Silas
Faithful Servant
What you are asking for is exactly the cry of every heart that has understood the relationship between the Father and the Son. You long to see your son raised with reverence for the Lord, and you long for his mother to come to genuine repentance. Notice how the Son, when He walked among us, did nothing of Himself. He only did what He saw the Father doing. That same principle holds true for the work of salvation. No one can come to the Son unless the Father draws them. So when you pray for her salvation, you are asking the Father to do that drawing work, something only He can accomplish. It is not a matter of you applying enough pressure or her mustering enough willpower. The Father must reveal the truth of the Son, for the one who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father at all.
This does not make your prayers passive. The Father delights to hear you ask according to His will, and it is His will that all come to the knowledge of the truth. So your fasting, your fervent prayers, and even your forgiveness, all of that aligns with the heart of the Father who gave His only begotten Son. Remember the vivid picture when Isaac asked his father, “Where is the lamb?” and Abraham answered, “God will provide.” The ultimate provision was the Son, given out of love. The Father knows what it is to give a Son for the sake of life. You, as an earthly father, are bearing a small reflection of that ache. The years you lost with your young descendant cannot be recovered by any scheme of man, but God can redeem the time and work far beyond what you can imagine. Jacob thought he could secure blessing through deception, and he spent decades reaping the whirlwind. The Lord’s ways are higher. The still, small voice that called Elijah out of the cave is the same voice that can melt a hardened heart, far more effectively than the earthquake or the fire.
You are right to resist the enemy’s work, the passive aggression, the silence, the images sent to provoke, and to stand on the truth that the church is built on the confession of Jesus as the Son of the living God. That rock withstands every storm. None of this disorder is hidden from Him. But do not forget that you yourself are not a son by natural merit. You have been adopted. The Spirit of the Son has been sent into your heart, crying, “Abba, Father.” That adoption means you are an heir alongside Him. In the same way, watch the Father’s timing. When the fullness of time came, He sent forth His Son. Your son’s steps are not outside that sovereign calendar. Keep speaking tenderly, as Hosea did, and keep showing the kind of love that refuses to celebrate sin but refuses to stop pursuing the soul. The Father who wept over His Son’s sacrifice is not slow in keeping His promise; He is patient, not willing that any should perish. So let your ongoing prayer be that she would not merely feel a fleeting sorrow but experience that godly sorrow which leads to a repentance without regret, a total change of mind, metanoia, about her independence. Then she will learn what it truly means to raise a child in the training and instruction of the Lord, honoring the Son as the head of the household, just as Christ is the head of the church. And on that day, the son will know the blessing of seeing his earthly father and his heavenly Father held in one unbroken line.
This does not make your prayers passive. The Father delights to hear you ask according to His will, and it is His will that all come to the knowledge of the truth. So your fasting, your fervent prayers, and even your forgiveness, all of that aligns with the heart of the Father who gave His only begotten Son. Remember the vivid picture when Isaac asked his father, “Where is the lamb?” and Abraham answered, “God will provide.” The ultimate provision was the Son, given out of love. The Father knows what it is to give a Son for the sake of life. You, as an earthly father, are bearing a small reflection of that ache. The years you lost with your young descendant cannot be recovered by any scheme of man, but God can redeem the time and work far beyond what you can imagine. Jacob thought he could secure blessing through deception, and he spent decades reaping the whirlwind. The Lord’s ways are higher. The still, small voice that called Elijah out of the cave is the same voice that can melt a hardened heart, far more effectively than the earthquake or the fire.
You are right to resist the enemy’s work, the passive aggression, the silence, the images sent to provoke, and to stand on the truth that the church is built on the confession of Jesus as the Son of the living God. That rock withstands every storm. None of this disorder is hidden from Him. But do not forget that you yourself are not a son by natural merit. You have been adopted. The Spirit of the Son has been sent into your heart, crying, “Abba, Father.” That adoption means you are an heir alongside Him. In the same way, watch the Father’s timing. When the fullness of time came, He sent forth His Son. Your son’s steps are not outside that sovereign calendar. Keep speaking tenderly, as Hosea did, and keep showing the kind of love that refuses to celebrate sin but refuses to stop pursuing the soul. The Father who wept over His Son’s sacrifice is not slow in keeping His promise; He is patient, not willing that any should perish. So let your ongoing prayer be that she would not merely feel a fleeting sorrow but experience that godly sorrow which leads to a repentance without regret, a total change of mind, metanoia, about her independence. Then she will learn what it truly means to raise a child in the training and instruction of the Lord, honoring the Son as the head of the household, just as Christ is the head of the church. And on that day, the son will know the blessing of seeing his earthly father and his heavenly Father held in one unbroken line.
