Silas
Beloved of All
Your prayer reveals how heavy and threatened you feel in your new neighborhood, in your family and in your workplace, as if war has been declared against you from many sides. It is understandable to cry out for God to act when you feel surrounded and to want Him to vindicate you quickly and completely.
Scripture shows that God does see when His people are pressed and persecuted. The early believers knew this well. They faced real hostility and even imprisonment for their faith, and their love for one another and their faith in the Lord grew as they learned to lean on Him together. The Lord is presented throughout the Psalms as light and salvation and strength, and when He is remembered, fear loses its hold. One psalmist says though a host should encamp against me my heart shall not fear, though war should rise against me I will be confident, because the Lord is my strength. Another says, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil for thou art with me, and that He prepares a table before me in the presence of my enemies and hides me in His shelter in the time of trouble.
Fear and faith cannot occupy the heart at the same time. When fear is allowed to take over, faith departs, and reactions driven by fear are often wrong. Remembering the Lord is the cure for fear. That does not mean you do nothing wise or prudent, but that you do not act from panic or seek to hide yourself as if God cannot protect you where you are. You can ask Him to lead you in a level, unobstructed path because of those who oppose you, and to deliver you out of trouble as you put your trust in Him. If God is for us, who can be against us, and we need not fear what man can do to us. Jesus said not to fear those who can harm the body and after that have no more power, but to have a reverent awe of God Himself. That holy fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and comes as we quietly meditate on who He is.
It is also important to see how God wants us to pray about those who oppose us. In the psalms you mentioned, David often asked God to deal with his enemies and to cut them off in His truth, leaving judgment to God. He also prayed, let not my enemies triumph over me, for my trust is in you. The Scriptures teach that vengeance belongs to the Lord and He will repay in His perfect time and righteousness. There is a psalm that speaks of the Lord sitting at the right hand until His enemies are made His footstool. We wait for His justice rather than taking it into our own hands.
In the New Testament Jesus teaches us to bless those who curse us and to pray for those who mistreat us. That is very different from asking for their blood to be shed or for them to be reduced to dust. It is natural to want mercy and grace for ourselves while wanting immediate judgment for others, but God is merciful to all and calls us to desire that same mercy for others. He is a merciful God who blots out transgressions when they are confessed. There is no forgiveness in justifying or hiding our actions. Forgiveness comes when we acknowledge our sin before Him. He says though your sins be as scarlet they shall be as white as snow, as far as the heavens are above the earth so great is His mercy toward those who revere Him. He loved us even when we were still dead in our trespasses, from eternity He has loved, and He never stops loving.
That mercy also speaks to the sexual matters you mentioned. God created marriage as a lifelong covenant of one man and one woman, and He intends sexual intimacy to belong within that covenant. Any pattern outside of that, including self stimulation with objects, homosexual acts, or living as the opposite sex, falls short of His design. This ministry cannot ask God to bless what He calls sin, but we can tell you that God offers complete forgiveness and cleansing through Jesus Christ alone for all who turn from sin and trust in Him. As with any sin, the way forward is not to hide or excuse it but to confess it, receive His abundant mercy, and walk in new life.
So instead of asking for plagues and destruction upon the people around you, you can pray in this way. Ask the Lord to be your light and your strength, to guard your heart from fear, to hide you in His presence, and to make a clear path before you at home and at work. Ask Him to bring conviction and repentance where there is occult practice, deception, theft or sexual immorality, so that those who now oppose you might come to know His mercy and be saved. Ask Him to fill you with faith, to grow your love for other believers, and to keep you from returning evil for evil. And if you have any sin of your own to confess, bring it openly to Him and receive His promise to blot it out.
May the Lord show you His loving kindness, keep you in peace as you trust in Him, deliver you from all trouble in His way and time, and make your heart confident in His presence even while enemies remain around you.
Scripture shows that God does see when His people are pressed and persecuted. The early believers knew this well. They faced real hostility and even imprisonment for their faith, and their love for one another and their faith in the Lord grew as they learned to lean on Him together. The Lord is presented throughout the Psalms as light and salvation and strength, and when He is remembered, fear loses its hold. One psalmist says though a host should encamp against me my heart shall not fear, though war should rise against me I will be confident, because the Lord is my strength. Another says, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil for thou art with me, and that He prepares a table before me in the presence of my enemies and hides me in His shelter in the time of trouble.
Fear and faith cannot occupy the heart at the same time. When fear is allowed to take over, faith departs, and reactions driven by fear are often wrong. Remembering the Lord is the cure for fear. That does not mean you do nothing wise or prudent, but that you do not act from panic or seek to hide yourself as if God cannot protect you where you are. You can ask Him to lead you in a level, unobstructed path because of those who oppose you, and to deliver you out of trouble as you put your trust in Him. If God is for us, who can be against us, and we need not fear what man can do to us. Jesus said not to fear those who can harm the body and after that have no more power, but to have a reverent awe of God Himself. That holy fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and comes as we quietly meditate on who He is.
It is also important to see how God wants us to pray about those who oppose us. In the psalms you mentioned, David often asked God to deal with his enemies and to cut them off in His truth, leaving judgment to God. He also prayed, let not my enemies triumph over me, for my trust is in you. The Scriptures teach that vengeance belongs to the Lord and He will repay in His perfect time and righteousness. There is a psalm that speaks of the Lord sitting at the right hand until His enemies are made His footstool. We wait for His justice rather than taking it into our own hands.
In the New Testament Jesus teaches us to bless those who curse us and to pray for those who mistreat us. That is very different from asking for their blood to be shed or for them to be reduced to dust. It is natural to want mercy and grace for ourselves while wanting immediate judgment for others, but God is merciful to all and calls us to desire that same mercy for others. He is a merciful God who blots out transgressions when they are confessed. There is no forgiveness in justifying or hiding our actions. Forgiveness comes when we acknowledge our sin before Him. He says though your sins be as scarlet they shall be as white as snow, as far as the heavens are above the earth so great is His mercy toward those who revere Him. He loved us even when we were still dead in our trespasses, from eternity He has loved, and He never stops loving.
That mercy also speaks to the sexual matters you mentioned. God created marriage as a lifelong covenant of one man and one woman, and He intends sexual intimacy to belong within that covenant. Any pattern outside of that, including self stimulation with objects, homosexual acts, or living as the opposite sex, falls short of His design. This ministry cannot ask God to bless what He calls sin, but we can tell you that God offers complete forgiveness and cleansing through Jesus Christ alone for all who turn from sin and trust in Him. As with any sin, the way forward is not to hide or excuse it but to confess it, receive His abundant mercy, and walk in new life.
So instead of asking for plagues and destruction upon the people around you, you can pray in this way. Ask the Lord to be your light and your strength, to guard your heart from fear, to hide you in His presence, and to make a clear path before you at home and at work. Ask Him to bring conviction and repentance where there is occult practice, deception, theft or sexual immorality, so that those who now oppose you might come to know His mercy and be saved. Ask Him to fill you with faith, to grow your love for other believers, and to keep you from returning evil for evil. And if you have any sin of your own to confess, bring it openly to Him and receive His promise to blot it out.
May the Lord show you His loving kindness, keep you in peace as you trust in Him, deliver you from all trouble in His way and time, and make your heart confident in His presence even while enemies remain around you.
