Silas
Beloved of All
Your faithful love for your sons in bringing them before the Lord is a beautiful thing, and it is right to pray for their work and for their future marriages.
The story of Job speaks to situations like this. Job was a man whom God Himself described as blameless and upright, one who feared God and turned away from evil. Yet there was a discussion in heaven concerning him that he knew nothing about. The adversary had been watching Job closely, studying him and forming a theory about him, that Job only served God because God had placed a hedge around him and blessed him with wealth and abundance as the most prominent man in his region. With God's permission that hedge was allowed to be touched and Job was stripped of much, not because he had done some secret evil, but to show what was truly in his heart. Job did not understand what was happening. He did not curse God or accuse God of wrong, but he did cry out in deep grief and confusion, saying things that came from pain rather than settled truth. That is why we cannot take every despairing word Job spoke about life and death as doctrine, Scripture is faithfully recording what a suffering man said in his sorrow.
What helps us is that cultures and times have changed since Job, yet the deepest problems and needs of the human heart remain the same, and the book shows us that God is working even when it appears He has forsaken us. Job's three friends heard of his trouble and came intending to comfort him, but when they saw his condition they did not comfort him at all. They became accusers, insisting that suffering must mean hidden sin and that Job must be a hypocrite who needed to get right with God. Their counsel only added to his confusion and pain, and in the end God corrected them and told them they had not spoken rightly.
There is a warning in that for all of us. We must not assume that unemployment or a long wait for a spouse means God is displeased or that a person is being punished. At the same time Scripture does teach not to despise the Lord's correction, for whom the Lord loves He corrects, as a father corrects the son he receives. If we can do wrong and never sense His hand, that would be cause for concern. But seasons of testing and waiting are not always chastening for sin, often they are times when God is shaping character, deepening trust, and preparing the heart.
Job also cried out for someone who could stand between God and man, a mediator who could lay a hand on both. That cry is answered in Jesus Christ, who gave Himself so that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. Through Him we can come honestly before God with our confusion and our needs.
So for your sons, we pray with you according to God's good design. For your son who is without work, we ask the Lord to open a door for honest and fruitful labor, to provide for his needs, and to use this waiting time to strengthen his faith and show him that his worth is not in a paycheck but in belonging to Christ. We pray he would seek the Lord first, trust God's timing, and be diligent to use the gifts God has given him while he waits. For both of your sons, we join you in asking God, if it is His will, to bring each of them a godly wife, a woman who loves Jesus Christ above all, who will walk with them in a lifelong covenant of marriage as God ordained it for one man and one woman, where love and faithfulness and purity are kept within that covenant. We pray they would be prepared to be godly husbands themselves, growing in uprightness, in the fear of the Lord, and in turning from evil, and that they would not settle for relationships outside of God's will but would wait for the Lord's best.
May the Lord show you His presence in this season, give you peace as you entrust your sons to Him, and remind you that He sees, He knows, and He is at work for good even when the reasons are hidden from us. We ask all this in the name of Jesus.
The story of Job speaks to situations like this. Job was a man whom God Himself described as blameless and upright, one who feared God and turned away from evil. Yet there was a discussion in heaven concerning him that he knew nothing about. The adversary had been watching Job closely, studying him and forming a theory about him, that Job only served God because God had placed a hedge around him and blessed him with wealth and abundance as the most prominent man in his region. With God's permission that hedge was allowed to be touched and Job was stripped of much, not because he had done some secret evil, but to show what was truly in his heart. Job did not understand what was happening. He did not curse God or accuse God of wrong, but he did cry out in deep grief and confusion, saying things that came from pain rather than settled truth. That is why we cannot take every despairing word Job spoke about life and death as doctrine, Scripture is faithfully recording what a suffering man said in his sorrow.
What helps us is that cultures and times have changed since Job, yet the deepest problems and needs of the human heart remain the same, and the book shows us that God is working even when it appears He has forsaken us. Job's three friends heard of his trouble and came intending to comfort him, but when they saw his condition they did not comfort him at all. They became accusers, insisting that suffering must mean hidden sin and that Job must be a hypocrite who needed to get right with God. Their counsel only added to his confusion and pain, and in the end God corrected them and told them they had not spoken rightly.
There is a warning in that for all of us. We must not assume that unemployment or a long wait for a spouse means God is displeased or that a person is being punished. At the same time Scripture does teach not to despise the Lord's correction, for whom the Lord loves He corrects, as a father corrects the son he receives. If we can do wrong and never sense His hand, that would be cause for concern. But seasons of testing and waiting are not always chastening for sin, often they are times when God is shaping character, deepening trust, and preparing the heart.
Job also cried out for someone who could stand between God and man, a mediator who could lay a hand on both. That cry is answered in Jesus Christ, who gave Himself so that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. Through Him we can come honestly before God with our confusion and our needs.
So for your sons, we pray with you according to God's good design. For your son who is without work, we ask the Lord to open a door for honest and fruitful labor, to provide for his needs, and to use this waiting time to strengthen his faith and show him that his worth is not in a paycheck but in belonging to Christ. We pray he would seek the Lord first, trust God's timing, and be diligent to use the gifts God has given him while he waits. For both of your sons, we join you in asking God, if it is His will, to bring each of them a godly wife, a woman who loves Jesus Christ above all, who will walk with them in a lifelong covenant of marriage as God ordained it for one man and one woman, where love and faithfulness and purity are kept within that covenant. We pray they would be prepared to be godly husbands themselves, growing in uprightness, in the fear of the Lord, and in turning from evil, and that they would not settle for relationships outside of God's will but would wait for the Lord's best.
May the Lord show you His presence in this season, give you peace as you entrust your sons to Him, and remind you that He sees, He knows, and He is at work for good even when the reasons are hidden from us. We ask all this in the name of Jesus.
