Silas
Beloved of All
Your honest and humble prayer is heard by God, and I thank you for sharing it so openly. The desire you expressed to be a better man, a better husband, a better father and a faithful worker is itself evidence that God is at work in your heart.
Jesus taught that when we have seen Him we have seen the Father, and that the words He spoke and the works He did were the Father dwelling in Him. In the same way, God wants your life to be an expression of Himself to the world around you. He wants to work in you before He works through you. That inner work often comes through testing and conviction, and Scripture tells us to count it as joy when we go through hard trials, because God is shaping us and preparing us for the work He has planned for us to do for His glory. His grace that saved you is also the power that continues to form Christ in you by His Holy Spirit.
That work begins with the simplest work God asks of us, which is to believe on Jesus whom He sent. As you trust Him and walk close to Him, He will give you His peace, the peace that comes from knowing the Father is in control of all that surrounds your life. Nothing comes to you except what the Father allows, and because He loves you supremely He will use all things for His good purpose as you love Him and follow Him.
In your marriage, God has given a simple and beautiful pattern. He calls husbands to love their wives as Christ loved the church and gave Himself for it, and He calls wives to respect and support their husbands. When a husband shows that kind of self giving love, it becomes much easier for a wife to respond with trust and respect, and the two are drawn together. When that love is missing, hearts are pulled apart. Your gratitude for your wife is a gift. Cherish her, show her daily that she is supremely loved, follow the example of your heavenly Father in how you walk in love toward her, and let your words and actions reflect the love Christ has shown you.
As a father to adult children, your example still matters deeply. The command to honor father and mother carries a promise, and it reminds us that family relationships are close to God's heart. Even now you can honor God by being steady, truthful, sober minded and loving before your children, pointing them to Christ not only by what you say but by how you live.
Concerning work, Jesus said His food was to do the will of the Father and to finish His work, and He was always in harmony with the Father, doing what He saw the Father do. God is a worker and He calls us to reflect Him in faithful, diligent labor. Tomorrow when you return to work, go as one who serves the Lord, seeking not your own will but His, doing your tasks honestly and dependably as a witness to Him.
You mentioned staying in bed and drinking to relax. True rest is good and God gives it, but alcohol will never give the peace or strength you are seeking. It dulls the heart that God wants to make alive and clear. Bring that struggle honestly to Jesus, ask Him to be your comfort and your strength, and choose the sober, self controlled life that the Holy Spirit produces. A simple meal and a day of rest can be received with thanksgiving, but let your refreshment come from the Lord Himself.
May the Father draw you nearer, fill you with His love, and continue His work in you so that His love may be perfected in you and flow through you to your wife, your children and those you work alongside. May He give you grace to love your wife as Christ loves you, to walk as a faithful father, and to labor with integrity, all for His glory.
Father, thank You for this man who cries out to You. Thank You for Your Holy Spirit at work in his heart, for Your grace that saves and transforms. Fill him with Your love, give him victory over every temptation, help him to represent You well in his home and at his work, and let Your peace guard his heart as he trusts that You are in control. In Jesus name, Amen.
Jesus taught that when we have seen Him we have seen the Father, and that the words He spoke and the works He did were the Father dwelling in Him. In the same way, God wants your life to be an expression of Himself to the world around you. He wants to work in you before He works through you. That inner work often comes through testing and conviction, and Scripture tells us to count it as joy when we go through hard trials, because God is shaping us and preparing us for the work He has planned for us to do for His glory. His grace that saved you is also the power that continues to form Christ in you by His Holy Spirit.
That work begins with the simplest work God asks of us, which is to believe on Jesus whom He sent. As you trust Him and walk close to Him, He will give you His peace, the peace that comes from knowing the Father is in control of all that surrounds your life. Nothing comes to you except what the Father allows, and because He loves you supremely He will use all things for His good purpose as you love Him and follow Him.
In your marriage, God has given a simple and beautiful pattern. He calls husbands to love their wives as Christ loved the church and gave Himself for it, and He calls wives to respect and support their husbands. When a husband shows that kind of self giving love, it becomes much easier for a wife to respond with trust and respect, and the two are drawn together. When that love is missing, hearts are pulled apart. Your gratitude for your wife is a gift. Cherish her, show her daily that she is supremely loved, follow the example of your heavenly Father in how you walk in love toward her, and let your words and actions reflect the love Christ has shown you.
As a father to adult children, your example still matters deeply. The command to honor father and mother carries a promise, and it reminds us that family relationships are close to God's heart. Even now you can honor God by being steady, truthful, sober minded and loving before your children, pointing them to Christ not only by what you say but by how you live.
Concerning work, Jesus said His food was to do the will of the Father and to finish His work, and He was always in harmony with the Father, doing what He saw the Father do. God is a worker and He calls us to reflect Him in faithful, diligent labor. Tomorrow when you return to work, go as one who serves the Lord, seeking not your own will but His, doing your tasks honestly and dependably as a witness to Him.
You mentioned staying in bed and drinking to relax. True rest is good and God gives it, but alcohol will never give the peace or strength you are seeking. It dulls the heart that God wants to make alive and clear. Bring that struggle honestly to Jesus, ask Him to be your comfort and your strength, and choose the sober, self controlled life that the Holy Spirit produces. A simple meal and a day of rest can be received with thanksgiving, but let your refreshment come from the Lord Himself.
May the Father draw you nearer, fill you with His love, and continue His work in you so that His love may be perfected in you and flow through you to your wife, your children and those you work alongside. May He give you grace to love your wife as Christ loves you, to walk as a faithful father, and to labor with integrity, all for His glory.
Father, thank You for this man who cries out to You. Thank You for Your Holy Spirit at work in his heart, for Your grace that saves and transforms. Fill him with Your love, give him victory over every temptation, help him to represent You well in his home and at his work, and let Your peace guard his heart as he trusts that You are in control. In Jesus name, Amen.
