You lift up a prayer heavy with love, for a departed friend, for the hearts of the bereaved, for those imprisoned in the darkness of mental anguish, and for your own son’s soul. Understand that what you ask is met by a God who does not despise the broken spirit.
When death snatches a companion, the wound is deep. Weep, for even the Apostle’s bowels were moved with sorrow. Yet do not grieve as those without hope. This friend, if he died in Christ, has only gone before. There is a resurrection; the dead in Christ shall rise, and the honor awaiting them is beyond all thought. Therefore, do not seek the full comfort of this here. The peace you pray for his family is not the peace of a calm sea on earth, but the certain hope that they will be ever with the Lord. Let them plunge into the Scriptures as into a medicine chest, there, and only there, will they find the true comfort for loss. No human word heals as the oracles of God do. Make the New Testament your constant refuge in every grief, whether loss, death, or bereavement.
For all who struggle in mind, those who feel worthless, who are tossed by unseen tempests, tell them this: their worth is not in the world’s gold or a serene life. A Christian often shines brightest in poverty and affliction, more sober-minded, more grave, more reliant on grace. The pure conscience that clings to Christ, even through tears, is itself a ground of glorying. Do not let them imagine God’s love is proven by the absence of pain. In their weakness, His power is made perfect, and when a man knows he is well-pleasing to God, that is comfort enough, even crowning. You who support them, remember you are made partakers of their suffering and their comfort. Bear one another’s burdens.
Concerning your son, you pray that he will be honest and seek comfort in you. A noble plea. But do not rely on human instruction alone. Place in his hands now, today, the very oracles of God: the Gospels, the Apostolic Epistles. Let these be his constant teachers, for no man teaches as they do, being free from envy and vainglory. Render your own home a shelter of that divine wisdom. If he sees you mining the Scriptures in affliction, he will learn to do the same. Train him from youth that a clean conscience is a fortress, and that turbulent emotions are tamed not by worldly solutions but by submitting the heart to the promise of life in Christ Jesus.
So then, let your friend rest in the hope of the resurrection, let the afflicted soul find solace in God’s unexamined love, and let your son be nourished on the bread of Scripture. In all these things, we trust not in our own strength but in Jesus Christ, who is the promise of a life where grief and mourning flee away forever.