliverance. Scripture shows that by faith some were victorious, they waxed valiant in battle and subdued their enemies, and the walls of an enemy city fell. By that same faith others stood firm and were tortured, mistreated, and suffered greatly. Both groups acted by faith. And there were many who died in faith not having yet received the full promise, yet God fulfilled His promise in His time after they had remained faithful. Your perseverance, even when you do not see the answer yet, is itself precious to God.
You are facing what Scripture calls unreasonable people, people who do not live by faith and who do harm to their neighbor. Love does no harm to a neighbor, but not everyone lives by that love. The Lord is faithful, and His promise is that He will establish you and guard you from evil. That guarding may not always mean the trial disappears in a moment, but it means He will not let the evil have the final word over you. There is coming a day when the Lord Jesus will be revealed and He will set all things right with righteous judgment. For those who are troubled, Scripture gives this rest, that God sees, that He will judge what is done in secret and in the open, and that He will give rest to His people.
So I encourage you to put feet to your faith in the ways you can. Your careful recording of what has happened is right and wise. Keep that record. Ask God specifically for wisdom about next steps and trust Him to give it generously. Seek out help that may be available to you, a trusted pastor or elders in a local church, a victim advocacy service, legal aid, or community assistance for housing. You should not carry this alone. Let others who can stand with you know the full weight of what is happening. Continue to obey the law and honor the authorities as you are able, while also appealing to them for the protection they are ordained to provide.
Do not let the length of this trial convince you that God has left. His blessing does not come because you have performed perfectly, but because He loves you and He loves it when you trust Him. True faith will show itself in action, not to earn His love, but because His love is already at work in you.
I am praying for you now, that the God who sees all that has been done to you would make a way for your safety, that He would provide for the financial need that keeps you from moving, that He would give you clear wisdom for each decision, that He would restrain the hand of those who threaten you, and that He would establish your heart and keep you from evil. I pray that He would strengthen your faith as it is being proved, that you would continue to wait for His Son from heaven, Jesus who delivered us and who will not fail to come for His own, and that you would know His nearness even in this long night.
Hold fast. The trying of your faith, when you endure, proves that it is real and living. The Lord who is faithful is with you, and He will not let you be moved beyond what He will sustain.
Scripture speaks of faith not as a feeling but as something that holds us when what we hope for cannot yet be seen. Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. It does something in us. It gives weight and reality to the hope that God is present, that He is just, and that He will not abandon His own, even when circumstances say otherwise.
The Bible is honest that those who follow Jesus are appointed to face tribulation in this world. That does not mean God wills the evil done to you, but it means you are not strange or forsaken because you are suffering. The concern of Scripture in such times is always for faith itself, that faith would continue, that it would be proved genuine through the testing. Temptation and trial in that sense are the proving of faith. When you say you believe God, the trial asks whether that belief will hold. God allows the proving not to destroy you but to strengthen and refine you, and He promises to give wisdom freely to anyone who asks, without scolding or shaming, if you ask in faith without wavering.
That kind of faith is often richest when resources are smallest. When you have little and cannot buy your way to safety, you are forced to lean more fully on God than when you have abundance. God has often chosen those who are poor in this world to be rich in faith, because wealth can tempt us to trust in its uncertainty. Your need for an extra thousand dollars a month to move is real, and God knows the exact cost of safety for you. He is not distant from that practical need.
At the same time, faith does not always look like immediate deliverance. Scripture shows that by faith some were victorious, they waxed valiant in battle and subdued their enemies, and the walls of an enemy city fell. By that same faith others stood firm and were tortured, mistreated, and suffered greatly. Both groups acted by faith. And there were many who died in faith not having yet received the full promise, yet God fulfilled His promise in His time after they had remained faithful. Your perseverance, even when you do not see the answer yet, is itself precious to God.
You are facing what Scripture calls unreasonable people, people who do not live by faith and who do harm to their neighbor. Love does no harm to a neighbor, but not everyone lives by that love. The Lord is faithful, and His promise is that He will establish you and guard you from evil. That guarding may not always mean the trial disappears in a moment, but it means He will not let the evil have the final word over you. There is coming a day when the Lord Jesus will be revealed and He will set all things right with righteous judgment. For those who are troubled, Scripture gives this rest, that God sees, that He will judge what is done in secret and in the open, and that He will give rest to His people.
So I encourage you to put feet to your faith in the ways you can. Your careful recording of what has happened is right and wise. Keep that record. Ask God specifically for wisdom about next steps and trust Him to give it generously. Seek out help that may be available to you, a trusted pastor or elders in a local church, a victim advocacy service, legal aid, or community assistance for housing. You should not carry this alone. Let others who can stand with you know the full weight of what is happening. Continue to obey the law and honor the authorities as you are able, while also appealing to them for the protection they are ordained to provide.
Do not let the length of this trial convince you that God has left. His blessing does not come because you have performed perfectly, but because He loves you and He loves it when you trust Him. True faith will show itself in action, not to earn His love, but because His love is already at work in you.
I am praying for you now, that the God who sees all that has been done to you would make a way for your safety, that He would provide for the financial need that keeps you from moving, that He would give you clear wisdom for each decision, that He would restrain the hand of those who threaten you, and that He would establish your heart and keep you from evil. I pray that He would strengthen your faith as it is being proved, that you would continue to wait for His Son from heaven, Jesus who delivered us and who will not fail to come for His own, and that you would know His nearness even in this long night.
Hold fast. The trying of your faith, when you endure, proves that it is real and living. The Lord who is faithful is with you, and He will not let you be moved beyond what He will sustain.
