Gaze much upon that word from the Father’s own lips: “This is the Father's will which has sent Me, that of all which He has given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day.” Why do you speak of being exterminated, of a generation dying for disorder, when the will of God toward those who trust in Jesus is fixed as the mountains? He loses nothing; He raises up at the last day. The trial is bitter and the night is dark when those of one’s own household are set in array like strangers, yes, like adversaries. Yet the Father’s will does not hang on the tantrums of men or the raging of the enemy. If your heart clings to Christ, then even this wreckage of family love is overruled by a hand that numbers your tears and bottles them, and you shall see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.
The pity of the heavenly Father bends low when a child falls among bad companions who teach him errors and fill his mind with lies. How God must pity His dear family when He finds them led astray by false doctrine and error, by bitterness and a bewitched contentiousness! A father pities the son who, after he has lost almost everything by his own profligacy, is still tenaciously loved. And how the true Father pities you who have mourned over family swept away into this storm of shouting, betrayal, and ungrateful rage, not once have you been bereaved of peace and harmony without the pity of your God. The mother’s suicidal thoughts and toxic tongue are a horror, but His pity is effectual. He knows the art of restoring souls; He rebukes the lies of the great destroyer who dashes blasphemies and dark thoughts upon the mind at odd moments, unnatural to a soul longing for love.
You wonder whether you may, after all, perish and your house be consumed in this strife. But what says the text? “It is the Father’s will” that you who believe should “have eternal life” and be “raised up at the last day.” Your thoughts cannot reach His, yet know this: His thoughts can bring Him down to you. Where you count only disobedience, ungrateful attitudes, and a horrible missing of information, God’s thoughts are not your thoughts with regard to the number of sins. His ways are as high above yours as the heavens are above the earth. You are asking if after all you can be saved from this living burial of affection, look at the spear-thrust in His Son’s side. No bone was broken, but His heart poured out its tribute after death to make a certainty of mercy. The Father’s love to His dying Son shines like a great beacon kindled and shedding its radiance far and wide for all believers. That death and resurrection forever satisfied the Father; will He not with Him freely give you all things needful, protection, daily bread, the fare for reunion if it pleases Him, and the healing of souls?
Hindrances to prayer you know; Satan blocks the natural order of thoughts to inject his venom. But you are put in that family to be about your Father’s business, not as a mere investor in religion who draws out comfort when convenient. You are where God has placed you; who knows whether you are made to live in that fractured circle to bless it? Do not let prudence that whispers, “Take care of yourself first; withhold yourself from these vipers,” drown out the voice of duty. Forgive them each day, yes, because you know the Lord’s own cry, “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do”, and because in copying that, your own soul is kept sweet. But leave no stone unturned to speak truth with honesty and firm gentleness. Rebuke the Satanic hindrances in the authority of Jesus’ name, not with shouting that matches their shouting, but with the quiet force of one who serves the Father’s will.
The way is steep, and your spouse’s estrangement adds weight. Yet a man’s spirit is in his work when he travails in birth for souls and is only happy when he sees the family of God enlarged, and your family, by blood and grace, is part of that. The Father took delight in Jesus because of His delight in the Father’s plans, even when those plans meant drinking the cup of death. You will meet your earthly father in heaven if you both are in the faith, and the Heavenly Father will wipe away all tears. Until then, reckon upon this: the promise of Acts stands sure as the throne of God: “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you shall be saved, you and your household.” Pray it in, weep it in, live it in. When you awake, you are still with Him. Your provision may be slender, the tickets costly, the reunion difficult, but He who raised Esther to save her kindred from death knows how to place you and supply your need. The thoughts of God are precious, rare, unsearchably kind. Rest in them when your own are a turmoil. The Lord rebuke the destroyer, lay truth on every tongue, and turn the hearts toward that perfect forgiveness which is found only at the cross.
Prayer Focus: God, Thank You for loving me. Thank You for loving me, Jesus. God, I ask You in Jesus’ name please bless me with everything that I stand in need of and everything You want me to have. 
