Silas
Beloved of All
Your prayer is heard and it reflects a heart that wants to honor the Lord in a difficult season, and it is good to give thanks for what God has already done in easing the long coldness and opening even a little more time to see and speak with your family face to face.
Scripture shows that God often does not clear the ground all at once. As He told Israel, He would drive out what opposed them little by little until they were fruitful and able to possess the land. That pattern teaches patience. Gradual growth is still real growth, and it keeps us dependent on Him while He makes us ready for more.
It is right to pray that Christ would dwell in your heart through faith and that His love would overflow beyond what you can ask or imagine. The blessings of God come not because we earn them, but because we are His children who simply trust that our Father loves us and delights to do good for us. When you come as a child trusting His love, you are in the place where His fullness can fill you and then spill over to your wife and children.
Marriage is part of that picture of fullness. Two become one, a compound unity that reflects the oneness of the Lord Himself. That oneness is not just living near each other, it is a lifelong covenant of one man and one woman before God. Your desire for better communication and for help in supervising calls so you can shepherd your children is understandable and good, and your resolve to serve the Lord whether that help comes or not honors Him. That is the same spirit as those who said they would trust God whatever the outcome. At the same time, it helps to stay close to Jesus and not seek warmth from the wrong fire. When we try to find comfort or excitement where a child of God has no business being, or when we follow the Lord from a distance, we set ourselves up for defeat. Stay near to Him, in His Word and in prayer, and let Him keep your heart.
You also expressed that desperate feeling of wanting to reach out and fix everything for your child at once and knowing you do not have that power in yourself. Do not blame the Lord for that lack. Often God in His love allows us to come to the end of our own strength so that we are pressed to come to Jesus Himself, the only One who can truly help. When we are weak, His strength is made perfect, and we can gladly acknowledge our weakness so that the power of Christ may rest upon us.
Even when words fail or when you are worlds apart in understanding, the Lord can give a spiritual bond and communication that goes deeper than language. Pray that your children would be taught daily in the nurture and instruction of the Lord, as you speak of Him when you sit and when you walk and when you rise, and pray that they would learn to honor both father and mother as God commands. Pray also as you are doing for your wife, that God would grant salvation and repentance, for He desires all to come to the knowledge of the truth and does not wish any to perish.
Continue to ask for protection from deception, temptation, lies, fear and the evil one. Greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world, and those who are with us in Christ are more than those against us. Your help comes from the Maker of heaven and earth, and He is able to guard through faith those who are His, to fill your little ones with His Spirit, to keep them in His Word from an early age, and to keep the evil one from touching them.
May the Lord give you grace and wisdom to lead your children faithfully, to love your wife with the faithful love of Christ, to grow in being rooted and grounded in love, and to know with confidence the hope of the resurrection where we will be with the Lord. We join you in asking these things in the name of Jesus, with thanksgiving, trusting that as you make your requests known, His peace will guard your heart and mind.
Scripture shows that God often does not clear the ground all at once. As He told Israel, He would drive out what opposed them little by little until they were fruitful and able to possess the land. That pattern teaches patience. Gradual growth is still real growth, and it keeps us dependent on Him while He makes us ready for more.
It is right to pray that Christ would dwell in your heart through faith and that His love would overflow beyond what you can ask or imagine. The blessings of God come not because we earn them, but because we are His children who simply trust that our Father loves us and delights to do good for us. When you come as a child trusting His love, you are in the place where His fullness can fill you and then spill over to your wife and children.
Marriage is part of that picture of fullness. Two become one, a compound unity that reflects the oneness of the Lord Himself. That oneness is not just living near each other, it is a lifelong covenant of one man and one woman before God. Your desire for better communication and for help in supervising calls so you can shepherd your children is understandable and good, and your resolve to serve the Lord whether that help comes or not honors Him. That is the same spirit as those who said they would trust God whatever the outcome. At the same time, it helps to stay close to Jesus and not seek warmth from the wrong fire. When we try to find comfort or excitement where a child of God has no business being, or when we follow the Lord from a distance, we set ourselves up for defeat. Stay near to Him, in His Word and in prayer, and let Him keep your heart.
You also expressed that desperate feeling of wanting to reach out and fix everything for your child at once and knowing you do not have that power in yourself. Do not blame the Lord for that lack. Often God in His love allows us to come to the end of our own strength so that we are pressed to come to Jesus Himself, the only One who can truly help. When we are weak, His strength is made perfect, and we can gladly acknowledge our weakness so that the power of Christ may rest upon us.
Even when words fail or when you are worlds apart in understanding, the Lord can give a spiritual bond and communication that goes deeper than language. Pray that your children would be taught daily in the nurture and instruction of the Lord, as you speak of Him when you sit and when you walk and when you rise, and pray that they would learn to honor both father and mother as God commands. Pray also as you are doing for your wife, that God would grant salvation and repentance, for He desires all to come to the knowledge of the truth and does not wish any to perish.
Continue to ask for protection from deception, temptation, lies, fear and the evil one. Greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world, and those who are with us in Christ are more than those against us. Your help comes from the Maker of heaven and earth, and He is able to guard through faith those who are His, to fill your little ones with His Spirit, to keep them in His Word from an early age, and to keep the evil one from touching them.
May the Lord give you grace and wisdom to lead your children faithfully, to love your wife with the faithful love of Christ, to grow in being rooted and grounded in love, and to know with confidence the hope of the resurrection where we will be with the Lord. We join you in asking these things in the name of Jesus, with thanksgiving, trusting that as you make your requests known, His peace will guard your heart and mind.
