Silas
Beloved of All
Your honest cry to return to the Lord is heard, and God delights in a heart that wants to turn back to Him. The very fact that you are asking for repentance and faith is evidence that He is already drawing you.
Your return does not come by trying to earn His favor or by doing enough good works to make up for backsliding. Scripture asks whether we receive the Spirit by keeping the law or by hearing with faith, and the answer is clear that it is by faith. Salvation, forgiveness, and the gift of the Holy Spirit are gifts of God. You cannot deserve them. Like Abraham, who simply believed God and His promise of the coming Messiah, God counts that trust in Jesus Christ for righteousness. By grace you are saved through faith, and that faith itself is a gift, not something you produce on your own. The just shall live by faith, which means your standing before God rests on trusting Jesus alone, without adding anything else to it.
At the same time, true faith is living and it shows itself. To say we have faith without any change in life is not genuine faith. John the Baptist taught that repentance should be accompanied by fruit that demonstrates it, and James teaches that faith without corresponding works is dead, not because works save us, but because real faith naturally produces obedience and a changed life. As you turn back to Jesus, ask Him to give you a true and living faith, and then let that faith work itself out in concrete steps of repentance, turning from what led you away, returning to His Word, to prayer, and to walking in obedience. Your works will not create faith, but your faith in Christ will prompt your works for Him.
Faith is also the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not yet seen. It is more than a passive idea that God is able to help. Passive faith says God can do it, active faith trusts that God will do it now as you look to Him. That is why Scripture encourages us to actuate our faith by coming directly to Jesus. Healing, whether the healing of a backslidden heart or healing of the body, deliverance from enemies, help in trials, protection and daily provision, all come to us as we actively trust the grace of God in Christ. This does not mean that a person of faith will never face sickness, hardship, or discouragement. Many faithful men and women in the Bible believed God and still suffered, and some died still trusting the promises they had not yet seen fulfilled. Even great men of faith had moments when their faith faltered. Trials prove and test our faith, not to inform God, who already knows us, but to strengthen us and to show whether our trust is real. Do not be moved from your faith by affliction. Continue to walk in it.
So keep hearing the Word of God, for faith comes by hearing. Bring every need to Jesus in simple trust.
I pray for you now that the Lord Jesus Christ would grant you genuine repentance and a renewed gift of faith to believe on Him fully. I pray He would heal your backsliding and restore you, and touch your body according to His mercy and will. I pray He would deliver you from the power of the enemy, give you strength and wisdom in every trial, and keep you under His protection. I pray He would provide for all your needs and guard your health, and that you would know His grace as a free gift received by faith, and that your life would increasingly show the fruit of that faith as you live daily for Him.
Your return does not come by trying to earn His favor or by doing enough good works to make up for backsliding. Scripture asks whether we receive the Spirit by keeping the law or by hearing with faith, and the answer is clear that it is by faith. Salvation, forgiveness, and the gift of the Holy Spirit are gifts of God. You cannot deserve them. Like Abraham, who simply believed God and His promise of the coming Messiah, God counts that trust in Jesus Christ for righteousness. By grace you are saved through faith, and that faith itself is a gift, not something you produce on your own. The just shall live by faith, which means your standing before God rests on trusting Jesus alone, without adding anything else to it.
At the same time, true faith is living and it shows itself. To say we have faith without any change in life is not genuine faith. John the Baptist taught that repentance should be accompanied by fruit that demonstrates it, and James teaches that faith without corresponding works is dead, not because works save us, but because real faith naturally produces obedience and a changed life. As you turn back to Jesus, ask Him to give you a true and living faith, and then let that faith work itself out in concrete steps of repentance, turning from what led you away, returning to His Word, to prayer, and to walking in obedience. Your works will not create faith, but your faith in Christ will prompt your works for Him.
Faith is also the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not yet seen. It is more than a passive idea that God is able to help. Passive faith says God can do it, active faith trusts that God will do it now as you look to Him. That is why Scripture encourages us to actuate our faith by coming directly to Jesus. Healing, whether the healing of a backslidden heart or healing of the body, deliverance from enemies, help in trials, protection and daily provision, all come to us as we actively trust the grace of God in Christ. This does not mean that a person of faith will never face sickness, hardship, or discouragement. Many faithful men and women in the Bible believed God and still suffered, and some died still trusting the promises they had not yet seen fulfilled. Even great men of faith had moments when their faith faltered. Trials prove and test our faith, not to inform God, who already knows us, but to strengthen us and to show whether our trust is real. Do not be moved from your faith by affliction. Continue to walk in it.
So keep hearing the Word of God, for faith comes by hearing. Bring every need to Jesus in simple trust.
I pray for you now that the Lord Jesus Christ would grant you genuine repentance and a renewed gift of faith to believe on Him fully. I pray He would heal your backsliding and restore you, and touch your body according to His mercy and will. I pray He would deliver you from the power of the enemy, give you strength and wisdom in every trial, and keep you under His protection. I pray He would provide for all your needs and guard your health, and that you would know His grace as a free gift received by faith, and that your life would increasingly show the fruit of that faith as you live daily for Him.
