Silas
Beloved of All
Your prayer shows a hurting heart, and God sees that pain. He is near to those who are brokenhearted and He saves those who come to Him with a humble and contrite spirit. In that nearness He wants to do more than ease the ache, He wants to heal and transform the heart itself.
Scripture tells us to guard the heart with all diligence, because everything in life flows from it. It also tells us that the heart is deceitful and we cannot fully understand it on our own. That is why the wisest prayer we can pray is, search me, O God, and know my heart. Before asking God to change someone else, it is right to invite Him to search our own motives and show us what is there. He looks not on outward appearances as people do, He looks on the heart, and He judges not only actions but the attitudes behind them.
You asked for a mended heart and for resentment to be taken away. God does offer a deep inner work. He promises to circumcise the heart, to take away a heart that is set on itself and to give a new heart that loves Him and desires what pleases Him. That is the true change we need. David was called a man after God's own heart not because he never failed, but because his heart remained open and pliable before God. When he sinned he prayed, create in me a clean heart, O God. He understood that what God most desires is not outward offerings or words, but a broken spirit, a heart that is honest about sin and willing to be made pure. Jesus said blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
It is important to seek God with the whole heart, not a divided heart. A divided heart wants God and also wants its own way. God sees when the heart is torn between longing for Him and longing for what we want. He invites us to bring the whole heart to Him, to delight in His ways and to let Him incline our hearts toward what is right. As you think in your heart, so you become.
God also knows the heart of the other person involved. We cannot control or manipulate another person's heart, and we should not ask God to simply remove someone's feelings so that we can have the outcome we desire. Scripture shows that a person can harden his own heart over time, and God in the end confirms the direction that person has chosen. Each person is responsible before God for his own heart, and God alone knows it fully. Rather than asking God to make someone feel a certain way toward you, it is better to entrust that person to God and to pray for God's good and merciful will in both lives.
I will not ask God to bless or restore a dating relationship as such, because God has designed sexual intimacy and shared life together to belong within the lifelong covenant of marriage between one man and one woman, and He calls His people to purity and holiness in all relationships. But I will pray for you in the way God does call us to pray.
May the Lord give you a clean heart and a fixed heart that sings His praise even in sorrow. May He help you to be honest with Him, to pour out your grief and your burden and to let Him sustain you. May He search your heart, reveal any wrong motive, forgive your sin through Jesus Christ who alone saves, and fill you with His love where there has been hurt. May He also work in the heart of the young man you mentioned according to His wisdom and mercy, and may He lead both of you to seek Him first with your whole hearts. As you seek Him that way, He will guide your steps, heal what is broken, and show you His path for the future.
Scripture tells us to guard the heart with all diligence, because everything in life flows from it. It also tells us that the heart is deceitful and we cannot fully understand it on our own. That is why the wisest prayer we can pray is, search me, O God, and know my heart. Before asking God to change someone else, it is right to invite Him to search our own motives and show us what is there. He looks not on outward appearances as people do, He looks on the heart, and He judges not only actions but the attitudes behind them.
You asked for a mended heart and for resentment to be taken away. God does offer a deep inner work. He promises to circumcise the heart, to take away a heart that is set on itself and to give a new heart that loves Him and desires what pleases Him. That is the true change we need. David was called a man after God's own heart not because he never failed, but because his heart remained open and pliable before God. When he sinned he prayed, create in me a clean heart, O God. He understood that what God most desires is not outward offerings or words, but a broken spirit, a heart that is honest about sin and willing to be made pure. Jesus said blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
It is important to seek God with the whole heart, not a divided heart. A divided heart wants God and also wants its own way. God sees when the heart is torn between longing for Him and longing for what we want. He invites us to bring the whole heart to Him, to delight in His ways and to let Him incline our hearts toward what is right. As you think in your heart, so you become.
God also knows the heart of the other person involved. We cannot control or manipulate another person's heart, and we should not ask God to simply remove someone's feelings so that we can have the outcome we desire. Scripture shows that a person can harden his own heart over time, and God in the end confirms the direction that person has chosen. Each person is responsible before God for his own heart, and God alone knows it fully. Rather than asking God to make someone feel a certain way toward you, it is better to entrust that person to God and to pray for God's good and merciful will in both lives.
I will not ask God to bless or restore a dating relationship as such, because God has designed sexual intimacy and shared life together to belong within the lifelong covenant of marriage between one man and one woman, and He calls His people to purity and holiness in all relationships. But I will pray for you in the way God does call us to pray.
May the Lord give you a clean heart and a fixed heart that sings His praise even in sorrow. May He help you to be honest with Him, to pour out your grief and your burden and to let Him sustain you. May He search your heart, reveal any wrong motive, forgive your sin through Jesus Christ who alone saves, and fill you with His love where there has been hurt. May He also work in the heart of the young man you mentioned according to His wisdom and mercy, and may He lead both of you to seek Him first with your whole hearts. As you seek Him that way, He will guide your steps, heal what is broken, and show you His path for the future.
