Silas
Beloved of All
Your heart is carrying a heavy weight of grief and guilt and shock, and it is understandable to feel overwhelmed when those you expected to love you have responded with cruelty and rejection. God sees that you did the best you could, He knows your sorrow, and He knows your desire for truth to come out and for what is right to stand.
The guilt you feel is real, and Scripture speaks directly to it. Guilt makes us feel alienated and separated, as if we no longer belong, and deep inside we feel we must be punished to be free from it. The good news of the gospel is that Jesus took your guilt upon Himself on the cross. He fulfilled the righteous demands of the law and paid the penalty for sin completely. When you trust in Him, He forgives and cleanses, and that haunting sense of guilt can be lifted. You do not have to carry it as a punishment any longer. Through His death, the barrier is removed and you are brought back into fellowship, able to be at home again as part of His family.
That belonging is central to the peace you are asking for. God does not only give peace, He is our peace. Through the cross He tore down the wall of hostility and made a way to reconcile us to Himself, so that those who were once far off and those who were near have the same access to the Father by one Spirit. He has offered a peace treaty to all who have been at war with Him. When you make peace with God through forgiveness of sins, that war ends, and then peace can begin to settle within your own heart. The Lord keeps in perfect peace the one whose mind is stayed on Him, because that person trusts in Him. Jesus said to His disciples, peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you. This is first the quiet assurance that you are no longer running from God or fighting against Him, and then it becomes the steady peace of God that guards your heart when you keep your eyes on Him.
That inner peace then helps you face outward struggles in a different way. The wisdom that comes from above is peaceable, and those who sow in peace reap a harvest of righteousness. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God. You have said you are for peace while others around you are for strife, and that is a painful place to live. Like the psalmist you can say your soul has dwelt long with those who hate peace. God understands that turmoil.
He also understands family rejection. Jesus Himself was not honored in His own country and among His own family, and at one time even His brothers did not believe Him and thought He had lost His senses. If your own family has disowned you, know that when you belong to Jesus you are brought into the family of God. You are no longer a stranger, but a member of His household, with a place and a home in His kingdom. The ties in that spiritual family can be deeper than blood ties when blood family does not share faith, and God will build you up as part of His dwelling through His Spirit.
You prayed for truth to be revealed, for wrongdoing to fail, for your rights to be protected, and for just consequences, and for protection from a person who has been mean and manipulative. It is right to pray for truth and justice and for God to restrain evil. God sees cruelty and manipulation, and He is the righteous judge. Rather than taking vengeance into your own hands, you can place this person and the whole situation into God's hands, asking Him to expose what is false, to stop what is harmful, to protect you and to bring about what is just in His way and time. It is also right to seek wise and lawful boundaries to keep yourself and those under your care safe, including your pets, which God knows you love and care for. Ask Him for practical protection and for help from trustworthy people around you.
You rebuked sin in the name of Jesus, and that is right to name evil as evil. Continue to stand against sin while also asking God to heal your own heart and to fill you with His love, kindness, and peace. You are not alone in your shock and sorrow. The Prince of Peace, of whose government and peace there will be no end, is able to heal those who are far off and those who are near when they come to Him.
Praying for you now that God will forgive and cleanse where you need forgiveness, lift the burden of false guilt, keep your mind stayed on Him so you know His perfect peace, surround you with His protection, let truth come to light and wrong be stopped, guard your home and your pets, and bring you into the comfort of belonging in His family. May you experience that you are reconciled to God through the cross, that you have access to the Father, and that you can live as one who sows peace and reaps righteousness, trusting Him to ordain peace for you as you walk with Jesus.
The guilt you feel is real, and Scripture speaks directly to it. Guilt makes us feel alienated and separated, as if we no longer belong, and deep inside we feel we must be punished to be free from it. The good news of the gospel is that Jesus took your guilt upon Himself on the cross. He fulfilled the righteous demands of the law and paid the penalty for sin completely. When you trust in Him, He forgives and cleanses, and that haunting sense of guilt can be lifted. You do not have to carry it as a punishment any longer. Through His death, the barrier is removed and you are brought back into fellowship, able to be at home again as part of His family.
That belonging is central to the peace you are asking for. God does not only give peace, He is our peace. Through the cross He tore down the wall of hostility and made a way to reconcile us to Himself, so that those who were once far off and those who were near have the same access to the Father by one Spirit. He has offered a peace treaty to all who have been at war with Him. When you make peace with God through forgiveness of sins, that war ends, and then peace can begin to settle within your own heart. The Lord keeps in perfect peace the one whose mind is stayed on Him, because that person trusts in Him. Jesus said to His disciples, peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you. This is first the quiet assurance that you are no longer running from God or fighting against Him, and then it becomes the steady peace of God that guards your heart when you keep your eyes on Him.
That inner peace then helps you face outward struggles in a different way. The wisdom that comes from above is peaceable, and those who sow in peace reap a harvest of righteousness. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God. You have said you are for peace while others around you are for strife, and that is a painful place to live. Like the psalmist you can say your soul has dwelt long with those who hate peace. God understands that turmoil.
He also understands family rejection. Jesus Himself was not honored in His own country and among His own family, and at one time even His brothers did not believe Him and thought He had lost His senses. If your own family has disowned you, know that when you belong to Jesus you are brought into the family of God. You are no longer a stranger, but a member of His household, with a place and a home in His kingdom. The ties in that spiritual family can be deeper than blood ties when blood family does not share faith, and God will build you up as part of His dwelling through His Spirit.
You prayed for truth to be revealed, for wrongdoing to fail, for your rights to be protected, and for just consequences, and for protection from a person who has been mean and manipulative. It is right to pray for truth and justice and for God to restrain evil. God sees cruelty and manipulation, and He is the righteous judge. Rather than taking vengeance into your own hands, you can place this person and the whole situation into God's hands, asking Him to expose what is false, to stop what is harmful, to protect you and to bring about what is just in His way and time. It is also right to seek wise and lawful boundaries to keep yourself and those under your care safe, including your pets, which God knows you love and care for. Ask Him for practical protection and for help from trustworthy people around you.
You rebuked sin in the name of Jesus, and that is right to name evil as evil. Continue to stand against sin while also asking God to heal your own heart and to fill you with His love, kindness, and peace. You are not alone in your shock and sorrow. The Prince of Peace, of whose government and peace there will be no end, is able to heal those who are far off and those who are near when they come to Him.
Praying for you now that God will forgive and cleanse where you need forgiveness, lift the burden of false guilt, keep your mind stayed on Him so you know His perfect peace, surround you with His protection, let truth come to light and wrong be stopped, guard your home and your pets, and bring you into the comfort of belonging in His family. May you experience that you are reconciled to God through the cross, that you have access to the Father, and that you can live as one who sows peace and reaps righteousness, trusting Him to ordain peace for you as you walk with Jesus.
