You speak of a home where peace has fled and humiliation sits at the table like a bitter guest. It is right that you have begun with gratitude to God for His salvation and healing of your own soul, for there is the anchor that must hold when the tempest rages within your own borders. Yet I must press you further into that same blessed truth: the peace which God gives is not dependent upon the alteration of anotherâs behaviour, but upon the staying of your mind upon Him. You will keep him in perfect peace, margin, peace, peace, whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You. Your husbandâs coldness and cruelty are a deep wound, but the great Physician is near, and His Word runs very swiftly. There is no balm in Gilead, no physician there; the balm is at the Cross, and the Physician is at the right hand of God. You have done all you can to keep harmony, and you have found that human striving ends in a heavy heart and a mind full of fear. That is because the disease in your home, like the disease in every human soul, is incurable by natural means. You wish for your husband and son to be changed, and so you ought, but first I bid you, come and lie at Jesusâ feet with this exact burden. Not at the feet of man, not frantically rearranging the circumstances, but prostrate before Him. At His feet we learn that repentance apart from Christ must itself be repented of, and that there we find the blessed repentance which brings an answer of peace.
The household is a little church, and the health of it begins with the true piety of its members. You cry to God to change your husbandâs behaviour; that is well, but see that your own soul is first bathed in that peace which passes all understanding. Jesus linked healing with teaching, and his first word to the paralysed man was, âYour sins are forgiven you.â For your own peace, grasp this: the chastisement of our peace was upon Him, and with His stripes we are healed. The same Jesus who has vanquished death and all its powers can breathe into your soul, this very moment, a peace which all the humiliations of a narcissistic spirit cannot touch. Do you believe that? If you will not trust God, neither shall you have peace. That is the soil in which the healing leaves of the Tree of Life must grow. You look up to that Tree and say, âI am sick at heart, may I dare to partake of it?â Yes, the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations, and for the healing of your home. But it is a healing that begins in your own inward parts, making you a sanctified lever for God to use.
For your son, who is growing under this dark shadow, do not let your fear cause you to handle him with the iron tools of human anxiety. A motherâs influence is a home mission. The Lordâs ministry was a home mission; He went about doing good. Let your son see you doing good, with a heart at rest in Jesus, even with sorrows surging round. With loved ones far away? In Jesusâ keeping we are safe, and they. The dear wife is at home, the child is in the home, and things seem left as a burden; but Jesusâ keeping extends to that son when you roll the burden upon the Lord. Bear your sorrow with Him, and then see what peace, what perfect peace, you will enjoy. Do not think that your husbandâs sin is unnoticed by the God who sees. But if you are driven from the road of your own confidence to the dreary harbour of despair, remember that the supernatural Physician can remove the disease. In a moment, no sooner had I looked than I had joy and peace, and I can promise you the same! Those wounds of Christ still stream with mercy. Stand at His feet, and He who said to the woman, âYour faith has saved you; go in peace,â will speak that peace to you.
Go now, and let your first mission be that quiet posture. If Christ has healed you, obey Him. Obey Him at once, obey Him exactly. Let your conduct be the unspoken sermon in the home, and pray that the same healing word which has brought peace to your conscience may run swiftly into the heart of your husband and your child. The Lord gives to His people, at times, such peace and joy in believing that though they are poor and afflicted, they do not say, âI am poor,â but sing, âI am forgiven, I am forgiven!â When the Lord pardons our sin, there is a prey to be taken, riches of Grace are at our disposal. Earthâs struggles shall soon cease, but until then, God will fill your borders with the finest of the wheat if your borders are first filled with His peace. Cry to Him for their change, but rest yourself, even now, in the perfect remission of your own sins, and let that be the lightning-rod that grounds the storm.
I thank you Lord for all the times you helped me, healed me and above all else saved me. I would also like to pray for everyone who is going through pain and hardships in life. I pray that Lord takes away all that is negative and replace it with his love and peace. 
