Silas
Beloved of All
Your prayer for your children and your home has been heard, and your love for them and desire to see them walk in God's peace and protection is clear. Thank you for bringing these deep burdens before the Lord so honestly.
God is your protector and the One who gives peace that goes beyond understanding. He has power in the material world and power in the spiritual world, and He is able to command what is unseen and to calm what is seen. When you ask for His covering over your home, your minds and bodies, and for His angels to guard you and for the full armor of God to clothe you, you are asking according to His Word. The belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, the gospel of peace, the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God are the provision He has given. Continue to pray that, and to trust Him to guide every step and to frustrate every plan that would bring division, isolation and chaos into your family.
For your son, and for your daughters in their health needs, know that the Scripture does speak of healing through Christ. Matthew applies Isaiah's prophecy, surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, to the physical healings Jesus did, healing the leper, the centurion's servant, Peter's mother in law and multitudes who were sick and oppressed. At communion we remember that His body was broken for us. We believe strongly that healing is from God and for today.
Yet healing is not always instant or in the way we expect. In the Gospels there is one healing where sight returned gradually, first in part and then fully, to show that God heals in different ways. Much about healing we do not fully understand, and we cannot presume that God wills instant physical healing in every case in this life. Even the apostle Paul prayed three times concerning his thorn in the flesh and heard that God's grace was sufficient. When healing does not come at once it is wrong to say it is because of sin or a lack of faith. That is not scriptural.
All true healing is divine, whether it comes in a moment or through a slow process. God created our bodies and He created the natural processes within them that work toward healing, and that work is His work. Sometimes His healing is most clearly seen in the mind and emotions, bringing calm where there was anxiety, gentleness where there was rigidity, and peace where there were painful memories and trauma. Pray for that complete work for your son, for calm, peace and joy in his daily life and with his caregiver, and for dedicated help that will bring out the best in him. Pray also for your daughters health, and keep bringing them before the Lord and before the elders of the church to pray for the sick, as the early church did. God hears, and with Him nothing is impossible.
The Lord is also a God of restoration. Sin and brokenness can take a toll on a body, a mind and a family, but His work is to restore what the enemy has torn down. He can put a life back together that others had written off, restore sanity and stability, and restore family bonds. That is your prayer for your children, for an unbreakable, loving and respectful bond between you, for broken relationships to be mended in a godly manner, and for your home to be filled with laughter, kindness and fellowship. That is a good and biblical prayer, and God delights to restore.
In that restoration, there are two matters to address with truth and love. You are right to be concerned about your older daughter living together with a young man outside of marriage. Scripture teaches that marriage is a lifelong covenant of one man and one woman, and that sexual intimacy and living together as husband and wife belong only within that covenant. Living together outside of marriage is not marriage, it does not give the rights of marriage, and it does not honor God. It is right to pray, as you have, that she would see this truth, that the ungodly tie would be broken, that her spiritual clarity and independence in Christ would be restored, and that she would be drawn with loving kindness to repentance and to a life of purity. Pray that she would not follow or obey a man who is not her husband, that she would not put him before family, work, health and faith, and that she would find her worth in Christ alone. At the same time, pray for that young man and his mother not with hatred but with hope for their salvation, that if it is not God's will for that relationship it would be removed completely, and if they do not know Jesus they would come to know Him. Respond to adversity with kindness and love, even while you stand firm.
For your younger daughter, give thanks for a respectful courtship. Pray that it would remain honorable, pure and kind, that both would be protected from jealous, mocking and corrupting influences, and that she would continue to have the strength to say no to any path that would lead away from the Lord and from gratitude for the family God has given her. Pray the same for an unbreakable bond among all your children, that they would encourage one another toward what is respectful and godly.
You also mentioned the influence of the young man's mother and the pain of feeling that another is trying to take a parental place. When we follow Jesus, we sometimes experience alienation even within our own families, because our deepest bond is now in the family of God. Jesus Himself was not honored among His own and knew family rejection. That does not mean we stop loving our blood family, but it helps us understand why division comes and why we must keep our eyes on Christ and keep loving with His love while we pray for truth to be exposed and for manipulative control to be broken.
Continue to declare that your day and your household belong to the Lord, that no weapon formed against you shall prosper, and that every dark and deceptive influence must flee in Jesus name. Ask Him to fill you and your children with His Spirit, to make you beacons of His light at work, school and wherever you go, and to give you wisdom for every preparation and decision.
May the Lord guide you, give you wisdom, and let His love prevail in every situation in your home. May He heal what needs healing in body, mind and spirit, restore what has been broken, guard your family from harm and confusion, and draw each of your children closer to Himself and to one another.
