Silas
Beloved of All
Your honesty and hunger to know God more deeply is seen and valued. The desire you expressed to feel His closeness, to know His purpose for your life, and to understand and use the gifts He has given you is itself a work of His grace drawing you.
God's love is the foundation for everything else. He showed that love most clearly by sending His only Son to lay down His life for us, and Scripture says there is no greater love than to lay down one's life for friends. We love Him because He first loved us. When that kind of self giving love, the love the New Testament describes as agape, is poured into our hearts, it becomes the motive for all we do. Spiritual gifts, clear direction, and purpose only find their right place when love is the reason we serve. Without love, even great faith or sacrifice profits nothing, but when we walk in love as Christ loved us and gave Himself for us, our lives begin to bear real fruit such as love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness and self control. Ask Him to keep teaching you how deeply you are loved, and to show you how to walk in that same giving love toward others. That is where purpose becomes clear, and gifts become useful.
For your new apartment, I join you in asking the Lord to bless that home and set His protection over it in the name of Jesus, that it would be a place of peace, prayer, and His presence.
For your desire for marriage and a child, I hear how deep and natural that longing is. The love for children and for family is something God Himself places in the heart, and the desire to be a wife and mother is good. At the same time, Scripture gives a clear boundary for our good. God made marriage from the beginning to be a lifelong covenant of one man and one woman, where the two become one flesh, and where physical union and the gift of children belong within that covenant. His Word also says not to be unequally yoked together with an unbeliever, asking what fellowship light can have with darkness or the temple of God with idols, and then calling His people to come out and be separate so He may be a Father to them.
Many have said, I love him, he is the one I have dreamed of, he is not yet a believer but I am sure he will change if I love him well and live faithfully before him. Yet many who have gone against that command in hope that love would change the other person have found their lives deeply wounded. Sincere affection, even strong physical or emotional attraction, is not the same as the spiritual oneness God intends for marriage. That is why I cannot affirm or ask God to bless a relationship outside His design, or to grant a child outside the covenant of marriage, even when the desire feels urgent because of age. What I will pray is what Scripture invites us to pray.
I will pray that today, while it is still called today, this man would truly hear the gospel and be saved through faith in Jesus Christ alone, for salvation comes only through Him. I will pray that God opens his heart to repent and believe, and that he becomes a new person who loves God first. I will also pray that God gives you wisdom, strength and grace to live set apart for Him, to not compromise His call to purity, and to trust Him with your future. If it is the Lord's will for this man to become a godly husband after genuine conversion and growth, God can make that clear in His time and way. If not, I pray God will guard your heart, help you release what is not His will, and prepare you for the husband He may have for you, or content you in His perfect will if He leads otherwise. Your longing for a child is understood, and I pray you will entrust even the timing and fulfillment of that desire to the Lord who loves you and knows what is best.
For your health, I pray for complete healing from infection, for all pain to be lifted, and for renewed strength and energy, and that through this you would experience the Lord's nearness and care.
May the Lord make His love more real to you each day, fill you with His peace, guide your steps, and help you delight to serve Him with all that you are. May He produce His fruit in your life and lead you in the path of obedience where you will know His fatherly presence most clearly.
God's love is the foundation for everything else. He showed that love most clearly by sending His only Son to lay down His life for us, and Scripture says there is no greater love than to lay down one's life for friends. We love Him because He first loved us. When that kind of self giving love, the love the New Testament describes as agape, is poured into our hearts, it becomes the motive for all we do. Spiritual gifts, clear direction, and purpose only find their right place when love is the reason we serve. Without love, even great faith or sacrifice profits nothing, but when we walk in love as Christ loved us and gave Himself for us, our lives begin to bear real fruit such as love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness and self control. Ask Him to keep teaching you how deeply you are loved, and to show you how to walk in that same giving love toward others. That is where purpose becomes clear, and gifts become useful.
For your new apartment, I join you in asking the Lord to bless that home and set His protection over it in the name of Jesus, that it would be a place of peace, prayer, and His presence.
For your desire for marriage and a child, I hear how deep and natural that longing is. The love for children and for family is something God Himself places in the heart, and the desire to be a wife and mother is good. At the same time, Scripture gives a clear boundary for our good. God made marriage from the beginning to be a lifelong covenant of one man and one woman, where the two become one flesh, and where physical union and the gift of children belong within that covenant. His Word also says not to be unequally yoked together with an unbeliever, asking what fellowship light can have with darkness or the temple of God with idols, and then calling His people to come out and be separate so He may be a Father to them.
Many have said, I love him, he is the one I have dreamed of, he is not yet a believer but I am sure he will change if I love him well and live faithfully before him. Yet many who have gone against that command in hope that love would change the other person have found their lives deeply wounded. Sincere affection, even strong physical or emotional attraction, is not the same as the spiritual oneness God intends for marriage. That is why I cannot affirm or ask God to bless a relationship outside His design, or to grant a child outside the covenant of marriage, even when the desire feels urgent because of age. What I will pray is what Scripture invites us to pray.
I will pray that today, while it is still called today, this man would truly hear the gospel and be saved through faith in Jesus Christ alone, for salvation comes only through Him. I will pray that God opens his heart to repent and believe, and that he becomes a new person who loves God first. I will also pray that God gives you wisdom, strength and grace to live set apart for Him, to not compromise His call to purity, and to trust Him with your future. If it is the Lord's will for this man to become a godly husband after genuine conversion and growth, God can make that clear in His time and way. If not, I pray God will guard your heart, help you release what is not His will, and prepare you for the husband He may have for you, or content you in His perfect will if He leads otherwise. Your longing for a child is understood, and I pray you will entrust even the timing and fulfillment of that desire to the Lord who loves you and knows what is best.
For your health, I pray for complete healing from infection, for all pain to be lifted, and for renewed strength and energy, and that through this you would experience the Lord's nearness and care.
May the Lord make His love more real to you each day, fill you with His peace, guide your steps, and help you delight to serve Him with all that you are. May He produce His fruit in your life and lead you in the path of obedience where you will know His fatherly presence most clearly.
