Silas
Beloved of All
Your prayer for your friend is heard and it reflects a heart that truly cares for his soul. It is good to bring him before the Lord in this way, asking for guarding, healing, and restoration according to Scripture.
We join you in asking that the Lord would guard his heart. We can make our preparations and do what is wise and right, but the final victory belongs to the Lord alone as Proverbs 21:31 teaches. In that truth there is rest, because his life and his future are not ultimately in human hands but in the hands of God who is faithful.
We pray also that the Holy Spirit, who leads into all truth, would make clear to him who he is in Christ and what the Lord has called him to be. The deepest joy comes when a soul learns to delight itself in the Lord and to long for Him as the deer pants for the water brooks. When the heart is set after God in that way, He shapes the desires and answers them according to His good will.
You have prayed for deep healing, even of wounds that go back to the very beginning of life, and for the restoring of his soul, his mind, will and emotions. We stand with you on the promise of Isaiah 53:5 that by the wounds of Jesus we are healed, and on Psalm 23:3 that the Shepherd restores the soul and leads in paths of righteousness for His name's sake. Healing is truly of the Lord. Sometimes He heals instantly and sometimes gradually, and there is much about His ways in healing that we do not fully understand. Yet every true healing, whether of body, mind or emotions, is divine. We can trust Him to do the work in His way and His time to heal the scars and wounds of the past and to make whole what has been broken.
Scripture reminds us what the soul is worth. What would it profit a person to gain the whole world and yet lose his own soul, for the soul is eternal while the world is passing away. God values that one soul more than all the world, and so we can be confident that He will not treat it cheaply or lightly. He sees its eternal worth.
You also recalled the promise that when father and mother forsake, the Lord will take us up. Psalm 27:10 is sure. Even when human love fails, the Lord receives and adopts as His own beloved child, and nothing is impossible with Him as Jesus said in Matthew 19:26. What man cannot do, God can do, and He is able to make a life a living testimony of His power and mercy.
We also pray that the comfort God gives would overflow. As 2 Corinthians 1:4 teaches, the Father of mercies comforts us in affliction so that we in turn may comfort others with the comfort we have received. May the Lord comfort and strengthen your friend so that his restored life becomes a source of encouragement to many others who are brokenhearted and in need of hope.
There is a beautiful picture in Scripture of godly friendship where two souls are knit together and love one another as their own soul in a pure covenant of brotherly love. That love is holy and honors God. In the same way, may your friendship continue to reflect that kind of faithful, selfless care that seeks the other's spiritual good, respects what is holy, and leaves all judgment and vindication in the Lord's hands. Like David, who would not lift his hand against the one who sought him but trusted the Lord to judge and to deliver, we can trust God to work justly and graciously in every situation.
We will continue to pray that the Lord who began a good work will complete it, that He will guard, heal, restore and use your friend for His glory, and that all honor will go to Him forever. In the precious and mighty name of Jesus, amen.
We join you in asking that the Lord would guard his heart. We can make our preparations and do what is wise and right, but the final victory belongs to the Lord alone as Proverbs 21:31 teaches. In that truth there is rest, because his life and his future are not ultimately in human hands but in the hands of God who is faithful.
We pray also that the Holy Spirit, who leads into all truth, would make clear to him who he is in Christ and what the Lord has called him to be. The deepest joy comes when a soul learns to delight itself in the Lord and to long for Him as the deer pants for the water brooks. When the heart is set after God in that way, He shapes the desires and answers them according to His good will.
You have prayed for deep healing, even of wounds that go back to the very beginning of life, and for the restoring of his soul, his mind, will and emotions. We stand with you on the promise of Isaiah 53:5 that by the wounds of Jesus we are healed, and on Psalm 23:3 that the Shepherd restores the soul and leads in paths of righteousness for His name's sake. Healing is truly of the Lord. Sometimes He heals instantly and sometimes gradually, and there is much about His ways in healing that we do not fully understand. Yet every true healing, whether of body, mind or emotions, is divine. We can trust Him to do the work in His way and His time to heal the scars and wounds of the past and to make whole what has been broken.
Scripture reminds us what the soul is worth. What would it profit a person to gain the whole world and yet lose his own soul, for the soul is eternal while the world is passing away. God values that one soul more than all the world, and so we can be confident that He will not treat it cheaply or lightly. He sees its eternal worth.
You also recalled the promise that when father and mother forsake, the Lord will take us up. Psalm 27:10 is sure. Even when human love fails, the Lord receives and adopts as His own beloved child, and nothing is impossible with Him as Jesus said in Matthew 19:26. What man cannot do, God can do, and He is able to make a life a living testimony of His power and mercy.
We also pray that the comfort God gives would overflow. As 2 Corinthians 1:4 teaches, the Father of mercies comforts us in affliction so that we in turn may comfort others with the comfort we have received. May the Lord comfort and strengthen your friend so that his restored life becomes a source of encouragement to many others who are brokenhearted and in need of hope.
There is a beautiful picture in Scripture of godly friendship where two souls are knit together and love one another as their own soul in a pure covenant of brotherly love. That love is holy and honors God. In the same way, may your friendship continue to reflect that kind of faithful, selfless care that seeks the other's spiritual good, respects what is holy, and leaves all judgment and vindication in the Lord's hands. Like David, who would not lift his hand against the one who sought him but trusted the Lord to judge and to deliver, we can trust God to work justly and graciously in every situation.
We will continue to pray that the Lord who began a good work will complete it, that He will guard, heal, restore and use your friend for His glory, and that all honor will go to Him forever. In the precious and mighty name of Jesus, amen.
