Silas
Beloved of All
Your prayer of thanksgiving is encouraging and it reflects a heart that wants to honor God. To give thanks for all He does, to ask for protection from evil, to seek His care over daily work and health and home, and to remember others and their unspoken needs, these are good and right requests to bring before the Lord.
Scripture gives us the example of Job, a man described as blameless and upright, one who reverenced God and hated evil. Those two things go together, for to reverence the Lord is to turn away from evil. What is striking is that even though cultures and times have changed greatly since Job lived, perhaps as far back as the days of Abraham not long after the flood, the same basic problems and the same deep needs of the human heart remain. The need for protection, for provision, for health, for peace with others, and for God to watch over us in weakness and sickness is just as real for you today as it was for him.
You asked God to keep you safe in employment and to keep work procedures stable, to help you care for your home, to keep you healthy and in good standing with others, and to watch over you when you are sick or need help, and to keep others safe as they travel. God hears these practical needs. He is not distant from the details of daily life. At the same time, the story of Job reminds us that we do not always understand His ways. Job lost his possessions, his family, and his health, and yet he said, shall we receive good from the hand of God and shall we not also receive hardship, and in all of this he did not sin with his lips or charge God with wrong. He did not understand his circumstances, and his friends who came to comfort him judged only from what they could see and from partial knowledge, which is always a dangerous way to judge. They assumed suffering must mean hidden sin, but they did not know the whole counsel of God.
That is why we can take comfort that God sees what we cannot see. He testified concerning Job that he was His servant, and He knows those who reverence Him today. Even when we cannot see Him or touch Him, He has made a way to Himself. No man can build a bridge to God, but God in His mercy has built the bridge to man through Jesus Christ, who stands between God and man and brings us near. Through Him our basic needs are met, and every sincere cry of the heart finds its answer in Him.
So we join you in prayer. We ask the Father in the name of Jesus to keep you and your household from evil, to grant you safety and steadiness in your employment, to provide wisdom and means to care for your home, to guard your health and to be near when you are sick or need help, to give you favor and peace with others, and to keep you safe in all areas of life. We also ask Him to watch over others as they go from place to place and to work in those unspoken situations you mentioned, bringing resolution without strain and stress according to His wisdom and mercy. May you continue to walk in the reverence of the Lord and in a hatred of evil, trusting that whether He gives what seems good to us or allows what is hard, His hand remains sovereign and His love remains faithful, and He will keep you and perfect that which concerns you as you trust in Christ.
Scripture gives us the example of Job, a man described as blameless and upright, one who reverenced God and hated evil. Those two things go together, for to reverence the Lord is to turn away from evil. What is striking is that even though cultures and times have changed greatly since Job lived, perhaps as far back as the days of Abraham not long after the flood, the same basic problems and the same deep needs of the human heart remain. The need for protection, for provision, for health, for peace with others, and for God to watch over us in weakness and sickness is just as real for you today as it was for him.
You asked God to keep you safe in employment and to keep work procedures stable, to help you care for your home, to keep you healthy and in good standing with others, and to watch over you when you are sick or need help, and to keep others safe as they travel. God hears these practical needs. He is not distant from the details of daily life. At the same time, the story of Job reminds us that we do not always understand His ways. Job lost his possessions, his family, and his health, and yet he said, shall we receive good from the hand of God and shall we not also receive hardship, and in all of this he did not sin with his lips or charge God with wrong. He did not understand his circumstances, and his friends who came to comfort him judged only from what they could see and from partial knowledge, which is always a dangerous way to judge. They assumed suffering must mean hidden sin, but they did not know the whole counsel of God.
That is why we can take comfort that God sees what we cannot see. He testified concerning Job that he was His servant, and He knows those who reverence Him today. Even when we cannot see Him or touch Him, He has made a way to Himself. No man can build a bridge to God, but God in His mercy has built the bridge to man through Jesus Christ, who stands between God and man and brings us near. Through Him our basic needs are met, and every sincere cry of the heart finds its answer in Him.
So we join you in prayer. We ask the Father in the name of Jesus to keep you and your household from evil, to grant you safety and steadiness in your employment, to provide wisdom and means to care for your home, to guard your health and to be near when you are sick or need help, to give you favor and peace with others, and to keep you safe in all areas of life. We also ask Him to watch over others as they go from place to place and to work in those unspoken situations you mentioned, bringing resolution without strain and stress according to His wisdom and mercy. May you continue to walk in the reverence of the Lord and in a hatred of evil, trusting that whether He gives what seems good to us or allows what is hard, His hand remains sovereign and His love remains faithful, and He will keep you and perfect that which concerns you as you trust in Christ.
