Silas
Beloved of All
Your honest prayer shows both deep pain and genuine faith, and I thank God for the way you are holding onto Him while still waiting for complete deliverance and healing. You have asked for protection, for salvation for your whole family, for healing and reconciliation and unity, and at the same time you have given thanks for what God has already done. That balance of honest need and thankfulness is pleasing to the Lord.
You have pleaded the promises of Psalm 91, Psalm 34:7, Zechariah 2:5 and others that God is a wall of fire around His people and that He commands His angels to guard those who fear Him. Scripture does teach that the Lord is your shield and your refuge, and that those who trust in Christ are kept in His care. Praying for that protection is right, and you can rest that your lives are in His hands, not left to chance or to the attacks that have wounded you so deeply.
At the center of all you have asked for is salvation, and that is the greatest need and the greatest miracle. The grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all through Jesus Christ, and Scripture says now is the accepted time, now is the day of salvation. Salvation is not something we can earn or achieve by our own effort. It is outside our ability and rests entirely on what Jesus has done and on the faith God gives us to believe in Him. 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. There will be a day when every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord, but then that confession will not bring salvation, it will only acknowledge the truth that was rejected. Today, while God is speaking to the heart, that confession does bring salvation. For you and for each member of your family, the invitation is open to whosoever will come, and Jesus will not cast out anyone who comes to Him. He is the captain and originator of our salvation who suffered to bring many sons and daughters into glory, not only forgiving sin but giving the promise of eternal life in His kingdom.
Because salvation is a gift of grace, we are then called to work out what God has already worked in us, with reverence and humility. That does not mean working for salvation through fear, but living out with careful obedience the new life God has placed within you, trusting that it is God Himself who is at work in you to will and to do His good pleasure. Part of that is the ministry of reconciliation. You long for reconciliation and unity in your family, and true unity comes as each person denies the self centered life, takes up the cross and walks in the Spirit. Only in that way can relationships be healed at the root.
You have also prayed for healing, for new hearts and new minds, for the fruit of the Spirit, for the restoring of your souls and for curses to be broken. The Lord does heal. Isaiah speaks of the suffering of the Messiah for our transgressions and also points to healing, and the bread of communion reminds us that His body was broken for us. Yet healing in this life takes different forms. Sometimes it is instant, sometimes it is gradual, sometimes it comes through the natural processes God Himself designed in our bodies, and sometimes God in His wisdom allows a thorn to remain as He did with Paul, to keep us dependent on His grace. What we can know with certainty is that Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, so that the blessing of forgiveness and the promise of the Spirit might be ours. He promises to give a new heart and a new spirit, to pour His love into our hearts, and to restore the soul as a shepherd restores his sheep. Joel speaks of God restoring the years that have been lost and broken, and that is His heart for you. Whatever healing He brings in body or mind, the greatest healing remains the forgiveness of sins, and that is secure in Christ.
For the many specific burdens you carry for your family members, for school and teachers, for difficult relationships and for work and responsibilities, I join you in asking the Lord to intervene with wisdom and holiness. Where relationships have been disastrous or dysfunctional, we do not ask God to bless what is outside His design for purity and for marriage as a lifelong covenant of one man and one woman. Instead we ask Him to bring conviction where needed, to break what is not of Him, to heal wounds, to give supernatural confidence that is rooted in Christ rather than in people, and to guide each person toward what is clean and whole. For conflicts where you have felt overlooked or where you have spoken out of frustration and fear, God offers forgiveness when we confess, and He gives grace to do better and to respond with kindness even in adversity. He also gives wisdom for daily tasks, for homework, for work duties and for times of rest, and He guards our sleep as we trust Him.
Continue to trust Him rather than leaning on your own understanding. He has not forgotten what He has already done, and He will not fail to complete what He has begun. Ask Him to pour out His Spirit, to fill your hearts with love, peace and joy, and to produce His fruit in you. Keep bringing every need to Him with thanksgiving, living out your salvation day by day with a reverent heart, knowing that He who began a good work will be faithful to it.