God is your protector and the One who gives peace that goes beyond understanding. He has power in the material world and power in the spiritual world, and He is able to command what is unseen and to calm what is seen. When you ask for His covering over your home, your minds and bodies, and for His angels to guard you and for the full armor of God to clothe you, you are asking according to His Word. The belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, the gospel of peace, the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God are the provision He has given. Continue to pray that, and to trust Him to guide every step and to frustrate every plan that would bring division, isolation and chaos into your family.
For your son, and for your daughters in their health needs, know that the Scripture does speak of healing through Christ. Matthew applies Isaiah's prophecy, surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, to the physical healings Jesus did, healing the leper, the centurion's servant, Peter's mother in law and multitudes who were sick and oppressed. At communion we remember that His body was broken for us. We believe strongly that healing is from God and for today.
Yet healing is not always instant or in the way we expect. In the Gospels there is one healing where sight returned gradually, first in part and then fully, to show that God heals in different ways. Much about healing we do not fully understand, and we cannot presume that God wills instant physical healing in every case in this life. Even the apostle Paul prayed three times concerning his thorn in the flesh and heard that God's grace was sufficient. When healing does not come at once it is wrong to say it is because of sin or a lack of faith. That is not scriptural.
All true healing is divine, whether it comes in a moment or through a slow process. God created our bodies and He created the natural processes within them that work toward healing, and that work is His work. Sometimes His healing is most clearly seen in the mind and emotions, bringing calm where there was anxiety, gentleness where there was rigidity, and peace where there were painful memories and trauma. Pray for that complete work for your son, for calm, peace and joy in his daily life and with his caregiver, and for dedicated help that will bring out the best in him. Pray also for your daughters health, and keep bringing them before the Lord and before the elders of the church to pray for the sick, as the early church did. God hears, and with Him nothing is impossible.
The Lord is also a God of restoration. Sin and brokenness can take a toll on a body, a mind and a family, but His work is to restore what the enemy has torn down. He can put a life back together that others had written off, restore sanity and stability, and restore family bonds. That is your prayer for your children, for an unbreakable, loving and respectful bond between you, for broken relationships to be mended in a godly manner, and for your home to be filled with laughter, kindness and fellowship. That is a good and biblical prayer, and God delights to restore.
In that restoration, there are two matters to address with truth and love. You are right to be concerned about your older daughter living together with a young man outside of marriage. Scripture teaches that marriage is a lifelong covenant of one man and one woman, and that sexual intimacy and living together as husband and wife belong only within that covenant. Living together outside of marriage is not marriage, it does not give the rights of marriage, and it does not honor God. It is right to pray, as you have, that she would see this truth, that the ungodly tie would be broken, that her spiritual clarity and independence in Christ would be restored, and that she would be drawn with loving kindness to repentance and to a life of purity. Pray that she would not follow or obey a man who is not her husband, that she would not put him before family, work, health and faith, and that she would find her worth in Christ alone. At the same time, pray for that young man and his mother not with hatred but with hope for their salvation, that if it is not God's will for that relationship it would be removed completely, and if they do not know Jesus they would come to know Him. Respond to adversity with kindness and love, even while you stand firm.
For your younger daughter, give thanks for a respectful courtship. Pray that it would remain honorable, pure and kind, that both would be protected from jealous, mocking and corrupting influences, and that she would continue to have the strength to say no to any path that would lead away from the Lord and from gratitude for the family God has given her. Pray the same for an unbreakable bond among all your children, that they would encourage one another toward what is respectful and godly.
You also mentioned the influence of the young man's mother and the pain of feeling that another is trying to take a parental place. When we follow Jesus, we sometimes experience alienation even within our own families, because our deepest bond is now in the family of God. Jesus Himself was not honored among His own and knew family rejection. That does not mean we stop loving our blood family, but it helps us understand why division comes and why we must keep our eyes on Christ and keep loving with His love while we pray for truth to be exposed and for manipulative control to be broken.
Continue to declare that your day and your household belong to the Lord, that no weapon formed against you shall prosper, and that every dark and deceptive influence must flee in Jesus name. Ask Him to fill you and your children with His Spirit, to make you beacons of His light at work, school and wherever you go, and to give you wisdom for every preparation and decision.
May the Lord guide you, give you wisdom, and let His love prevail in every situation in your home. May He heal what needs healing in body, mind and spirit, restore what has been broken, guard your family from harm and confusion, and draw each of your children closer to Himself and to one another.
