Silas
Beloved of All
Your pain and distress have been heard, and the seriousness of what you have endured is not overlooked. To suffer electric shocks while showering, to bear wounds on your skin, to need medical care and to find no apology, no help, no offer of a safe place, but instead threats, demands for payment, blocking of communication and even pressure to falsify reports, is deeply grievous. It is right to bring this before the Lord and to ask for His protection, His justice and His mercy.
Scripture teaches that the heart is the wellspring of life. What a person thinks in the heart, that is what he is. Outward words and religious acts mean little if the heart is not right before God. God does not delight in empty outward form. What He desires is a broken and contrite heart, a heart that is torn open before Him, not merely outward show. To do what is just and right is more acceptable to Him than any outward sacrifice.
True repentance is more than words of regret. It means a change of heart that leads to a change of direction. When the heart is not truly changed, the same wrong will rise again, even if it is postponed for a time. What is in the heart will come out again in actions. That is why the evidence of a changed heart is seen in changed deeds, in the fruit that follows, in doing works that show the repentance is real. Without that change, there is reason to question whether repentance has happened at all.
The Bible also shows that people first harden their own hearts against what is right, and then God confirms them in the hardness they have chosen. Pharaoh hardened his heart, and God made that hardness firm. This is a solemn warning, and it is also a reason to pray earnestly that hardness does not become fixed, but that God would intervene while there is still time to turn.
God is a God of justice. He wants justice and truth to prevail, and He sees when justice is turned away and stands far off. He knows every heart, every motive, every threat made in secret and every attempt to hide the truth. Nothing is hidden from Him. He searches the heart, and He alone can give a new heart, a heart of flesh in place of a heart of stone.
So we pray for you and for those who have authority over that dwelling. We ask the Lord to place His fear upon those who have acted without remorse, who have called a life threatening danger a matter of comfort, who have demanded payment while refusing repair, and who have threatened legal action when the place was not habitable. We pray that the Holy Spirit would convict them, soften what is hard, expose any falsehood and any hidden wrongdoing, and bring them to genuine repentance that is shown in truthful words, in taking responsibility, and in making restitution where it is due. We pray that any attempt to cover wrong with a false report would be brought to light.
We also pray for you, that the Lord who delivers the righteous out of many afflictions would keep you, heal the wounds you have suffered, guard you from further harm and from false accusation, and give you His peace. As it is written, many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all. May He be your refuge and your defender, and may He establish truth where there have been lies.
And as we ask God to search other hearts, we also ask Him to search our own. None of us knows our own heart fully, so we pray, Lord, reveal what is unlike You in us, change our hearts and our attitudes, and then our actions will follow. Keep your heart with all diligence, for from it flow the issues of life.
May the Lord grant you wisdom for every practical step that is needed for safety and for justice through lawful means, and may He sustain you with the assurance that He sees, He cares, and He will act in righteousness.
Scripture teaches that the heart is the wellspring of life. What a person thinks in the heart, that is what he is. Outward words and religious acts mean little if the heart is not right before God. God does not delight in empty outward form. What He desires is a broken and contrite heart, a heart that is torn open before Him, not merely outward show. To do what is just and right is more acceptable to Him than any outward sacrifice.
True repentance is more than words of regret. It means a change of heart that leads to a change of direction. When the heart is not truly changed, the same wrong will rise again, even if it is postponed for a time. What is in the heart will come out again in actions. That is why the evidence of a changed heart is seen in changed deeds, in the fruit that follows, in doing works that show the repentance is real. Without that change, there is reason to question whether repentance has happened at all.
The Bible also shows that people first harden their own hearts against what is right, and then God confirms them in the hardness they have chosen. Pharaoh hardened his heart, and God made that hardness firm. This is a solemn warning, and it is also a reason to pray earnestly that hardness does not become fixed, but that God would intervene while there is still time to turn.
God is a God of justice. He wants justice and truth to prevail, and He sees when justice is turned away and stands far off. He knows every heart, every motive, every threat made in secret and every attempt to hide the truth. Nothing is hidden from Him. He searches the heart, and He alone can give a new heart, a heart of flesh in place of a heart of stone.
So we pray for you and for those who have authority over that dwelling. We ask the Lord to place His fear upon those who have acted without remorse, who have called a life threatening danger a matter of comfort, who have demanded payment while refusing repair, and who have threatened legal action when the place was not habitable. We pray that the Holy Spirit would convict them, soften what is hard, expose any falsehood and any hidden wrongdoing, and bring them to genuine repentance that is shown in truthful words, in taking responsibility, and in making restitution where it is due. We pray that any attempt to cover wrong with a false report would be brought to light.
We also pray for you, that the Lord who delivers the righteous out of many afflictions would keep you, heal the wounds you have suffered, guard you from further harm and from false accusation, and give you His peace. As it is written, many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all. May He be your refuge and your defender, and may He establish truth where there have been lies.
And as we ask God to search other hearts, we also ask Him to search our own. None of us knows our own heart fully, so we pray, Lord, reveal what is unlike You in us, change our hearts and our attitudes, and then our actions will follow. Keep your heart with all diligence, for from it flow the issues of life.
May the Lord grant you wisdom for every practical step that is needed for safety and for justice through lawful means, and may He sustain you with the assurance that He sees, He cares, and He will act in righteousness.
