Silas
Beloved of All
There is deep pain and heavy concern in what you have shared, and it is right to bring it before the Lord. The loss of unborn life, the breaking of marriages and families around you, and the sense of confusion and torment spreading from house to house are grievous things, and God sees them.
Scripture shows that when sin entered the world, a curse came upon humanity and upon the earth itself. For the man there was hard labor, for the woman pain in childbearing, for the ground thorns and thistles. That is why the crown placed on Jesus at His crucifixion was a crown of thorns. It was a fitting sign, because He was bearing the curse that sin had brought. The promise of the gospel is that Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us when He hung on the tree. He bore the judgment that we deserved so that the blessing promised to Abraham might come to all who trust in Him through faith and receive the Spirit.
Because of that, those who belong to Jesus do not need to live in fear of a contagious curse passing from family to family or house to house, or of someone being able to put a curse on them that God must honor. Scripture says that a curse without cause shall not alight, and that no weapon formed against His people shall prosper. There is an account of a man who was hired to curse God's people, and God would not listen to him. Instead God turned the attempted curse into a blessing, because He loved His people. The enemy can tempt people to bring harm on themselves by leading them into sin, but he cannot curse those whom God has blessed.
You mentioned a sense of confusion, false imitation, and meddling that brings strife. The Bible uses Babylon as a picture of confusion, from the time God confused language there when men rebelled against Him. That same confusion continues when people follow worldly wisdom. Where there is envy and strife, there is confusion and every evil work. The world shows this confusion clearly when it protects the egg of an eagle more carefully than the life of an unborn child. That is a reversal of true values. The wisdom that comes from above is different. It is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and willing to yield, and it brings order and peace. God established order for the home and for His people, and when that order is abandoned, confusion follows.
You also mentioned demonic influence and torment. The Bible teaches that evil spirits are real, that they can afflict and deceive, and that they will one day be confined. They have power to torment, and as spirit beings they are not kept out by locked doors. Yet they are under God's authority and restraint. In the visions given to John, those locust like powers were not allowed to harm those who had the seal of God on their foreheads. God makes a separation and sets a limit on what they can do. Those who are sealed in Christ are kept by Him, and His Spirit striving with people is a great mercy, because God is not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.
Concerning divorce, you quoted rightly from Matthew 19 and Deuteronomy 24. From the beginning God's design was that marriage be a lifelong covenant of one man and one woman, and the two become one flesh. What God has joined together, man should not separate. The provision for a certificate of divorce given through Moses was permitted because of hardness of heart. It was not God's original or ideal way. In Jesus' day teachers debated what uncleanness could allow a man to put away his wife, some taking a very narrow view that it meant sexual immorality alone, others taking a broad view. Jesus pointed back to creation and taught that except for sexual immorality, to divorce and marry another is to commit adultery. At the same time, divorce and remarriage, though a serious failure to reach God's ideal, is not an unpardonable sin. There is forgiveness and grace in Christ for those who repent and turn to Him, as there is for all sin.
You asked for prayer for many women and men, girlfriends and boyfriends, who have been through painful divorces and broken relationships. We can pray for them with compassion, that God would bring healing where there has been tragedy and disgrace, that He would turn what was meant for ruin into testimony of His grace. For those who are dating or living together outside of marriage, we do not ask God to bless that arrangement, because Scripture places sexual union and living together within the covenant of marriage. Instead we pray that each person would come to salvation through Jesus Christ alone if they have not, that they would be cleansed from the works of the flesh described in Galatians 5, which include envy, drunkenness, sexual immorality and strife, and that they would bear the fruit of the Spirit. We pray that as Titus 3 says, those who were once foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by passions and living in malice and envy would be washed and renewed by the Holy Spirit, and would pursue purity, whether that leads to a godly marriage or to faithful singleness before the Lord.
We also pray for your neighborhood and for the families grieving the loss of little lives, that God would comfort them, defend the value of every child made in His image, and guard your own heart and tongue. Scripture warns that the same tongue can bless God and curse people made in His likeness, and it exhorts us to use our words to bless and build up. May the Lord keep you from bewilderment and fear, fill you with His peaceable wisdom, and help you to walk in the protection of His blessing, watching and keeping your garments clean as you wait for Christ's return.
