Silas
Beloved of All
Thank you for sharing this burden so openly and for wanting Christ to be at the center of your home and communication. Your desire for better face to face fellowship is deeply biblical, for as John wrote, face to face communion is where joy is made full. And your prayer that Christ would dwell in your hearts through faith and that His love would overflow beyond all you could ask or think, from Ephesians 3, is exactly the right foundation for every other request.
God intends marriage to be a lifelong covenant of one man and one woman, where each belongs to the other and each renders to the other what is due in love and kindness. Scripture teaches not to withhold yourselves from one another except by mutual consent for a time, and to find your satisfaction and rejoicing in the wife of your youth. When that mutual care and honor is practiced, the home becomes a place of security and grace.
Your longing to bring up your child in the training and admonition of the Lord, as Ephesians 6 instructs, is the calling God gives to parents. That training happens day by day, as Deuteronomy says, when you speak of the Lord's ways as you sit in your house and walk by the way. A home where even one parent believes brings a holy covering over the children, God setting apart the family for His work. Continue to teach with grace and wisdom, not provoking to anger, but nurturing with patience.
In your prayers for your wife, it is right to ask for the Holy Spirit to bring conviction of sin and to draw her toward salvation and repentance, for God desires all to come to repentance and the Spirit convicts the world as Jesus said in John 16. At the same time, Scripture shows that an unbelieving spouse is often won not by pressure or constant correction, but by quietly observing the life of Christ in the believing partner. If you try to push too hard you can push further away. Live out the love of Christ before her, do her good and not evil all the days of your life as Proverbs 31 describes, and trust God to work on her conscience in His timing. Pray that your communication would be marked by that love, that it would be set, convenient and clear, and that it would build up rather than tear down.
Your acknowledgment that when you are weak He is strong is precious. As Paul learned in 2 Corinthians 12, God's grace is sufficient and His power rests upon us in weakness, insults and hardships. You do not need to be strong in yourself to see God work. The Lord is not restrained to save by many or by few, and Jesus promised that where two or three agree in His name He hears. We join our faith with yours for godly communication, for conviction and salvation, and for your child to honor both father and mother and to walk in the Lord.
We also join you in praying for protection over you, your wife, your child, and your extended family and fellowship. You asked for guarding from deception, temptation, sin, fear, lies and the evil one, and Scripture gives great assurance there. Jesus prayed that His own would be kept from the evil one, John writes that the evil one does not touch the one who is born of God because greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world, and Peter says you are kept by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed. Psalm 91 promises His angels have charge over you, and as Elisha prayed, there are more with us than against us. The Lord who made heaven and earth is your help, and He will keep you.
We will pray that the Lord strengthens you to walk faithfully before Him, to serve Him alone as Joshua declared, to stand firm even as the three in Daniel, and to trust Him to hedge and to guide, to convict and to save, and to fill your home with His Spirit. May He increase your face to face time, deepen your fellowship, and cause His love to overflow in your marriage and to your child, for His glory. In Jesus' name, amen.
God intends marriage to be a lifelong covenant of one man and one woman, where each belongs to the other and each renders to the other what is due in love and kindness. Scripture teaches not to withhold yourselves from one another except by mutual consent for a time, and to find your satisfaction and rejoicing in the wife of your youth. When that mutual care and honor is practiced, the home becomes a place of security and grace.
Your longing to bring up your child in the training and admonition of the Lord, as Ephesians 6 instructs, is the calling God gives to parents. That training happens day by day, as Deuteronomy says, when you speak of the Lord's ways as you sit in your house and walk by the way. A home where even one parent believes brings a holy covering over the children, God setting apart the family for His work. Continue to teach with grace and wisdom, not provoking to anger, but nurturing with patience.
In your prayers for your wife, it is right to ask for the Holy Spirit to bring conviction of sin and to draw her toward salvation and repentance, for God desires all to come to repentance and the Spirit convicts the world as Jesus said in John 16. At the same time, Scripture shows that an unbelieving spouse is often won not by pressure or constant correction, but by quietly observing the life of Christ in the believing partner. If you try to push too hard you can push further away. Live out the love of Christ before her, do her good and not evil all the days of your life as Proverbs 31 describes, and trust God to work on her conscience in His timing. Pray that your communication would be marked by that love, that it would be set, convenient and clear, and that it would build up rather than tear down.
Your acknowledgment that when you are weak He is strong is precious. As Paul learned in 2 Corinthians 12, God's grace is sufficient and His power rests upon us in weakness, insults and hardships. You do not need to be strong in yourself to see God work. The Lord is not restrained to save by many or by few, and Jesus promised that where two or three agree in His name He hears. We join our faith with yours for godly communication, for conviction and salvation, and for your child to honor both father and mother and to walk in the Lord.
We also join you in praying for protection over you, your wife, your child, and your extended family and fellowship. You asked for guarding from deception, temptation, sin, fear, lies and the evil one, and Scripture gives great assurance there. Jesus prayed that His own would be kept from the evil one, John writes that the evil one does not touch the one who is born of God because greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world, and Peter says you are kept by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed. Psalm 91 promises His angels have charge over you, and as Elisha prayed, there are more with us than against us. The Lord who made heaven and earth is your help, and He will keep you.
We will pray that the Lord strengthens you to walk faithfully before Him, to serve Him alone as Joshua declared, to stand firm even as the three in Daniel, and to trust Him to hedge and to guide, to convict and to save, and to fill your home with His Spirit. May He increase your face to face time, deepen your fellowship, and cause His love to overflow in your marriage and to your child, for His glory. In Jesus' name, amen.
