Silas
Beloved of All
Your prayer for more face to face time and for Christ to dwell richly in your hearts so that His love overflows is a good and biblical desire. The longing you expressed from 2 John for personal presence rather than distance, and from Ephesians for Christ to be at home in your hearts and for His love to go beyond what you can ask or think, is exactly what God wants for a home. He also wants to give you grace and wisdom to bring up your child in the nurture and instruction that belongs to the Lord.
God has always shown that He takes marriage and family seriously. In the law given through Moses there was a provision that if a man died without children his brother should take his widow and raise up children to preserve the family name. That law shows how much God cares about covenant faithfulness and the continuity of the family. We see the sorrow that comes when that continuity is broken in the account of Naomi, whose husband and two sons died in Moab without children, leaving the family name in danger. And when some came to Jesus with a story about seven brothers who each in turn married the same woman and asked whose wife she would be in the resurrection, Jesus answered that marriage belongs to this present life, and He affirmed that the dead will rise. He pointed them back to the books of Moses to show that God is the God of the living. Your marriage is part of this life, given by God to be a lifelong covenant of one man and one woman, and it is to be lived with an eye toward eternity and the resurrection He promised.
You asked for improved and consistent communication and for your wife to do good and not evil all the days of her life, and that is right to seek. Good communication in marriage grows when Christ is dwelling in both hearts and when both choose to serve the Lord alone, as Joshua declared that he and his house would serve the Lord, and as the three faithful men declared that they would serve God only. When you feel weak in this area, remember the promise that when we are weak then Christ is strong in us, and His power rests upon those who humbly acknowledge their need.
You also prayed for conviction and for God to hedge the way with thorns to keep from sin and its painful consequences, including disease and destruction away from His presence, and for salvation and repentance. That language from Hosea shows God sometimes allows barriers and conviction to turn a heart back before it goes further into sin. The Holy Spirit convicts of sin, righteousness and judgment, and David, after his sin with Bathsheba and the taking of Uriah's life, rightly confessed that his sin was ultimately against God who had commanded not to commit adultery and not to murder. Any sin against the marriage covenant is first sin against God, and it needs repentance and faith in Jesus Christ alone for salvation. It is right to pray that your wife would hear that conviction, turn from any wrong path, and be saved, and that God would protect her from deception. It is also right to pray that those who profess faith but live differently through the week would be kept from hypocrisy and from being deceived, and that all would be kept from temptation, lies, fear and the work of the evil one.
You prayed for your child to be protected, to be kept by the power of God through faith, to be filled with the Holy Spirit from an early age, to know the Scriptures which are able to make one wise for salvation, and to be kept so that the evil one does not have a hold on him. Scripture promises that greater is Christ who is in you than he who is in the world, and that those who are born of God are kept by Him. It also reminds us that there are more with those who belong to God than with those against them, as shown when the hills were filled with horses and chariots of fire around the prophet, for angels are ministering spirits sent to serve. Your help comes from the Maker of heaven and earth, who keeps watch over you, and who is able to guard your child.
And you prayed that your child would learn to honor both father and mother and that you would be able to teach him diligently as you walk together, as commanded to parents to teach the words of the Lord continually. God delights to answer the prayers of even two or three who agree together, for He is not limited to save by many or by few.
May the Lord grant you that overflowing love of Christ in your home, wisdom beyond your own strength, honest and kind communication that builds up, and a hedge of protection that leads to repentance and life. May He keep your child in faith, keep your household from deception and temptation, and keep you trusting in His strength in your weakness.
Father, in the name of Jesus we ask that You dwell richly in this home, that Your love would overflow, that You would grant wisdom to raise this child in Your instruction, that You would bring conviction where there is sin, grant repentance and salvation through Christ alone, restore faithful communication, and keep this family by Your power through faith until the salvation ready to be revealed. Amen.
God has always shown that He takes marriage and family seriously. In the law given through Moses there was a provision that if a man died without children his brother should take his widow and raise up children to preserve the family name. That law shows how much God cares about covenant faithfulness and the continuity of the family. We see the sorrow that comes when that continuity is broken in the account of Naomi, whose husband and two sons died in Moab without children, leaving the family name in danger. And when some came to Jesus with a story about seven brothers who each in turn married the same woman and asked whose wife she would be in the resurrection, Jesus answered that marriage belongs to this present life, and He affirmed that the dead will rise. He pointed them back to the books of Moses to show that God is the God of the living. Your marriage is part of this life, given by God to be a lifelong covenant of one man and one woman, and it is to be lived with an eye toward eternity and the resurrection He promised.
You asked for improved and consistent communication and for your wife to do good and not evil all the days of her life, and that is right to seek. Good communication in marriage grows when Christ is dwelling in both hearts and when both choose to serve the Lord alone, as Joshua declared that he and his house would serve the Lord, and as the three faithful men declared that they would serve God only. When you feel weak in this area, remember the promise that when we are weak then Christ is strong in us, and His power rests upon those who humbly acknowledge their need.
You also prayed for conviction and for God to hedge the way with thorns to keep from sin and its painful consequences, including disease and destruction away from His presence, and for salvation and repentance. That language from Hosea shows God sometimes allows barriers and conviction to turn a heart back before it goes further into sin. The Holy Spirit convicts of sin, righteousness and judgment, and David, after his sin with Bathsheba and the taking of Uriah's life, rightly confessed that his sin was ultimately against God who had commanded not to commit adultery and not to murder. Any sin against the marriage covenant is first sin against God, and it needs repentance and faith in Jesus Christ alone for salvation. It is right to pray that your wife would hear that conviction, turn from any wrong path, and be saved, and that God would protect her from deception. It is also right to pray that those who profess faith but live differently through the week would be kept from hypocrisy and from being deceived, and that all would be kept from temptation, lies, fear and the work of the evil one.
You prayed for your child to be protected, to be kept by the power of God through faith, to be filled with the Holy Spirit from an early age, to know the Scriptures which are able to make one wise for salvation, and to be kept so that the evil one does not have a hold on him. Scripture promises that greater is Christ who is in you than he who is in the world, and that those who are born of God are kept by Him. It also reminds us that there are more with those who belong to God than with those against them, as shown when the hills were filled with horses and chariots of fire around the prophet, for angels are ministering spirits sent to serve. Your help comes from the Maker of heaven and earth, who keeps watch over you, and who is able to guard your child.
And you prayed that your child would learn to honor both father and mother and that you would be able to teach him diligently as you walk together, as commanded to parents to teach the words of the Lord continually. God delights to answer the prayers of even two or three who agree together, for He is not limited to save by many or by few.
May the Lord grant you that overflowing love of Christ in your home, wisdom beyond your own strength, honest and kind communication that builds up, and a hedge of protection that leads to repentance and life. May He keep your child in faith, keep your household from deception and temptation, and keep you trusting in His strength in your weakness.
Father, in the name of Jesus we ask that You dwell richly in this home, that Your love would overflow, that You would grant wisdom to raise this child in Your instruction, that You would bring conviction where there is sin, grant repentance and salvation through Christ alone, restore faithful communication, and keep this family by Your power through faith until the salvation ready to be revealed. Amen.
