Silas
Beloved of All
Your prayers reflect a heart that wants to see people truly come to know Jesus, and we join you in that. The message of the cross can sound like foolishness to the world, yet Scripture shows it is the very wisdom and power of God to everyone who is being saved. The gospel is the power of God for salvation, and through it God reveals a righteousness that is received by faith.
We pray with you that everyone who has heard the Word would receive revelation and understanding. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God, and that faith itself is a gift of grace, not something we produce on our own. We can share and we can water the seed that has been planted, but only God can give the growth. So we ask Him to create a real spiritual hunger, like newborns craving pure milk, and to grant wisdom and revelation in knowing Him more deeply. As our knowledge of God grows, our faith grows with it, step by step as we walk with Him.
We also pray for protection over that seed. Jesus warned that the enemy comes to snatch away the Word that has been sown, and to steal and destroy. We ask the Father to keep those who have heard from the evil one, just as Jesus prayed, and to guard them until salvation is fully realized. He has promised angelic care for His people, for angels are ministering spirits sent to serve those who will inherit salvation. At the same time we know that the testing of faith has a purpose. Trials prove whether our faith is genuine, for even the demons believe in a way that does not save. Temptation that solicits us to evil never comes from God, but God does allow testing to prove and strengthen what we say we believe, so that our faith may mature.
That kind of faith is living and active. Scripture is clear that we are saved by grace through faith as a free gift, not by works, yet the faith that saves is never alone or dead. It shows itself in action. Like two oars needed to move a boat forward, faith and the obedience it produces work together. Faith moves us to act, and our actions demonstrate that our faith is real. Abraham was counted righteous because he believed God, and when God asked him to offer his son, his willingness to obey showed that his faith was alive, trusting that God could even raise the dead to keep His promise. In the same way, genuine repentance bears fruit and continues in discipleship, abiding in the Word and learning to hate what is evil and cling to what is good.
We thank God with you for those who are finding courage to speak for Christ in the face of difficulty and opposition. The early believers faced the same, yet wide doors for effective service were opened to them even with many adversaries. We pray that God will continue to open those doors and bring divine appointments wherever His Spirit leads, in homes and workplaces and neighborhoods and churches and on street corners, with family and friends and even with those who oppose us. We ask that He will give both the message and the right way to speak it, for there is one Lord, one faith, one baptism, and one God and Father over all.
Take encouragement that God is sovereign in this work. Sometimes He works through our faith, as when He saw the faith of the friends who brought the paralyzed man to Jesus, and sometimes He works apart from our faith, because He is gracious and no flesh can boast before Him. Even great men and women of faith have had moments when their faith faltered, yet God remained faithful. If you have felt weak or afraid at times, you are not alone, and God can still use the measure of faith He has given to each of us.
We agree that the arm of the Lord is not too short to save. Jesus, who knew no sin, became sin for us and bore the curse on the tree, paying our debt in full so that it is finished, and God raised Him up and He appeared to many witnesses before being exalted and pouring out the Holy Spirit. Through His death and resurrection we who believe are made the righteousness of God and entrusted as His ambassadors with the word of reconciliation. We trust the Holy Spirit to continue His work in every heart that has heard, until the day of Christ Jesus, bringing full faith and repentance, a turning from sin with a true hatred for it and a wholehearted desire for new obedience, and forming in them the wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption that we have in Christ. We pray this in the name of Jesus, trusting that what we ask according to His will He hears.
We pray with you that everyone who has heard the Word would receive revelation and understanding. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God, and that faith itself is a gift of grace, not something we produce on our own. We can share and we can water the seed that has been planted, but only God can give the growth. So we ask Him to create a real spiritual hunger, like newborns craving pure milk, and to grant wisdom and revelation in knowing Him more deeply. As our knowledge of God grows, our faith grows with it, step by step as we walk with Him.
We also pray for protection over that seed. Jesus warned that the enemy comes to snatch away the Word that has been sown, and to steal and destroy. We ask the Father to keep those who have heard from the evil one, just as Jesus prayed, and to guard them until salvation is fully realized. He has promised angelic care for His people, for angels are ministering spirits sent to serve those who will inherit salvation. At the same time we know that the testing of faith has a purpose. Trials prove whether our faith is genuine, for even the demons believe in a way that does not save. Temptation that solicits us to evil never comes from God, but God does allow testing to prove and strengthen what we say we believe, so that our faith may mature.
That kind of faith is living and active. Scripture is clear that we are saved by grace through faith as a free gift, not by works, yet the faith that saves is never alone or dead. It shows itself in action. Like two oars needed to move a boat forward, faith and the obedience it produces work together. Faith moves us to act, and our actions demonstrate that our faith is real. Abraham was counted righteous because he believed God, and when God asked him to offer his son, his willingness to obey showed that his faith was alive, trusting that God could even raise the dead to keep His promise. In the same way, genuine repentance bears fruit and continues in discipleship, abiding in the Word and learning to hate what is evil and cling to what is good.
We thank God with you for those who are finding courage to speak for Christ in the face of difficulty and opposition. The early believers faced the same, yet wide doors for effective service were opened to them even with many adversaries. We pray that God will continue to open those doors and bring divine appointments wherever His Spirit leads, in homes and workplaces and neighborhoods and churches and on street corners, with family and friends and even with those who oppose us. We ask that He will give both the message and the right way to speak it, for there is one Lord, one faith, one baptism, and one God and Father over all.
Take encouragement that God is sovereign in this work. Sometimes He works through our faith, as when He saw the faith of the friends who brought the paralyzed man to Jesus, and sometimes He works apart from our faith, because He is gracious and no flesh can boast before Him. Even great men and women of faith have had moments when their faith faltered, yet God remained faithful. If you have felt weak or afraid at times, you are not alone, and God can still use the measure of faith He has given to each of us.
We agree that the arm of the Lord is not too short to save. Jesus, who knew no sin, became sin for us and bore the curse on the tree, paying our debt in full so that it is finished, and God raised Him up and He appeared to many witnesses before being exalted and pouring out the Holy Spirit. Through His death and resurrection we who believe are made the righteousness of God and entrusted as His ambassadors with the word of reconciliation. We trust the Holy Spirit to continue His work in every heart that has heard, until the day of Christ Jesus, bringing full faith and repentance, a turning from sin with a true hatred for it and a wholehearted desire for new obedience, and forming in them the wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption that we have in Christ. We pray this in the name of Jesus, trusting that what we ask according to His will He hears.
