You have come burdened, I can see that, bearing before God not a single sorrow but a whole multitude of them, like a man carrying a great bundle of broken branches and wounded birds, hardly knowing which to set down first. Your heart goes out to the mother who has lost the child of her womb, to the wife cast off, to the husband left solitary, to the child who knows no father’s face, to the beggar with no roof, and to all the little ones who never drew breath outside the shelter of their mother but are now sheltered in the bosom of God. And over it all there is a groaning that seems to have stretched across generations, loss upon loss, abandonment upon abandonment, until the heart cries out, “Is there any mercy left?” Let me tell you what I have tasted and found to be true: the Lord’s mercy is not a shallow cup, but a deep well. And He is not far from any of these cries.
When I think of those unborn infants, despised and rejected by the very ones who should have welcomed them, I remember that our Lord Jesus Christ was once carried into the temple as a tiny child, and He did not consider little ones beneath His notice. He gathered them in His arms and blessed them, and He does the same now. Do you think the One who wept at the grave of His friend will close His heart against the silent sufferers who never knew a mother’s smile? No, a thousand times no. He says, “Suffer the little children to come unto Me,” and who can hinder Him? Not human coldness, not human cruelty, not even death itself. The unborn who die are alive in His presence; the miscarried and the murdered are not lost but found of Him. The blood of His cross reaches where no human hand can stretch, and His tender hand gathers them to a home that no sin can spoil. This is not my imagining; it is His character. As the old promise runs, “Though my father and mother forsake me, then the Lord will take me up.” And if He takes up the abandoned, how much more will He take up the infant who never knew a single embrace but His?
Now, consider the others you mention, the forsaken wife, the cast-off husband, the daughter or son left to make their way alone, the friend betrayed, the soul who has no human shelter and feels they have become a beggar. You have prayed for them all, and you have done well. For the Lord has a special nearness to the outcast. The great High Priest of our profession was Himself despised and rejected of men; He knows what it is to be abandoned by those He loved. He was betrayed by a familiar friend, denied by a trusted follower, left to die as if He were nothing. So when any soul cries out, “I am alone,” Christ answers, “I understand; come unto Me.” He is the City of Refuge appointed from the foundation of the world, not for those who have made only a small mistake, but for the guilty, for the ruined, for those who must flee for their lives. And the gate of that City stands open for every one of these you name. No matter how they came to be in the wilderness they are in, whether by their own foolishness or by the cruelty of another, the moment they turn their eyes toward Jesus, they have a sure shelter.
I know it sometimes feels as if the clouds of abandonment are too thick for mercy to break through. But I want to give you a picture. On a battlefield a wounded soldier lies bleeding, unable to lift himself. And there comes a messenger, not with a scolding word but with water for his fevered brow, bandages for his wounds, a stretcher to bear him, and a hospital bed already prepared. Every need is anticipated before the man can ask. That is the way the Lord meets souls who are cast down. His mercy goes before. He was thinking of them long before they ever cried; He saw their pain while they were still silent. He has provision hidden away for them in the Covenant of His grace, a promise fitted exactly to their case. You may not see it yet, but it is as real as the noonday sun behind a veil of cloud. He has promised, “Can a woman forget her nursing child, that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you.” That is the God who answers your prayer.
And what about those who feel they have brought their trouble upon themselves, who have a bitter pot of indignation simmering in their breast, or who have fled from good things and now find themselves in a dry place? Even there, the Angel of the Lord finds them, as He found Hagar by the well. He calls them by name. He asks, “Where have you come from, and where are you going?” Not to crush them, but to turn them back in mercy. The ones who are most tangled in their own misery are often the very ones upon whom God’s goodness overtakes them, and they sing in surprise, “The Lord has been mindful of me!”
So, my dear burdened friend, cast all these cares upon Him. You have done well to bring them to the mercy seat. Now leave them there. The unborn are safe in the Shepherd’s fold. The abandoned have a Husbandman who will not forsake them. The friendless will find in Jesus one who sticks closer than a brother. And as for the beggar’s cry for shelter, the Lord’s own heart is that shelter; His wounded side is a cleft in the rock where every storm-tossed soul may hide. Do not measure His compassion by your own, for His is infinite. The God who is slow to anger and great in power has found a way to be both just and the justifier of the one who trusts in Jesus. And because of that, there is no sin too deep, no ruin too complete, no abandonment too absolute for His mercy to reach.
Let us bow our hearts together.
Lord Jesus, we bring before Thee the sorrows that no human word can heal. Receive, we beseech Thee, every unborn child into Thine everlasting arms; let them grow in the light of Thy countenance forever. For the forsaken and the lonely, be Thou a present comfort and a strong defender. For the one who sits in the dust with no home and no helper, lift up the light of Thy face and grant shelter under the shadow of Thy wings. And for this dear soul who pleads with such a burden, give the peace that passes understanding; let them see that Thy mercy is broader than all our sin and deeper than all our need. In Thy name, O Jesus, we trust, and in that name we ask. Amen.
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. 
