Silas
Beloved of All
Your burden for your friend is heard, and it is right to bring it before the Lord with strong faith and persistence. Nothing is impossible with God. He is able to change plans, to set firm limits and to shut doors that would lead toward harm, and He does so for our eternal good. Every prayer offered in Jesus name rises to Him, and He hears from His holy heaven with the saving strength of His right hand.
The heart of your prayer is for salvation, and that is the greatest need any soul has. The grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all people, and it is offered as a gift. We are not saved because we earn it or deserve it. God placed salvation outside our own ability so that no one could boast. We are His workmanship, His poem, made new by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. His very name means the Lord is salvation, for He saves His people from their sins.
There is no other escape. Scripture warns us to give earnest heed to what we have heard from Jesus, lest we drift away, for if we neglect so great a salvation there is no escape. That salvation is great because it is open to everyone who will call upon Him. If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. Today is the accepted time, today is the day of salvation. Later every knee will bow and every tongue confess that He is Lord, but then it will be a forced confession and not unto salvation. Now, while there is time, that confession brings life.
This is why your prayers for your friend to have his eyes opened are so fitting. Apart from Christ we are in bondage, blinded and bound by chains that we often do not see clearly. Jesus came to redeem us from the power of sin and to set us free from that bondage into the glorious liberty of the children of God. That deliverance is twofold. When a person believes in Jesus, he is delivered even now from the hold the world has on him, and one day he will be delivered completely out of this world to be present with the Lord. Until then the Lord delivers us in the world, keeping us, transforming and renewing us in Christ, saving us not only from judgment but for a purpose, that we might serve Him without fear in holiness and righteousness and remain close to Him.
It is right to pray as you have, that the Lord would speak deeply to his heart, remove the deceptive attraction that binds him, take away the blindness, break every chain, and make him truly free. God knows our frame and knows what harms the soul even when we do not yet understand it. He can close paths that lead to destruction and open the eyes to see truth. The place of eternal death, where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth, is real, and God does not desire that any should go there. He desires that all would come to know Jesus, to seek Him, love Him, worship Him and fulfill His will.
Continue to cry out with faith, and it is good to ask other brothers and sisters to join you. We are not straightened in the Lord, His affection and power are not lacking. Keep giving earnest heed, keep praying that your friend will hear the voice of the Lord today and respond. May God in His tender mercy visit him as the sunrise from on high, grant him knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of sins, and make him a new creation in Christ Jesus, truly free and kept close to the Lord all his days.
The heart of your prayer is for salvation, and that is the greatest need any soul has. The grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all people, and it is offered as a gift. We are not saved because we earn it or deserve it. God placed salvation outside our own ability so that no one could boast. We are His workmanship, His poem, made new by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. His very name means the Lord is salvation, for He saves His people from their sins.
There is no other escape. Scripture warns us to give earnest heed to what we have heard from Jesus, lest we drift away, for if we neglect so great a salvation there is no escape. That salvation is great because it is open to everyone who will call upon Him. If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. Today is the accepted time, today is the day of salvation. Later every knee will bow and every tongue confess that He is Lord, but then it will be a forced confession and not unto salvation. Now, while there is time, that confession brings life.
This is why your prayers for your friend to have his eyes opened are so fitting. Apart from Christ we are in bondage, blinded and bound by chains that we often do not see clearly. Jesus came to redeem us from the power of sin and to set us free from that bondage into the glorious liberty of the children of God. That deliverance is twofold. When a person believes in Jesus, he is delivered even now from the hold the world has on him, and one day he will be delivered completely out of this world to be present with the Lord. Until then the Lord delivers us in the world, keeping us, transforming and renewing us in Christ, saving us not only from judgment but for a purpose, that we might serve Him without fear in holiness and righteousness and remain close to Him.
It is right to pray as you have, that the Lord would speak deeply to his heart, remove the deceptive attraction that binds him, take away the blindness, break every chain, and make him truly free. God knows our frame and knows what harms the soul even when we do not yet understand it. He can close paths that lead to destruction and open the eyes to see truth. The place of eternal death, where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth, is real, and God does not desire that any should go there. He desires that all would come to know Jesus, to seek Him, love Him, worship Him and fulfill His will.
Continue to cry out with faith, and it is good to ask other brothers and sisters to join you. We are not straightened in the Lord, His affection and power are not lacking. Keep giving earnest heed, keep praying that your friend will hear the voice of the Lord today and respond. May God in His tender mercy visit him as the sunrise from on high, grant him knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of sins, and make him a new creation in Christ Jesus, truly free and kept close to the Lord all his days.
