Silas
Beloved of All
Your prayer reflects a watchful heart that takes Jesus at His word. He told us beforehand what would come so that when we see these things beginning, we would believe and not be shaken. Wars and rumors of wars, famines and earthquakes in various places are what He called the beginning of birth pangs. They are not yet the end, and He warned us not to be frightened and not to be misled, but to stay alert and grounded in His truth.
Jesus also taught His disciples to pray always that they would be counted worthy to escape the things that are coming upon the earth and to stand before the Son of Man. Scripture speaks of a coming period when God will judge the world, described in detail in Revelation chapters 6 through 18, when the Lord will come with His mighty angels in flaming fire. As a child of God you will have tribulation in this world because this world is alien to Him, and the servant is not greater than his Lord. Yet it is not consistent with the nature of God that those for whom Christ bore the wrath of God should then face that wrath. He bore it for us, and we are kept by the power of God through faith, with an inheritance reserved in heaven. Our hope is to be with the Lord, caught up to meet Him and forever be with Him.
That hope is why you can face reality without despair and even glory in trials, knowing every pressure is an opportunity for God to show Himself and work in you. What you are asking for is what we all need, strength in the inner man by the Spirit. Apart from Him we do not have the strength to stand against temptation and the power of the enemy. We need Christ to settle down and be at home in our hearts through faith, to comprehend more of His love, the depth He came to and the height He intends to bring us to.
That strength comes through abiding. As Jesus taught in John 15, He is the vine and we are the branches. When we abide in Him and His words abide in us, we can ask what we will and bear much fruit, and our joy is made full. This abiding is also our fellowship with God and with one another, holding fast to the truth that Jesus Christ is God manifested in the flesh, God reconciling the world to Himself on the cross, and walking in His command to love one another. From that place of being refreshed in His presence we are transformed from glory to glory by the Spirit and enabled to strengthen others and share the ministry of reconciliation as ambassadors of the new creation. The gospel will be proclaimed to the whole world as a testimony to all peoples, and in the last days God will even use angels flying in heaven to declare it, and then the end will come.
We join you in praying for daily bread, for a close and continual connection to Jesus, for grace to endure with joy and love that does not grow cold even as lawlessness increases, and for gratitude as we receive a kingdom that cannot be shaken. Everything that can be shaken will be shaken, heaven and earth and sea and dry land and all nations, so that what cannot be shaken may remain. Since we receive that unshakable kingdom, we can worship with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire, and we can rest in the uncreated love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord from which no created thing can separate us, not death nor life nor things present nor things to come.
We ask with you according to His will and His Word, with thanksgiving, trusting His promise that when we ask according to His will He hears us, and that the peace of God which passes all understanding will guard our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. May He strengthen you to watch and pray, to abide faithfully and bear fruit, and to stand before the Son of Man with confidence in that day.
Jesus also taught His disciples to pray always that they would be counted worthy to escape the things that are coming upon the earth and to stand before the Son of Man. Scripture speaks of a coming period when God will judge the world, described in detail in Revelation chapters 6 through 18, when the Lord will come with His mighty angels in flaming fire. As a child of God you will have tribulation in this world because this world is alien to Him, and the servant is not greater than his Lord. Yet it is not consistent with the nature of God that those for whom Christ bore the wrath of God should then face that wrath. He bore it for us, and we are kept by the power of God through faith, with an inheritance reserved in heaven. Our hope is to be with the Lord, caught up to meet Him and forever be with Him.
That hope is why you can face reality without despair and even glory in trials, knowing every pressure is an opportunity for God to show Himself and work in you. What you are asking for is what we all need, strength in the inner man by the Spirit. Apart from Him we do not have the strength to stand against temptation and the power of the enemy. We need Christ to settle down and be at home in our hearts through faith, to comprehend more of His love, the depth He came to and the height He intends to bring us to.
That strength comes through abiding. As Jesus taught in John 15, He is the vine and we are the branches. When we abide in Him and His words abide in us, we can ask what we will and bear much fruit, and our joy is made full. This abiding is also our fellowship with God and with one another, holding fast to the truth that Jesus Christ is God manifested in the flesh, God reconciling the world to Himself on the cross, and walking in His command to love one another. From that place of being refreshed in His presence we are transformed from glory to glory by the Spirit and enabled to strengthen others and share the ministry of reconciliation as ambassadors of the new creation. The gospel will be proclaimed to the whole world as a testimony to all peoples, and in the last days God will even use angels flying in heaven to declare it, and then the end will come.
We join you in praying for daily bread, for a close and continual connection to Jesus, for grace to endure with joy and love that does not grow cold even as lawlessness increases, and for gratitude as we receive a kingdom that cannot be shaken. Everything that can be shaken will be shaken, heaven and earth and sea and dry land and all nations, so that what cannot be shaken may remain. Since we receive that unshakable kingdom, we can worship with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire, and we can rest in the uncreated love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord from which no created thing can separate us, not death nor life nor things present nor things to come.
We ask with you according to His will and His Word, with thanksgiving, trusting His promise that when we ask according to His will He hears us, and that the peace of God which passes all understanding will guard our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. May He strengthen you to watch and pray, to abide faithfully and bear fruit, and to stand before the Son of Man with confidence in that day.
