Silas
Beloved of All
Thank you for pouring out your heart with such honesty and persistence. Your love for your family and your desire for Jesus to be glorified in every part of your home is clear, and it is right to bring all of these burdens to Him. He hears the cries of His people and He has promised to answer when we call upon Him in the day of trouble.
The greatest need you lifted up is salvation, and Scripture puts that first for a reason. The name Jesus itself means the Lord is salvation, for He came to save His people from their sins. That salvation is not something we can achieve on our own. It rests entirely on His grace and His finished work on the cross as the spotless Lamb who takes away sin and cleanses us, and on the faith that He Himself gives us to believe. The grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all, and now is the accepted time, now is the day of salvation. That is why your prayers for unsaved family members and relatives are so vital. Do not stop asking the Lord to open their hearts to the gospel while the opportunity remains.
The Bible says if we confess with our mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in our heart that God raised Him from the dead, we will be saved, for with the mouth we confess unto salvation. There will be a day when every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord, but that confession then will not be unto salvation. It will be an acknowledgment of what was rejected. To confess Him and submit to His Lordship now is what brings eternal life, and that is the confession we long for your loved ones to make.
For those who have already believed, Scripture says to work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. That does not mean to work for your salvation, as if you could earn it by effort. It means to live out, with reverence and dependence on God, what He has already worked within you. He is at work in you to will and to do according to His good pleasure. Your desire to repent of what grieves Him, to be filled with His Spirit, to love and obey Him first, and to walk in wisdom is exactly that working out. When you fail, as we all do, remember His mercies are new every morning and His grace remains the foundation.
You also asked for healing, deliverance, and protection, and for God to block what is not good and to fight your battles. It is right to ask for healing. Jesus showed His power over sickness, infirmity, and spiritual oppression, and the prophet Isaiah points to Him as the one who bore our sorrows. At the same time, Scripture shows that healing comes in different ways. Sometimes it is instant, sometimes it is gradual, sometimes it comes through the natural processes God Himself designed in our bodies, which are still His divine work, and sometimes, as with the apostle Paul and his thorn in the flesh, the Lord in His wisdom does not remove the affliction even after earnest prayer. We do not always understand why some are healed and others are not in this life. What we do know is that the greatest miracle in any life is the forgiveness of sins and the gift of eternal life. Hold healing and deliverance before the Lord with faith, while resting in His sovereign goodness to do what is best.
Your trust in His protection is well placed. He is our refuge and shelter, and His promises that no weapon formed against His people will finally prevail and that He guards those who dwell in Him are true. To plead the blood of Jesus is to rest in His perfect sacrifice that cleanses from all sin, and to ask for His presence and His holy protection around you, your thoughts and emotions, and your home is to ask according to His will. He commands His angels concerning His people and surrounds His own with His presence.
Regarding relationships in your family, we join you in praying for salvation and deliverance first. God designed marriage as a lifelong covenant of one man and one woman, and He calls His people to purity and to reserve intimacy for within that covenant. We will not ask God to bless what is outside His design. Instead we pray that the Lord will save, convict where there is sin, break bondage and addiction and compulsive patterns, remove strongholds and lies, and lead each person into freedom and holiness. Where a relationship is dysfunctional or contrary to His will, we pray He will graciously expose it, stop what would lead to further harm, and draw each heart to Himself.
We lift up your daughter and the other young ones you mentioned, that the Lord would strengthen faith, give confidence in Him, help with school, tests, homework and understanding, provide good and wholesome friendships and favor, heal physical needs such as spasms and other wounds, and heal trauma, rejection and abandonment with His truth. We pray for peace in your home, for restoration where relationships are strained, and for comfort and renewal where there is burnout.
We also bring your work, meetings, planning, leadership and shepherding responsibilities, and the many practical needs and decisions before the Lord. He gives wisdom generously when we ask, and He guides those who acknowledge Him. We pray He will help you with anger and frustration, guard your words, give you grace to correct where needed, and turn what the enemy meant for evil into blessing. Your confession of failing and of speaking in frustration is met with His mercy and forgiveness when we repent.
Continue to call upon Him as you have, trusting the promise that He hears the persistent prayers of His people and will act in His perfect time. Keep seeking Him, keep loving Him first, and keep interceding for your family. He who began a good work is faithful to complete it, and He desires to bring many sons and daughters into glory through the captain of our salvation, Jesus Christ.
