Silas
Beloved of All
Your request shows how heavy and confusing this situation has become, with strife spilling from one home into others and leaving you feeling tormented and unsettled. It is right to bring this before the Lord and to ask Him to rebuke what is false, divisive and destructive.
Scripture is clear about God's design from the beginning. Jesus taught that marriage was meant to be a lifelong covenant between one man and one woman, and that divorce was permitted because of hardness of heart, not because it was God's original intention. He allows divorce only in the case of sexual immorality, and otherwise calls His people to faithfulness. The law given through Moses about a certificate of divorce was never an encouragement to break covenant lightly. The contrast you noted in Galatians is also true. The works of the flesh produce envy, strife, impurity and hatred, and those who live in them will not inherit the kingdom of God. The fruit of the Spirit is entirely different, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control. Titus reminds us that we once lived in malice and envy, deceived and enslaved by passions, but God in mercy saves us and changes us through Christ.
That change begins with peace with God. We were at war with God because of sin, but He has made a peace treaty through the blood of Jesus Christ on the cross. When you trust in Christ alone for salvation, your sins are forgiven and you are no longer His enemy. From that peace with God comes the peace of God, the steady keeping of your heart and mind. The prophet said God will keep in perfect peace the one whose mind is stayed on Him, because that person trusts in Him. Jesus said to His disciples, my peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you, not as the world gives. The world cannot understand this peace, but it guards the heart of the believer even when everything around is chaos and turmoil. As you turn your mind toward Christ and keep your thoughts stayed on Him, His peace begins to fill your heart with the assurance that He will take care of what you cannot control.
You also described meddling, false imitation, slander and confusion that feels like a spiritual attack. The Bible teaches that demonic powers do torment and deceive, and their sting is painful like that of a scorpion, and no locked door can keep out a spirit being. Yet they have no authority to harm those who belong to God and are sealed by Him. At the same time Scripture warns us not to meddle with what is not our business. There is a proverb that it is better to have a dry crust of bread with quietness and love than a house full of feasting with strife. A united, loving household, even with very little, is more beautiful than abundance with contention. To intrude into another person's marriage or household, to stir up strife or to involve yourself in relationships God has not given you to carry, only brings hurt and tears down your own defenses. Love does no harm to a neighbor, and love is the fulfillment of the law. To love God supremely and to love your neighbor as yourself sums up what God requires.
The wisdom that comes from above is peaceable. It leads to peace and brings you to peace. Those who sow in peace will reap a harvest of righteousness, and Jesus said blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God. That does not mean you ignore wrong or allow abuse to continue. It means you refuse to return evil for evil, you speak truth without deceit, you do not slander, and you seek quietness and holiness before the Lord.
For those men and women, boyfriends and girlfriends, who have been through the pain of divorce or broken relationships, God's will is not that we ask Him to bless every relationship as it is, but that each person would come to salvation through Jesus alone, be healed, learn to walk in purity, and if they marry, enter a covenant as God designed, one man and one woman for life, with sexual union kept within that covenant. Pray for their repentance, healing and restoration to God's pattern, not for the affirming of what is outside His design.
Let us pray together. Father, in the name of Jesus Christ we ask You to rebuke every spirit of confusion, torment, envy and strife that has sought to harass this home and neighborhood. Forgive us through the blood of Jesus and grant peace with You, and then let Your perfect peace guard this heart and mind as trust is stayed on You. Expose what is false, silence slander and false imitation, and protect from sabotage, threats and violence. Bring conviction where there is hardness of heart, heal those wounded by divorce and broken relationships, and lead each one to know Jesus as Savior and to walk in the fruit of the Spirit. Teach us to love You supremely and to love our neighbor without doing harm, to avoid meddling that only brings hurt, and to sow peace so that we may reap righteousness. Set feet firmly in the gospel of peace and keep this life steadfast in Christ. Amen.
Scripture is clear about God's design from the beginning. Jesus taught that marriage was meant to be a lifelong covenant between one man and one woman, and that divorce was permitted because of hardness of heart, not because it was God's original intention. He allows divorce only in the case of sexual immorality, and otherwise calls His people to faithfulness. The law given through Moses about a certificate of divorce was never an encouragement to break covenant lightly. The contrast you noted in Galatians is also true. The works of the flesh produce envy, strife, impurity and hatred, and those who live in them will not inherit the kingdom of God. The fruit of the Spirit is entirely different, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control. Titus reminds us that we once lived in malice and envy, deceived and enslaved by passions, but God in mercy saves us and changes us through Christ.
That change begins with peace with God. We were at war with God because of sin, but He has made a peace treaty through the blood of Jesus Christ on the cross. When you trust in Christ alone for salvation, your sins are forgiven and you are no longer His enemy. From that peace with God comes the peace of God, the steady keeping of your heart and mind. The prophet said God will keep in perfect peace the one whose mind is stayed on Him, because that person trusts in Him. Jesus said to His disciples, my peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you, not as the world gives. The world cannot understand this peace, but it guards the heart of the believer even when everything around is chaos and turmoil. As you turn your mind toward Christ and keep your thoughts stayed on Him, His peace begins to fill your heart with the assurance that He will take care of what you cannot control.
You also described meddling, false imitation, slander and confusion that feels like a spiritual attack. The Bible teaches that demonic powers do torment and deceive, and their sting is painful like that of a scorpion, and no locked door can keep out a spirit being. Yet they have no authority to harm those who belong to God and are sealed by Him. At the same time Scripture warns us not to meddle with what is not our business. There is a proverb that it is better to have a dry crust of bread with quietness and love than a house full of feasting with strife. A united, loving household, even with very little, is more beautiful than abundance with contention. To intrude into another person's marriage or household, to stir up strife or to involve yourself in relationships God has not given you to carry, only brings hurt and tears down your own defenses. Love does no harm to a neighbor, and love is the fulfillment of the law. To love God supremely and to love your neighbor as yourself sums up what God requires.
The wisdom that comes from above is peaceable. It leads to peace and brings you to peace. Those who sow in peace will reap a harvest of righteousness, and Jesus said blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God. That does not mean you ignore wrong or allow abuse to continue. It means you refuse to return evil for evil, you speak truth without deceit, you do not slander, and you seek quietness and holiness before the Lord.
For those men and women, boyfriends and girlfriends, who have been through the pain of divorce or broken relationships, God's will is not that we ask Him to bless every relationship as it is, but that each person would come to salvation through Jesus alone, be healed, learn to walk in purity, and if they marry, enter a covenant as God designed, one man and one woman for life, with sexual union kept within that covenant. Pray for their repentance, healing and restoration to God's pattern, not for the affirming of what is outside His design.
Let us pray together. Father, in the name of Jesus Christ we ask You to rebuke every spirit of confusion, torment, envy and strife that has sought to harass this home and neighborhood. Forgive us through the blood of Jesus and grant peace with You, and then let Your perfect peace guard this heart and mind as trust is stayed on You. Expose what is false, silence slander and false imitation, and protect from sabotage, threats and violence. Bring conviction where there is hardness of heart, heal those wounded by divorce and broken relationships, and lead each one to know Jesus as Savior and to walk in the fruit of the Spirit. Teach us to love You supremely and to love our neighbor without doing harm, to avoid meddling that only brings hurt, and to sow peace so that we may reap righteousness. Set feet firmly in the gospel of peace and keep this life steadfast in Christ. Amen.
