Silas
Beloved of All
Your request has been heard and we have prayed for you before the Lord. You shared deep and practical needs, for work, for a place to stay, for money to meet obligations for your child and for legal and phone expenses, and for your new girlfriend. These are heavy burdens and God knows them fully.
The story of Job speaks to this kind of pressure. That book is among the oldest in Scripture, from a time perhaps as early as Abraham, yet the problems it describes are still our problems today. The same needs and cries Job had remain with us. In that story God himself bore witness that Job was a man who loved Him and turned from evil. An adversary had been watching Job closely and formed a theory about him, that Job only honored God because God had put a hedge around him and made him the wealthiest man in his region. The adversary predicted that if those blessings were removed, Job would turn from God. God permitted that testing, and Job lost his possessions and suffered greatly. Three friends came to comfort him, but they did not comfort well. They assumed suffering must mean hidden sin and they accused Job of being a hypocrite, telling him to simply get right and everything would be fixed. Job answered that he knew God is fair and just, yet he did not understand his circumstances and he cried out for answers. He did not curse God, but he did not understand Him either. What Job needed, and what we all need, is one who can stand between God and man and bring us to God. That one is Jesus Christ.
Your needs give an opportunity to seek God not only for His gifts but for Himself. It is easy to think of faith as a way to secure blessings, but true faith loves God even when answers and provision are still waited for. God is fair and just, and when He loves His children He also trains and corrects them, not to harm them but to turn them from what is destructive and to bind up what is wounded.
We have prayed for you in this way, in the name of Jesus who alone brings us to God:
We ask the Lord to provide for your work, whether that means keeping the job you have or opening a new one that is honest and steady, and to give you diligence and integrity in your labor so you may provide as He calls you to.
We ask Him to meet your material needs according to His wisdom, for your lodging and your phone and your obligations, and to help you steward what He provides with faithfulness. Part of that stewardship is the responsibility you have to your child. Scripture calls fathers to provide and care for their children, and we pray God will give you grace to meet that duty faithfully and to honor Him in how you handle money and commitments. For your legal matter we ask for wisdom and for favor according to what is right.
For your new girlfriend we pray not as the world prays for blessing on any relationship, but as Scripture teaches. We pray that both of you would come to know salvation through Jesus Christ alone if you do not already, and that you would walk in purity before Him. God has made marriage to be a lifelong covenant of one man and one woman, and He has reserved sexual intimacy and living together for within that covenant. If your relationship has moved outside that design, we pray God would lead you to repentance and to a new path that honors Him, whether that means pursuing holiness together with marriage in view if it is His will, or stepping back from the relationship. We ask that He would give you both clarity, self control, and a desire to please Him above all.
Above all we pray that you would acquaint yourself with God and be at peace, receiving His word and laying it up in your heart. Seek Him first, trust His justice and mercy, and look to Jesus as the one who stands between God and us. He understands suffering and He is able to bring you before the Father with forgiveness and new life.
May the Lord show you His nearness, provide for your daily needs, and draw you to Himself.
The story of Job speaks to this kind of pressure. That book is among the oldest in Scripture, from a time perhaps as early as Abraham, yet the problems it describes are still our problems today. The same needs and cries Job had remain with us. In that story God himself bore witness that Job was a man who loved Him and turned from evil. An adversary had been watching Job closely and formed a theory about him, that Job only honored God because God had put a hedge around him and made him the wealthiest man in his region. The adversary predicted that if those blessings were removed, Job would turn from God. God permitted that testing, and Job lost his possessions and suffered greatly. Three friends came to comfort him, but they did not comfort well. They assumed suffering must mean hidden sin and they accused Job of being a hypocrite, telling him to simply get right and everything would be fixed. Job answered that he knew God is fair and just, yet he did not understand his circumstances and he cried out for answers. He did not curse God, but he did not understand Him either. What Job needed, and what we all need, is one who can stand between God and man and bring us to God. That one is Jesus Christ.
Your needs give an opportunity to seek God not only for His gifts but for Himself. It is easy to think of faith as a way to secure blessings, but true faith loves God even when answers and provision are still waited for. God is fair and just, and when He loves His children He also trains and corrects them, not to harm them but to turn them from what is destructive and to bind up what is wounded.
We have prayed for you in this way, in the name of Jesus who alone brings us to God:
We ask the Lord to provide for your work, whether that means keeping the job you have or opening a new one that is honest and steady, and to give you diligence and integrity in your labor so you may provide as He calls you to.
We ask Him to meet your material needs according to His wisdom, for your lodging and your phone and your obligations, and to help you steward what He provides with faithfulness. Part of that stewardship is the responsibility you have to your child. Scripture calls fathers to provide and care for their children, and we pray God will give you grace to meet that duty faithfully and to honor Him in how you handle money and commitments. For your legal matter we ask for wisdom and for favor according to what is right.
For your new girlfriend we pray not as the world prays for blessing on any relationship, but as Scripture teaches. We pray that both of you would come to know salvation through Jesus Christ alone if you do not already, and that you would walk in purity before Him. God has made marriage to be a lifelong covenant of one man and one woman, and He has reserved sexual intimacy and living together for within that covenant. If your relationship has moved outside that design, we pray God would lead you to repentance and to a new path that honors Him, whether that means pursuing holiness together with marriage in view if it is His will, or stepping back from the relationship. We ask that He would give you both clarity, self control, and a desire to please Him above all.
Above all we pray that you would acquaint yourself with God and be at peace, receiving His word and laying it up in your heart. Seek Him first, trust His justice and mercy, and look to Jesus as the one who stands between God and us. He understands suffering and He is able to bring you before the Father with forgiveness and new life.
May the Lord show you His nearness, provide for your daily needs, and draw you to Himself.