We join you in asking the Lord to rebuke every work of darkness, to bring repentance where there is hardness of heart, to heal those wounded by divorce, to establish strong and faithful marriages according to His design, and to let His blessing rest upon all who trust in Jesus.
Scripture shows that when sin entered the world, a curse came upon humanity and upon the earth itself. For the man there was hard labor, for the woman pain in childbearing, for the ground thorns and thistles. That is why the crown placed on Jesus at His crucifixion was a crown of thorns. It was a fitting sign, because He was bearing the curse that sin had brought. The promise of the gospel is that Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us when He hung on the tree. He bore the judgment that we deserved so that the blessing promised to Abraham might come to all who trust in Him through faith and receive the Spirit.
Because of that, those who belong to Jesus do not need to live in fear of a contagious curse passing from family to family or house to house, or of someone being able to put a curse on them that God must honor. Scripture says that a curse without cause shall not alight, and that no weapon formed against His people shall prosper. There is an account of a man who was hired to curse God's people, and God would not listen to him. Instead God turned the attempted curse into a blessing, because He loved His people. The enemy can tempt people to bring harm on themselves by leading them into sin, but he cannot curse those whom God has blessed.
You mentioned a sense of confusion, false imitation, and meddling that brings strife. The Bible uses Babylon as a picture of confusion, from the time God confused language there when men rebelled against Him. That same confusion continues when people follow worldly wisdom. Where there is envy and strife, there is confusion and every evil work. The world shows this confusion clearly when it protects the egg of an eagle more carefully than the life of an unborn child. That is a reversal of true values. The wisdom that comes from above is different. It is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and willing to yield, and it brings order and peace. God established order for the home and for His people, and when that order is abandoned, confusion follows.
You also mentioned demonic influence and torment. The Bible teaches that evil spirits are real, that they can afflict and deceive, and that they will one day be confined. They have power to torment, and as spirit beings they are not kept out by locked doors. Yet they are under God's authority and restraint. In the visions given to John, those locust like powers were not allowed to harm those who had the seal of God on their foreheads. God makes a separation and sets a limit on what they can do. Those who are sealed in Christ are kept by Him, and His Spirit striving with people is a great mercy, because God is not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.
Concerning divorce, you quoted rightly from Matthew 19 and Deuteronomy 24. From the beginning God's design was that marriage be a lifelong covenant of one man and one woman, and the two become one flesh. What God has joined together, man should not separate. The provision for a certificate of divorce given through Moses was permitted because of hardness of heart. It was not God's original or ideal way. In Jesus' day teachers debated what uncleanness could allow a man to put away his wife, some taking a very narrow view that it meant sexual immorality alone, others taking a broad view. Jesus pointed back to creation and taught that except for sexual immorality, to divorce and marry another is to commit adultery. At the same time, divorce and remarriage, though a serious failure to reach God's ideal, is not an unpardonable sin. There is forgiveness and grace in Christ for those who repent and turn to Him, as there is for all sin.
You asked for prayer for many women and men, girlfriends and boyfriends, who have been through painful divorces and broken relationships. We can pray for them with compassion, that God would bring healing where there has been tragedy and disgrace, that He would turn what was meant for ruin into testimony of His grace. For those who are dating or living together outside of marriage, we do not ask God to bless that arrangement, because Scripture places sexual union and living together within the covenant of marriage. Instead we pray that each person would come to salvation through Jesus Christ alone if they have not, that they would be cleansed from the works of the flesh described in Galatians 5, which include envy, drunkenness, sexual immorality and strife, and that they would bear the fruit of the Spirit. We pray that as Titus 3 says, those who were once foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by passions and living in malice and envy would be washed and renewed by the Holy Spirit, and would pursue purity, whether that leads to a godly marriage or to faithful singleness before the Lord.
We also pray for your neighborhood and for the families grieving the loss of little lives, that God would comfort them, defend the value of every child made in His image, and guard your own heart and tongue. Scripture warns that the same tongue can bless God and curse people made in His likeness, and it exhorts us to use our words to bless and build up. May the Lord keep you from bewilderment and fear, fill you with His peaceable wisdom, and help you to walk in the protection of His blessing, watching and keeping your garments clean as you wait for Christ's return.
We join you in asking the Lord to rebuke every work of darkness, to bring repentance where there is hardness of heart, to heal those wounded by divorce, to establish strong and faithful marriages according to His design, and to let His blessing rest upon all who trust in Jesus.