May the Lord hear your cry for salvation for your whole household, cover you with His protection, heal what is wounded, break every chain, give you new hearts that love what He loves, restore what has been broken, and fill your home with His peace. May He strengthen you with encouragement and with a faith that rests entirely in Jesus Christ, in whose name alone we are saved. Amen.
You have pleaded the promises of Psalm 91, Psalm 34:7, Zechariah 2:5 and others that God is a wall of fire around His people and that He commands His angels to guard those who fear Him. Scripture does teach that the Lord is your shield and your refuge, and that those who trust in Christ are kept in His care. Praying for that protection is right, and you can rest that your lives are in His hands, not left to chance or to the attacks that have wounded you so deeply.
At the center of all you have asked for is salvation, and that is the greatest need and the greatest miracle. The grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all through Jesus Christ, and Scripture says now is the accepted time, now is the day of salvation. Salvation is not something we can earn or achieve by our own effort. It is outside our ability and rests entirely on what Jesus has done and on the faith God gives us to believe in Him. 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. There will be a day when every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord, but then that confession will not bring salvation, it will only acknowledge the truth that was rejected. Today, while God is speaking to the heart, that confession does bring salvation. For you and for each member of your family, the invitation is open to whosoever will come, and Jesus will not cast out anyone who comes to Him. He is the captain and originator of our salvation who suffered to bring many sons and daughters into glory, not only forgiving sin but giving the promise of eternal life in His kingdom.
Because salvation is a gift of grace, we are then called to work out what God has already worked in us, with reverence and humility. That does not mean working for salvation through fear, but living out with careful obedience the new life God has placed within you, trusting that it is God Himself who is at work in you to will and to do His good pleasure. Part of that is the ministry of reconciliation. You long for reconciliation and unity in your family, and true unity comes as each person denies the self centered life, takes up the cross and walks in the Spirit. Only in that way can relationships be healed at the root.
You have also prayed for healing, for new hearts and new minds, for the fruit of the Spirit, for the restoring of your souls and for curses to be broken. The Lord does heal. Isaiah speaks of the suffering of the Messiah for our transgressions and also points to healing, and the bread of communion reminds us that His body was broken for us. Yet healing in this life takes different forms. Sometimes it is instant, sometimes it is gradual, sometimes it comes through the natural processes God Himself designed in our bodies, and sometimes God in His wisdom allows a thorn to remain as He did with Paul, to keep us dependent on His grace. What we can know with certainty is that Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, so that the blessing of forgiveness and the promise of the Spirit might be ours. He promises to give a new heart and a new spirit, to pour His love into our hearts, and to restore the soul as a shepherd restores his sheep. Joel speaks of God restoring the years that have been lost and broken, and that is His heart for you. Whatever healing He brings in body or mind, the greatest healing remains the forgiveness of sins, and that is secure in Christ.
For the many specific burdens you carry for your family members, for school and teachers, for difficult relationships and for work and responsibilities, I join you in asking the Lord to intervene with wisdom and holiness. Where relationships have been disastrous or dysfunctional, we do not ask God to bless what is outside His design for purity and for marriage as a lifelong covenant of one man and one woman. Instead we ask Him to bring conviction where needed, to break what is not of Him, to heal wounds, to give supernatural confidence that is rooted in Christ rather than in people, and to guide each person toward what is clean and whole. For conflicts where you have felt overlooked or where you have spoken out of frustration and fear, God offers forgiveness when we confess, and He gives grace to do better and to respond with kindness even in adversity. He also gives wisdom for daily tasks, for homework, for work duties and for times of rest, and He guards our sleep as we trust Him.
Continue to trust Him rather than leaning on your own understanding. He has not forgotten what He has already done, and He will not fail to complete what He has begun. Ask Him to pour out His Spirit, to fill your hearts with love, peace and joy, and to produce His fruit in you. Keep bringing every need to Him with thanksgiving, living out your salvation day by day with a reverent heart, knowing that He who began a good work will be faithful to it.
May the Lord hear your cry for salvation for your whole household, cover you with His protection, heal what is wounded, break every chain, give you new hearts that love what He loves, restore what has been broken, and fill your home with His peace. May He strengthen you with encouragement and with a faith that rests entirely in Jesus Christ, in whose name alone we are saved. Amen.