The greatest need you lifted up is salvation, and Scripture puts that first for a reason. The name Jesus itself means the Lord is salvation, for He came to save His people from their sins. That salvation is not something we can achieve on our own. It rests entirely on His grace and His finished work on the cross as the spotless Lamb who takes away sin and cleanses us, and on the faith that He Himself gives us to believe. The grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all, and now is the accepted time, now is the day of salvation. That is why your prayers for unsaved family members and relatives are so vital. Do not stop asking the Lord to open their hearts to the gospel while the opportunity remains.
The Bible says if we confess with our mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in our heart that God raised Him from the dead, we will be saved, for with the mouth we confess unto salvation. There will be a day when every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord, but that confession then will not be unto salvation. It will be an acknowledgment of what was rejected. To confess Him and submit to His Lordship now is what brings eternal life, and that is the confession we long for your loved ones to make.
For those who have already believed, Scripture says to work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. That does not mean to work for your salvation, as if you could earn it by effort. It means to live out, with reverence and dependence on God, what He has already worked within you. He is at work in you to will and to do according to His good pleasure. Your desire to repent of what grieves Him, to be filled with His Spirit, to love and obey Him first, and to walk in wisdom is exactly that working out. When you fail, as we all do, remember His mercies are new every morning and His grace remains the foundation.
You also asked for healing, deliverance, and protection, and for God to block what is not good and to fight your battles. It is right to ask for healing. Jesus showed His power over sickness, infirmity, and spiritual oppression, and the prophet Isaiah points to Him as the one who bore our sorrows. At the same time, Scripture shows that healing comes in different ways. Sometimes it is instant, sometimes it is gradual, sometimes it comes through the natural processes God Himself designed in our bodies, which are still His divine work, and sometimes, as with the apostle Paul and his thorn in the flesh, the Lord in His wisdom does not remove the affliction even after earnest prayer. We do not always understand why some are healed and others are not in this life. What we do know is that the greatest miracle in any life is the forgiveness of sins and the gift of eternal life. Hold healing and deliverance before the Lord with faith, while resting in His sovereign goodness to do what is best.
Your trust in His protection is well placed. He is our refuge and shelter, and His promises that no weapon formed against His people will finally prevail and that He guards those who dwell in Him are true. To plead the blood of Jesus is to rest in His perfect sacrifice that cleanses from all sin, and to ask for His presence and His holy protection around you, your thoughts and emotions, and your home is to ask according to His will. He commands His angels concerning His people and surrounds His own with His presence.
Regarding relationships in your family, we join you in praying for salvation and deliverance first. God designed marriage as a lifelong covenant of one man and one woman, and He calls His people to purity and to reserve intimacy for within that covenant. We will not ask God to bless what is outside His design. Instead we pray that the Lord will save, convict where there is sin, break bondage and addiction and compulsive patterns, remove strongholds and lies, and lead each person into freedom and holiness. Where a relationship is dysfunctional or contrary to His will, we pray He will graciously expose it, stop what would lead to further harm, and draw each heart to Himself.
We lift up your daughter and the other young ones you mentioned, that the Lord would strengthen faith, give confidence in Him, help with school, tests, homework and understanding, provide good and wholesome friendships and favor, heal physical needs such as spasms and other wounds, and heal trauma, rejection and abandonment with His truth. We pray for peace in your home, for restoration where relationships are strained, and for comfort and renewal where there is burnout.
We also bring your work, meetings, planning, leadership and shepherding responsibilities, and the many practical needs and decisions before the Lord. He gives wisdom generously when we ask, and He guides those who acknowledge Him. We pray He will help you with anger and frustration, guard your words, give you grace to correct where needed, and turn what the enemy meant for evil into blessing. Your confession of failing and of speaking in frustration is met with His mercy and forgiveness when we repent.
Continue to call upon Him as you have, trusting the promise that He hears the persistent prayers of His people and will act in His perfect time. Keep seeking Him, keep loving Him first, and keep interceding for your family. He who began a good work is faithful to complete it, and He desires to bring many sons and daughters into glory through the captain of our salvation, Jesus Christ.
