Silas
Beloved of All
Your prayer reflects a heart that wants what God wants, love flowing from a pure heart, sincere faith and a clear conscience, worship in spirit and truth, and a life that walks worthy of Jesus. That desire itself is from the Lord, and it is good to bring it to His throne of grace with confidence.
Scripture pictures Jesus as the true vine and His Father as the gardener. We are the branches. The secret of a fruitful life is abiding in Christ and Christ abiding in us. As we stay connected to Him, His life flows into us the way sap flows from a vine into its branches, and fruit begins to form naturally. The Father tends His vineyard with care. He lifts up what has fallen, He washes and cleanses, and He prunes. If we are bearing fruit He cleanses us so we will bear more, and the instrument He uses for that cleansing is His Word. That is why discipline to study the Word carefully, from beginning to end, matters so much. We want to know what the Holy Spirit has actually said so we do not misrepresent God, but accurately handle the truth.
The fruit the Father is seeking is love. The Bible speaks of the fruit of the Spirit as one fruit, love, which then shows itself in joy, peace, patience, kindness and the other graces. This is not a love we can manufacture on our own. It is agape, giving love, the same love God showed at the cross. The Bible does not try to prove the love of God to us in any other way. It points to the cross where He gave His Son for us. When His Spirit fills us, He perfects that kind of love in us so we love as Christ loved, even laying down our lives for others, speaking love and also doing love. That love becomes the mark that we belong to Him and that we are His disciples. It is also how we test what is of God. What confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh as God manifest, and what produces this holy love, is of God. A corrupt tree cannot produce good fruit, so we are invited to look honestly at the fruit of our lives.
You asked for wisdom to know His will and strength to walk it out and to accomplish what is needful. The will of God is the most blessed place to be. As His will is planted in our hearts, our asking begins to line up with His asking. Prayer is not a way to get God to do our will, but the way we cooperate with God for His will to be done on earth. Often we do not know how to pray as we should, and the Spirit helps our weakness. He knows the mind of the Father and intercedes for us according to the will of God, even with groanings that cannot be put into words. Nothing can separate those who love God from His love in Christ. His love for us is constant and eternal, not caused by our worthiness but by His own nature, and He promises that all things work together for good for those who love Him and are called according to His purpose.
Because you belong to Him, you are called to live differently from the world. God says to come out and be separate and not to touch what is unclean, and He will be a Father to you. You cannot go against the Word of God and win. To love the world and its ways is to shut out the love of the Father, but to walk in love, to love even those who do not love you, to do good and pray for those who oppose you, is to show you are children of your Father. That simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ, that nearness that comes as you draw near to God and He draws near to you, brings clarity and order instead of confusion, and it keeps you from being a stumbling block to others.
So I join you in asking the Father, through Jesus Christ the one mediator between God and man, our merciful and sympathetic high priest who lives forever, to grant you fresh nearness, renewal of first love, wisdom and revelation to know Him and to understand His Word, grace to tend faithfully the garden He has given you, and strength to bear lasting fruit that remains, fruit built on the facts of His Word and not on a passing emotion. May He fill you with the knowledge of His will, with spiritual wisdom and understanding, so you walk worthy, bearing fruit in every good work, with unity and zeal abounding in your family and in fellowship with other believers. May He guard you from temptation, from every stumbling block, from sin and fear and falsehood, from deception and from the evil one, and keep you in His peace that passes understanding as you continue to proclaim repentance and forgiveness in Jesus name.
Scripture pictures Jesus as the true vine and His Father as the gardener. We are the branches. The secret of a fruitful life is abiding in Christ and Christ abiding in us. As we stay connected to Him, His life flows into us the way sap flows from a vine into its branches, and fruit begins to form naturally. The Father tends His vineyard with care. He lifts up what has fallen, He washes and cleanses, and He prunes. If we are bearing fruit He cleanses us so we will bear more, and the instrument He uses for that cleansing is His Word. That is why discipline to study the Word carefully, from beginning to end, matters so much. We want to know what the Holy Spirit has actually said so we do not misrepresent God, but accurately handle the truth.
The fruit the Father is seeking is love. The Bible speaks of the fruit of the Spirit as one fruit, love, which then shows itself in joy, peace, patience, kindness and the other graces. This is not a love we can manufacture on our own. It is agape, giving love, the same love God showed at the cross. The Bible does not try to prove the love of God to us in any other way. It points to the cross where He gave His Son for us. When His Spirit fills us, He perfects that kind of love in us so we love as Christ loved, even laying down our lives for others, speaking love and also doing love. That love becomes the mark that we belong to Him and that we are His disciples. It is also how we test what is of God. What confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh as God manifest, and what produces this holy love, is of God. A corrupt tree cannot produce good fruit, so we are invited to look honestly at the fruit of our lives.
You asked for wisdom to know His will and strength to walk it out and to accomplish what is needful. The will of God is the most blessed place to be. As His will is planted in our hearts, our asking begins to line up with His asking. Prayer is not a way to get God to do our will, but the way we cooperate with God for His will to be done on earth. Often we do not know how to pray as we should, and the Spirit helps our weakness. He knows the mind of the Father and intercedes for us according to the will of God, even with groanings that cannot be put into words. Nothing can separate those who love God from His love in Christ. His love for us is constant and eternal, not caused by our worthiness but by His own nature, and He promises that all things work together for good for those who love Him and are called according to His purpose.
Because you belong to Him, you are called to live differently from the world. God says to come out and be separate and not to touch what is unclean, and He will be a Father to you. You cannot go against the Word of God and win. To love the world and its ways is to shut out the love of the Father, but to walk in love, to love even those who do not love you, to do good and pray for those who oppose you, is to show you are children of your Father. That simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ, that nearness that comes as you draw near to God and He draws near to you, brings clarity and order instead of confusion, and it keeps you from being a stumbling block to others.
So I join you in asking the Father, through Jesus Christ the one mediator between God and man, our merciful and sympathetic high priest who lives forever, to grant you fresh nearness, renewal of first love, wisdom and revelation to know Him and to understand His Word, grace to tend faithfully the garden He has given you, and strength to bear lasting fruit that remains, fruit built on the facts of His Word and not on a passing emotion. May He fill you with the knowledge of His will, with spiritual wisdom and understanding, so you walk worthy, bearing fruit in every good work, with unity and zeal abounding in your family and in fellowship with other believers. May He guard you from temptation, from every stumbling block, from sin and fear and falsehood, from deception and from the evil one, and keep you in His peace that passes understanding as you continue to proclaim repentance and forgiveness in Jesus name.
