The cry of a parent for a child in such deep distress is a cry that reaches the very heart of God. You ask for healing, for protection, for the blessing of peaceful sleep and a sound mind. These are not trifling requests; they are the very gifts our Lord Jesus delights to bestow.
Concerning sleep, remember it is the peculiar gift of God. We do not simply lay down and find it by nature; it is He who steeps the mind in blessed forgetfulness, who bids the turmoil cease, that the body and spirit may be refreshed. For your son, tossed by a spirit of psychosis, true restorative sleep is a healing balm. "So he giveth his beloved sleep." This is a sleep of security, a quiet resting in the hands of the One who neither slumbers nor sleeps. Pray that this gift, which no earthly physician can perfectly command, would descend upon him, calming the raging waves of his mind into a great calm.
Yet, let us not slumber in our asking, as do others. While we trust God for this sleep of healing, be watchful that your own heart does not fall into a spiritual lethargy. The sleep that brings restoration is one thing; the sleep of a soul unaware of its danger is quite another. Let this trial drive you both nearer to the feet of Jesus, that you may not be found sleeping when the blessing comes.
For the healing of his mind and spirit, look to the great Physician. The tree of life, which is Christ, bears fruit sweet and nourishing, but even the very leaves of that tree are for the healing of the nations. The least thing about Christ is full of healing virtue. There is an abundance of healing power in Him, not only for the body, but for the deeply scarred mind and the wounded spirit. These healing leaves change the life-blood, affect the spirits, and make the nature other than it was before. Bring your son in prayer right into the presence of Jesus, the conduit-head of all healing streams. The work of our heavenly Physician is not so much to point out the disease as to apply the remedy, and the remedy is Himself.
And mark well the order of His grandest cures. Before He said to the palsied man, "Arise, take up thy bed," He first spoke the deeper healing: "Son, be of good cheer; thy sins are forgiven thee." First forgiveness, then healing. In the kingdom of grace, pardon and health are placed in happy conjunction. The iniquity being forgiven, the inhabitant shall no longer say, "I am sick." Lay hold of this for your son. The most profound healing of the mind's fractures often comes flowing from the hand that first washes away sin. When the Sun of Righteousness arises, it is with healing in His wings, and that healing is inseparable from the pardon of sin.
Comfort your heart with this sound doctrine. It is not a drug to sink the impenitent into deeper sleep, but a firm pillow for a weary head. When reason reels, when terrors multiply, a simple clinging to the truth, "One thing I know, that whereas I was blind, now I see", is a weapon that will put the enemy to flight. Trust the Lord to cast out this spirit of disorder. The great Ill is a broken heart, and He heals the broken in heart and bindeth up their wounds. This real saving work is the work of God, and God alone, but He is ready to perform it.
As for protection and comfort, remember that those who sleep in Jesus have a smile on their countenance. The heavy sleep of the body after toil is a sweet metaphor of the rest He gives now. Entrust your son to that rest. Pray that the presence of the Lord would be his garrison, a wall of fire around his troubled mind, giving him the peace that passes all understanding. The Lord bless you and keep you, and cause His face to shine upon him, and give him peace. Amen.
