Silas
Beloved of All
Gratitude to God is the right place to begin, and I am thankful with you for His goodness. You have brought several cares before the Lord, for deep peace and good rest, for health needs including lungs and a heart condition, for quick healing, and for victory over lustful thoughts. I want to pray with you and share some truth to steady your heart in each of these areas.
The peace you are asking for is more than quiet circumstances. Scripture makes a distinction that many believers know they have peace with God through the blood of Jesus Christ, having been brought out of darkness into His kingdom, and yet they do not yet know the daily peace of God in their hearts. That inner peace is not found in trying harder, in your own skill or effort or good works. It is found only in faith and in complete trust and surrender to Him. When your mind is stayed on Him and you rest in the finished work of Jesus on the cross, He keeps you in perfect peace. There remains a rest for the people of God, like the rest God entered after His work of creation, where we cease from our own striving and trust that what He has done is enough. You do not have to earn this rest. You enter it by believing, by committing your way to the Lord and trusting Him to bring His will to pass. He is able to do for you what you cannot do for yourself, and as you rest in Him you will find that He quiets the turmoil within.
That is why true rest cannot be found in philosophy, in religion, in pleasure or prosperity or any other pursuit. Those things promise peace but cannot give it. To those who remain at war with God there is no real peace, they are like a troubled sea that cannot rest. But when you walk in fellowship with Him, forgiven and cleansed, the war is over. You are no longer running from God, and He gives a peace that the world cannot understand and cannot take away. Labor to enter that rest by keeping your thoughts on Christ, bringing every care to Him, and waiting patiently for Him instead of fretting over what you cannot control. He knows your health needs and the needs of those you love, and He invites you to commit each body, each lung, each heart into His caring hands.
Concerning lustful thoughts, please be encouraged that temptation itself is not sin. Temptation is common to everyone, and even Jesus was tempted, yet without sin. God does not entice anyone to evil. Temptation becomes sin when desire is allowed to conceive and we choose to follow the flesh rather than the Spirit. In every temptation there is a choice, whether to walk according to the flesh or according to the Spirit. What you can do in the flesh alone will only lead to failure and discouragement and will rob you of peace. Victory comes as you walk in the wisdom that is from above, which leads to purity and holiness and peace, rather than the strife that comes from worldly desires. The testing of faith can even produce patience as you learn to wait on God instead of seeking immediate fulfillment apart from His path. When those thoughts come, turn quickly to the Lord, set your mind on Him, and ask Him to fill your heart with His Spirit so that you live to do His will rather than following old lusts.
I pray for you now that the Lord will keep you in His perfect peace as your mind stays on Him, that He will grant you deep, restoring rest as you trust in His finished work and cease from anxious striving. I pray for His healing touch upon every health concern you mentioned, upon lungs and upon the heart, and that He will bring quick and complete healing according to His mercy and will. And I pray that He will strengthen you to walk in the Spirit, to turn from every solicitation to evil, and to know the purity and quietness that comes from a life surrendered to Him. May you know both peace with God through Jesus and the daily peace of God guarding your heart.
The peace you are asking for is more than quiet circumstances. Scripture makes a distinction that many believers know they have peace with God through the blood of Jesus Christ, having been brought out of darkness into His kingdom, and yet they do not yet know the daily peace of God in their hearts. That inner peace is not found in trying harder, in your own skill or effort or good works. It is found only in faith and in complete trust and surrender to Him. When your mind is stayed on Him and you rest in the finished work of Jesus on the cross, He keeps you in perfect peace. There remains a rest for the people of God, like the rest God entered after His work of creation, where we cease from our own striving and trust that what He has done is enough. You do not have to earn this rest. You enter it by believing, by committing your way to the Lord and trusting Him to bring His will to pass. He is able to do for you what you cannot do for yourself, and as you rest in Him you will find that He quiets the turmoil within.
That is why true rest cannot be found in philosophy, in religion, in pleasure or prosperity or any other pursuit. Those things promise peace but cannot give it. To those who remain at war with God there is no real peace, they are like a troubled sea that cannot rest. But when you walk in fellowship with Him, forgiven and cleansed, the war is over. You are no longer running from God, and He gives a peace that the world cannot understand and cannot take away. Labor to enter that rest by keeping your thoughts on Christ, bringing every care to Him, and waiting patiently for Him instead of fretting over what you cannot control. He knows your health needs and the needs of those you love, and He invites you to commit each body, each lung, each heart into His caring hands.
Concerning lustful thoughts, please be encouraged that temptation itself is not sin. Temptation is common to everyone, and even Jesus was tempted, yet without sin. God does not entice anyone to evil. Temptation becomes sin when desire is allowed to conceive and we choose to follow the flesh rather than the Spirit. In every temptation there is a choice, whether to walk according to the flesh or according to the Spirit. What you can do in the flesh alone will only lead to failure and discouragement and will rob you of peace. Victory comes as you walk in the wisdom that is from above, which leads to purity and holiness and peace, rather than the strife that comes from worldly desires. The testing of faith can even produce patience as you learn to wait on God instead of seeking immediate fulfillment apart from His path. When those thoughts come, turn quickly to the Lord, set your mind on Him, and ask Him to fill your heart with His Spirit so that you live to do His will rather than following old lusts.
I pray for you now that the Lord will keep you in His perfect peace as your mind stays on Him, that He will grant you deep, restoring rest as you trust in His finished work and cease from anxious striving. I pray for His healing touch upon every health concern you mentioned, upon lungs and upon the heart, and that He will bring quick and complete healing according to His mercy and will. And I pray that He will strengthen you to walk in the Spirit, to turn from every solicitation to evil, and to know the purity and quietness that comes from a life surrendered to Him. May you know both peace with God through Jesus and the daily peace of God guarding your heart.
