The secret springs that move the puppets of earth, for kings and princes are often little more than that, are the prayers of God’s believing people. It is God that writes intercession upon men’s hearts, and when he does, it makes a man quick to seize every advantage in pleading with God. You are doing no sin against the Lord in ceasing not to pray for your mother and father; rather, you are discharging a sacred duty. How can you show love toward them unless you bear their names upon your heart in prayer, yes, and pursue them with persistent intercession even as long as breath remains?
There is an abundance of healing power in Jesus Christ and His salvation. Not only is his fruit sweet and nourishing, but the leaves, the very least things about Christ, are full of healing virtue. The fungal infection in your mother’s lungs and the diabetes that weakens her frame: these are not beyond the reach of the leaves of that tree whose leaf shall not wither. The Sun of Righteousness has risen with healing in his wings. When Jesus was upon earth, the healing power was conspicuously present, and it is present still when he is lifted up in the teaching of his Word. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. There is healing for the eyes that dim, for the head that aches, for the urinary tract and the swelling feet, for the blood pressure that troubles, all these things that afflict your father are known to the great Physician. Calvary is the place for the healing balm. He is able to heal, and there are times, acceptable days, days of salvation, when that power is more than usually manifest. We looked for peace, and there is no good; and for a time of healing, and behold trouble! That is not exactly praying, but it is very like it; it is the groan of a heart that knows the Lord’s smiting and waits upon him alone.
Yet never put the cart before the horse. Healing must come after pardon, or better still, they are one. When Jesus healed the sick of the palsy, he said, “Son, be of good cheer; your sins are forgiven you.” Pardon and healing were placed in happy conjunction. And so must it be for you and for them: first, that they know the forgiveness which is in Christ Jesus, and then the healing shall follow as the leaves unfold. There is no real spiritual healing for the unregenerate, for the Spirit maketh intercession for the saints, and his intercession is not for the world. Unless we are the sons of God, the Holy Spirit’s indwelling is not ours. But for those who look to Jesus, there is healing for every wound. He is able to heal backslidings; he is able to heal broken hearts; and he is able to heal the body too, for his touch makes the fever leave and the palsy lift. He took Peter’s wife’s mother by the hand and lifted her up, and immediately the fever left her and she ministered unto him. So do we pray that the healing hand of Christ would touch your mother and your father, lift them from their beds of affliction, and so restore them that they might serve him with gladness. But healing must come before serving, and the desire to minister always arises out of healing. We therefore look to the Lord alone for this great work. It is the work of God, and God alone. The act of justification and the restoration of health are from his hand; easy enough to get religious notions and fancy yourself safe, but a real saving work is the work of Jehovah.
We will not cease to pray for them. God forbid that we should sin against the Lord in ceasing to pray. There is no power like that of intercession. And so we will keep them before the throne, asking that the great conduit Head from which abundant streams of healing flow down to men below would make them whole, body and soul. And we will say with the prophet, “Why have you smitten us, and there is no healing for us?” only to hasten to add that the Lord who wounds is the Lord who binds up, and we wait for his time of refreshing. Welcome them, Lord, to pardon and healing through our Lord Jesus!