Silas
Beloved of All
It is good that you have brought all of these needs honestly before the Lord, and He hears you when you call on Him in the name of Jesus.
You asked for His presence and comfort, for His rich provision, for health, for help in difficult work, for forgiveness, and for a clean heart and body. All of these point to what God has already shown He desires to do for you.
In the law given to Moses there is a striking detail. In Leviticus 14 God gave the law for the leper in the day of his cleansing, even though leprosy had no human cure. In that sense it was incurable. Yet God wrote into the law a provision for cleansing, leaving room for Himself to act in a sovereign way. He sent the priest outside the camp to examine the person, and He prescribed a sacrifice that pointed forward. One bird was slain and its blood caught in a vessel over fresh water, and the living bird was dipped in that blood and released to fly away. It is a picture of cleansing that only God can accomplish and of restoration to fellowship that only He can give.
Scripture often uses leprosy as a picture of sin, because like sin it is loathsome, it spreads, and it destroys and separates. No one can cleanse himself from it. The ritual for the leper was therefore a picture of what Jesus Christ has done to cleanse us from sin. Only God can heal that deeper disease and bring us back into fellowship with Himself.
That is why your request for forgiveness and for a clean heart and body is central. Salvation is not by our efforts or our goodness. It rests on the finished work of Jesus Christ and on believing what He has done. He has done the work fully, and God invites us to come and receive it. When you come to Him and ask, He gives a total and complete forgiveness. Guilt often makes us feel we must pay or be punished before we can be free, but God's forgiveness when it is given is not partial. If you have not yet done so, come to Jesus simply, confess your sin, and ask Him to forgive and cleanse you. The only thing that keeps you from that forgiveness is not coming to ask for it. Through His blood you can be made clean and become a child of God.
Because that cleansing is the greatest miracle, it puts your other requests in their proper light. Your healing is important to the Lord and we should leave room for God to work in the body as He desires. He is sovereign and He can work in response to faith and even apart from our faith as He chooses. We can and should ask Him for health every day and every moment, trusting His power over sickness, while remembering that the forgiveness of sins and peace with God is the greatest need and the greatest gift.
He also cares about your daily provision and your difficult work. He made your salvation by His grace, drawing you to Himself and giving you faith to believe, and that same grace is at work in your life now. Often God works in us before He works through us. He shapes character, chips away rough edges, and teaches us through hard testings. That shaping can be painful and we do not always understand it, but we can count it joy knowing He has a plan and a work He wants to accomplish in and through you. As you face hard tasks, submit to His work in you and trust Him to supply what you need and to give wisdom and strength for each step.
I will pray for you.
Father, thank You for drawing this one to Yourself and for the finished work of Jesus Christ that makes forgiveness and cleansing possible. I ask that You draw near with comfort and peace, that You supply every need according to Your riches, and that You grant health as it pleases You, leaving room for Your sovereign healing. Give help and wisdom for every difficult task in work, and let Your Spirit continue His inward work to make the heart and body clean and consecrated to You. Grant full assurance of total forgiveness through the blood of Jesus, and let guilt be removed by Your complete pardon. Restore and keep this life in fellowship with You, through Jesus Christ our Lord, amen.
You asked for His presence and comfort, for His rich provision, for health, for help in difficult work, for forgiveness, and for a clean heart and body. All of these point to what God has already shown He desires to do for you.
In the law given to Moses there is a striking detail. In Leviticus 14 God gave the law for the leper in the day of his cleansing, even though leprosy had no human cure. In that sense it was incurable. Yet God wrote into the law a provision for cleansing, leaving room for Himself to act in a sovereign way. He sent the priest outside the camp to examine the person, and He prescribed a sacrifice that pointed forward. One bird was slain and its blood caught in a vessel over fresh water, and the living bird was dipped in that blood and released to fly away. It is a picture of cleansing that only God can accomplish and of restoration to fellowship that only He can give.
Scripture often uses leprosy as a picture of sin, because like sin it is loathsome, it spreads, and it destroys and separates. No one can cleanse himself from it. The ritual for the leper was therefore a picture of what Jesus Christ has done to cleanse us from sin. Only God can heal that deeper disease and bring us back into fellowship with Himself.
That is why your request for forgiveness and for a clean heart and body is central. Salvation is not by our efforts or our goodness. It rests on the finished work of Jesus Christ and on believing what He has done. He has done the work fully, and God invites us to come and receive it. When you come to Him and ask, He gives a total and complete forgiveness. Guilt often makes us feel we must pay or be punished before we can be free, but God's forgiveness when it is given is not partial. If you have not yet done so, come to Jesus simply, confess your sin, and ask Him to forgive and cleanse you. The only thing that keeps you from that forgiveness is not coming to ask for it. Through His blood you can be made clean and become a child of God.
Because that cleansing is the greatest miracle, it puts your other requests in their proper light. Your healing is important to the Lord and we should leave room for God to work in the body as He desires. He is sovereign and He can work in response to faith and even apart from our faith as He chooses. We can and should ask Him for health every day and every moment, trusting His power over sickness, while remembering that the forgiveness of sins and peace with God is the greatest need and the greatest gift.
He also cares about your daily provision and your difficult work. He made your salvation by His grace, drawing you to Himself and giving you faith to believe, and that same grace is at work in your life now. Often God works in us before He works through us. He shapes character, chips away rough edges, and teaches us through hard testings. That shaping can be painful and we do not always understand it, but we can count it joy knowing He has a plan and a work He wants to accomplish in and through you. As you face hard tasks, submit to His work in you and trust Him to supply what you need and to give wisdom and strength for each step.
I will pray for you.
Father, thank You for drawing this one to Yourself and for the finished work of Jesus Christ that makes forgiveness and cleansing possible. I ask that You draw near with comfort and peace, that You supply every need according to Your riches, and that You grant health as it pleases You, leaving room for Your sovereign healing. Give help and wisdom for every difficult task in work, and let Your Spirit continue His inward work to make the heart and body clean and consecrated to You. Grant full assurance of total forgiveness through the blood of Jesus, and let guilt be removed by Your complete pardon. Restore and keep this life in fellowship with You, through Jesus Christ our Lord, amen.
