Silas
Beloved of All
It is encouraging to read your thanksgiving. To see God answer prayer, to move you from silence and running from His will into movement and peace, is a real mercy. That refreshing that comes from His presence is what He promises when hearts turn toward Him, and abiding in Christ is the only way fruit remains. As Jesus taught, when we remain in Him and His words remain in us, our prayers are shaped by His will and our lives bear fruit that glorifies the Father.
You asked for a radical return to your first love, and that is the right prayer. Our language is so limited when we try to speak of love or even of thanksgiving to God. In English we use one word for everything. We say we love a food and we love our family and we love God with the same word, and it quickly loses depth. The Scriptures help us by showing different kinds of love. There is love that is physical, love that is emotional and friendship, and love that is natural family affection between parent and child. That natural affection is put in us by God, and Scripture warns that in difficult times people can even become without it. But there is a higher love that the world did not know on its own, a divine and giving love. It is selfless, it gives itself away, as God so loved the world that He gave His Son. It is superior to all gifts and abilities, and it is the greatest because it carries faith and hope within it. It believes all things and hopes all things.
This divine love is not first about how much we love God. Many say they love God, but the wonder is that He first loved us. We love because He first loved us, and His love is poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit. When you have been so loved, so forgiven, so blessed and provided for, you can then walk in love as Christ loved us. That is why love is the true evidence of His Spirit at work, and the proof that we have passed from death to life, because we love one another. It is not love in word only, but in deed and in truth.
That helps shape your desire to show love to the youngster in your life. A parent naturally loves a child, but this divine love goes further. It is patient and kind, it does not provoke a child to anger or frustration, it does not tease or use harsh words for amusement, but it seeks the childs good. You are right to ask for help to hold your tongue and to hold nothing against her, and to place her in Gods hands. Asking God to guard her from hardness of heart and from evil, and to help her know His mercy so she can show mercy to others, reflects the very heart of the Beatitudes. God delights to give wisdom and revelation, and to let light shine out of darkness as He did at creation, opening blind eyes through the gospel.
Your practical ideas are good and loving. Games, short Bible stories for children, counting, learning English together, and your own desire to learn her native tongue, are all ways to give yourself. Love is shown by giving, as Christ gave Himself for the church. A child learns a gracious and compassionate view of God not only from what we say but from how we act with patience, consistency, and forgiveness. Learning what communicates care to her in a way she understands, and helping her understand how you receive encouragement, is part of loving in deed and not just in words.
You also asked for wisdom toward outsiders and to redeem the time in evil days. That is wise. Scripture calls us to walk carefully, with kindness and long suffering and sincerity, keeping ourselves under the power of God and the armor of righteousness. Part of that walk is to stay clear of those who only have a form of godliness but deny its power, of imposters and deceivers who lead astray. Praying for protection from temptation and from the evil one, who is the deceiver of the whole world, is exactly what Jesus taught us to pray. Greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world, and we overcome by the blood of the Lamb and the word of our testimony.
May the Lord keep you abiding in Him, keep your words and His love first in every conversation, and open doors for your testimony. He is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, forgiving iniquity, and everyone who comes to Him He will never cast out. As you bring these requests with thanksgiving, may His peace which passes all understanding guard your heart and mind in Christ Jesus, and may all that happens bring glory to His name. In Jesus name, amen.
You asked for a radical return to your first love, and that is the right prayer. Our language is so limited when we try to speak of love or even of thanksgiving to God. In English we use one word for everything. We say we love a food and we love our family and we love God with the same word, and it quickly loses depth. The Scriptures help us by showing different kinds of love. There is love that is physical, love that is emotional and friendship, and love that is natural family affection between parent and child. That natural affection is put in us by God, and Scripture warns that in difficult times people can even become without it. But there is a higher love that the world did not know on its own, a divine and giving love. It is selfless, it gives itself away, as God so loved the world that He gave His Son. It is superior to all gifts and abilities, and it is the greatest because it carries faith and hope within it. It believes all things and hopes all things.
This divine love is not first about how much we love God. Many say they love God, but the wonder is that He first loved us. We love because He first loved us, and His love is poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit. When you have been so loved, so forgiven, so blessed and provided for, you can then walk in love as Christ loved us. That is why love is the true evidence of His Spirit at work, and the proof that we have passed from death to life, because we love one another. It is not love in word only, but in deed and in truth.
That helps shape your desire to show love to the youngster in your life. A parent naturally loves a child, but this divine love goes further. It is patient and kind, it does not provoke a child to anger or frustration, it does not tease or use harsh words for amusement, but it seeks the childs good. You are right to ask for help to hold your tongue and to hold nothing against her, and to place her in Gods hands. Asking God to guard her from hardness of heart and from evil, and to help her know His mercy so she can show mercy to others, reflects the very heart of the Beatitudes. God delights to give wisdom and revelation, and to let light shine out of darkness as He did at creation, opening blind eyes through the gospel.
Your practical ideas are good and loving. Games, short Bible stories for children, counting, learning English together, and your own desire to learn her native tongue, are all ways to give yourself. Love is shown by giving, as Christ gave Himself for the church. A child learns a gracious and compassionate view of God not only from what we say but from how we act with patience, consistency, and forgiveness. Learning what communicates care to her in a way she understands, and helping her understand how you receive encouragement, is part of loving in deed and not just in words.
You also asked for wisdom toward outsiders and to redeem the time in evil days. That is wise. Scripture calls us to walk carefully, with kindness and long suffering and sincerity, keeping ourselves under the power of God and the armor of righteousness. Part of that walk is to stay clear of those who only have a form of godliness but deny its power, of imposters and deceivers who lead astray. Praying for protection from temptation and from the evil one, who is the deceiver of the whole world, is exactly what Jesus taught us to pray. Greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world, and we overcome by the blood of the Lamb and the word of our testimony.
May the Lord keep you abiding in Him, keep your words and His love first in every conversation, and open doors for your testimony. He is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, forgiving iniquity, and everyone who comes to Him He will never cast out. As you bring these requests with thanksgiving, may His peace which passes all understanding guard your heart and mind in Christ Jesus, and may all that happens bring glory to His name. In Jesus name, amen.
