Silas
Beloved of All
Your prayer for your son is heard, and God understands the ache you feel as a parent who has just discovered what he has been doing in secret. It is painful to love a child deeply and at the same time see him choosing a path that is harmful and wrong, and it is right to bring him before Jesus.
You asked that God would convict his heart and that he would see how wrong this is and stop. That is exactly what God desires, a true change of heart and not just a temporary stop. In Scripture repentance means a real change, a turning away from the old life to live a new life. It was pictured in the baptism in the Jordan, which is a picture of death to the old life and rising to walk in newness. God looks for fruit that shows that change has actually happened, because words alone are not enough. The axe is laid to the root of the tree, and a good tree is known by the good fruit it bears.
There is a difference between being sorry about consequences and being truly repentant before God. One man in Scripture wept bitterly, but what he was seeking with tears was not a changed heart, he was seeking the blessing he had lost. His tears were not repentance at all. That helps us pray more wisely for your son. It is not enough for him to be upset that he was found out, or to feel bad for a moment and then go back to the same pattern. Pray that God will bring a deep work in his heart, so that he sees his sin as God sees it, turns from it, and then shows that turning by clear fruit over time, including turning away from posting those things and from using the internet in that way.
Take comfort in how God loves sons. God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, born of a woman under the law, to redeem those under the law so that we might receive adoption as sons. Jesus is the only begotten Son in a way no one else is, and yet through Him God adopts us into His family and puts the Spirit of His Son in our hearts. That same love that moved Abraham to not withhold his only son, which foreshadowed what the Father would do for us, is the love God has for your son. No matter what he has posted, he is not beyond the reach of that redeeming love if he will turn to Christ.
Conviction is personal before the Lord. To one person a thing is unclean because he esteems it so before God, and he does it unto the Lord. Your son needs his own encounter with the Lord where he hears God for himself and responds to Him. You cannot pass conviction to him, but you can keep praying that the Holy Spirit will speak to him, keep loving him truthfully, and set wise and firm boundaries in your home regarding sleep and internet use. Loving him does not mean ignoring what is wrong, it means wanting for him the same new life God offers.
May the Lord give you peace as you keep praying, and give your son rest at night and a heart that is tender to the voice of God. Pray that God will grant him true repentance, that the old life would be buried and that he would rise to walk in a new way, with fruit that proves the change is real. Jesus is able to do that work, and we join you in asking Him to do it.
You asked that God would convict his heart and that he would see how wrong this is and stop. That is exactly what God desires, a true change of heart and not just a temporary stop. In Scripture repentance means a real change, a turning away from the old life to live a new life. It was pictured in the baptism in the Jordan, which is a picture of death to the old life and rising to walk in newness. God looks for fruit that shows that change has actually happened, because words alone are not enough. The axe is laid to the root of the tree, and a good tree is known by the good fruit it bears.
There is a difference between being sorry about consequences and being truly repentant before God. One man in Scripture wept bitterly, but what he was seeking with tears was not a changed heart, he was seeking the blessing he had lost. His tears were not repentance at all. That helps us pray more wisely for your son. It is not enough for him to be upset that he was found out, or to feel bad for a moment and then go back to the same pattern. Pray that God will bring a deep work in his heart, so that he sees his sin as God sees it, turns from it, and then shows that turning by clear fruit over time, including turning away from posting those things and from using the internet in that way.
Take comfort in how God loves sons. God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, born of a woman under the law, to redeem those under the law so that we might receive adoption as sons. Jesus is the only begotten Son in a way no one else is, and yet through Him God adopts us into His family and puts the Spirit of His Son in our hearts. That same love that moved Abraham to not withhold his only son, which foreshadowed what the Father would do for us, is the love God has for your son. No matter what he has posted, he is not beyond the reach of that redeeming love if he will turn to Christ.
Conviction is personal before the Lord. To one person a thing is unclean because he esteems it so before God, and he does it unto the Lord. Your son needs his own encounter with the Lord where he hears God for himself and responds to Him. You cannot pass conviction to him, but you can keep praying that the Holy Spirit will speak to him, keep loving him truthfully, and set wise and firm boundaries in your home regarding sleep and internet use. Loving him does not mean ignoring what is wrong, it means wanting for him the same new life God offers.
May the Lord give you peace as you keep praying, and give your son rest at night and a heart that is tender to the voice of God. Pray that God will grant him true repentance, that the old life would be buried and that he would rise to walk in a new way, with fruit that proves the change is real. Jesus is able to do that work, and we join you in asking Him to do it.
