Silas
Beloved of All
Your prayer reflects a beautiful confidence in Jesus as the Shepherd of His people, and it is a joy to join you in bringing these requests before Him.
Scripture presents Him as the Good Shepherd who laid down His life for the sheep, who knows His own and is known by them, who leads them out and goes before them so that they hear His voice and follow Him and do not follow another. He is the Lord who restores the soul, carries His lambs close to His heart, feeds His flock with wisdom and knowledge, and defends and comforts them. It is right to ask Him to give His angels charge over His people in spiritual battle, to strengthen the whole flock, and to raise up faithful shepherds who will care for the sheep as God desires, watching over them willingly and as examples, guarding both themselves and the flock from those who would distort the truth and draw people away. That guarding happens as we abide in Christ the vine, remain in His teaching, study His word, obey what He has commanded and teach others to do the same.
You also carry a burden for those who are suffering for their faith and for those in chains, and Scripture calls us to remember them as if we were bound with them. History shows that persecution has never destroyed the true work of Christ. In the earliest days those who were scattered by persecution went everywhere preaching the word and bearing witness to the resurrection, and God used that scattering to spread the gospel more widely. Under pressure the faith of many has grown stronger and the body has been drawn closer together in love and mutual support. Even when the outward history of the church has been marked by failure, compromise, and shame, and by attempts to join itself to the world or to legislate righteousness from the outside which can never change the heart, the Lord has always preserved a faithful witness within it. What He desires for His people is seen most clearly in the pattern of the early church in the book of Acts, a people marked by love, purity, and the power of the Holy Spirit. Where love grows cold the presence of the Spirit is grieved, but where there is repentance, cleansing from hypocrisy, and a fresh dependence on the Spirit, there is power and effectiveness again. The lack of power is not His fault but our need to return to Him.
So we pray with you for deliverance for the persecuted, for the same God who opened prison doors for Peter and who shook the foundations of the prison where Paul and Silas sang to bring salvation to a jailer and his household, to work now for the furtherance of the gospel. We ask for grace to sympathize deeply, to be willing to stand with those who suffer loss of property or freedom knowing we have a better and lasting possession, and to show the love of Christ in practical ways such as visiting those in prison, as Jesus taught that what is done for the least of His brothers is done for Him. Nothing can separate His sheep from His love, not even chains or suffering.
We join you also in asking for grace to draw near to God so that He draws near to us, to remain in Christ for apart from Him we can do nothing but through Him we can bear much fruit. May love abound with knowledge and discernment so that we choose what is best and are sincere and blameless, filled with the fruit of righteousness to the glory of God. May we keep Christ set apart as holy in our hearts, ready at any time to give a reason for the hope within us with gentleness and respect, and may the Lord deliver us from evil and from the evil one, and teach us to freely give what we have freely received, healing and helping in His name and giving all glory to Him. He gives rest to the weary and heavy laden, His yoke is easy and His burden light, and He is able to set free with just a word and to work all things for the advance of His good news.
May the Shepherd who leads, feeds, and keeps His sheep strengthen you and all who belong to Him, cause you to hear His voice clearly, and make you fruitful in love until He comes. In the name of Jesus.
Scripture presents Him as the Good Shepherd who laid down His life for the sheep, who knows His own and is known by them, who leads them out and goes before them so that they hear His voice and follow Him and do not follow another. He is the Lord who restores the soul, carries His lambs close to His heart, feeds His flock with wisdom and knowledge, and defends and comforts them. It is right to ask Him to give His angels charge over His people in spiritual battle, to strengthen the whole flock, and to raise up faithful shepherds who will care for the sheep as God desires, watching over them willingly and as examples, guarding both themselves and the flock from those who would distort the truth and draw people away. That guarding happens as we abide in Christ the vine, remain in His teaching, study His word, obey what He has commanded and teach others to do the same.
You also carry a burden for those who are suffering for their faith and for those in chains, and Scripture calls us to remember them as if we were bound with them. History shows that persecution has never destroyed the true work of Christ. In the earliest days those who were scattered by persecution went everywhere preaching the word and bearing witness to the resurrection, and God used that scattering to spread the gospel more widely. Under pressure the faith of many has grown stronger and the body has been drawn closer together in love and mutual support. Even when the outward history of the church has been marked by failure, compromise, and shame, and by attempts to join itself to the world or to legislate righteousness from the outside which can never change the heart, the Lord has always preserved a faithful witness within it. What He desires for His people is seen most clearly in the pattern of the early church in the book of Acts, a people marked by love, purity, and the power of the Holy Spirit. Where love grows cold the presence of the Spirit is grieved, but where there is repentance, cleansing from hypocrisy, and a fresh dependence on the Spirit, there is power and effectiveness again. The lack of power is not His fault but our need to return to Him.
So we pray with you for deliverance for the persecuted, for the same God who opened prison doors for Peter and who shook the foundations of the prison where Paul and Silas sang to bring salvation to a jailer and his household, to work now for the furtherance of the gospel. We ask for grace to sympathize deeply, to be willing to stand with those who suffer loss of property or freedom knowing we have a better and lasting possession, and to show the love of Christ in practical ways such as visiting those in prison, as Jesus taught that what is done for the least of His brothers is done for Him. Nothing can separate His sheep from His love, not even chains or suffering.
We join you also in asking for grace to draw near to God so that He draws near to us, to remain in Christ for apart from Him we can do nothing but through Him we can bear much fruit. May love abound with knowledge and discernment so that we choose what is best and are sincere and blameless, filled with the fruit of righteousness to the glory of God. May we keep Christ set apart as holy in our hearts, ready at any time to give a reason for the hope within us with gentleness and respect, and may the Lord deliver us from evil and from the evil one, and teach us to freely give what we have freely received, healing and helping in His name and giving all glory to Him. He gives rest to the weary and heavy laden, His yoke is easy and His burden light, and He is able to set free with just a word and to work all things for the advance of His good news.
May the Shepherd who leads, feeds, and keeps His sheep strengthen you and all who belong to Him, cause you to hear His voice clearly, and make you fruitful in love until He comes. In the name of Jesus.
