It is with great heaviness of heart and yet with hope in the mercy of God that we have heard your prayer for those who suffer under abandonment, for families broken and scattered, for children left alone without house or refuge, for mothers and fathers and sons and daughters forsaken, and for the unborn who are despised and cast away.
The Lord always deals with things as they are. Man invents fictions, but God creates facts. Man looketh at the outward appearance, but God looketh at the heart. He sees the confusion and disorder of which you speak, the ancient sorrow that runs through generations, the meddling and sabotage that wounds the home, and the deep grief of those who have no shelter. Nothing is hidden from Him, and it is right that we should come before Him as we are, and plead for mercy through Jesus Christ alone. For He will never cast away a sinner that comes to Him according to truth.
You have well quoted the promise, Though my father and my mother forsake me, then the Lord will take me up, Psalm 27 verse 10. And again, Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb, yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee, Isaiah 49 verse 15. When earthly refuge fails, when there is no house, no family, no friend to receive the outcast, God Himself becomes the refuge. He is a safe shelter. He will cover thee with His feathers, and under His wings shalt thou trust, Psalm 91 verse 4. In the season of direst grief God was All in All to His people, and He looked upon the children of Israel and had respect unto them. So He has respect unto the lonely and the forsaken still.
For the wounded heart there is but one Physician, and He is at the right hand of God. By nature the heart is hard as the nether millstone, but when God smites it, it is broken to pieces in deep suffering. Many feel as you describe, that God cannot hear sinners, that prayer cannot rise, yet the Lord healeth the broken in heart and bindeth up their wounds. We very speedily care for bodily diseases, but the soul's wound is deeper and requires the healing leaves of that blessed tree which is Christ Himself. The least thing about Christ is healing. His gentleness and His boldness, His perfect consecration to our cause and His zeal for the glory of God, all have curative power for those who look to Him.
Concerning the little ones, the unborn, the aborted and the miscarried, we affirm with all reverence that life is the gift of God and precious in His sight. We do not ask God to bless what is contrary to His holy law, but we do plead His mercy. We entrust those innocent children to His sovereign care, asking Him in His infinite compassion to receive them according to His perfect will and goodness. He is the great Teacher who teacheth us from our youth, a condescending and loving Teacher who values the soul of a child. He hears the cries of children, and He has taught us to pray that He would pour His Spirit upon our seed, for our children need the Spirit of God. What comfort it is that the same God who numbers the hairs of our head also gathers the lambs in His bosom.
Therefore we will pray. We pray for every abandoned wife and husband, for every forsaken son and daughter, for every lonely child and every neighbor who wanders without refuge, that God would be their dwelling place. We pray for those who have despised life and for those who have suffered its loss, that they may honestly confess their sin before God, see its heinousness as an offense against a kind and loving God, and find forgiveness only through the blood of Jesus Christ, for there is no other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. We pray that families broken by sin may be restored in truth, that marriage as God ordained it, the lifelong covenant of one man and one woman, and the home ordered by His perfect law intended for our good, may be honored and kept pure. We pray that you and those for whom you intercede may resolve in the strength of God to walk uprightly, and then to come to your heavenly Father for His protection, saying, My God, I am more afraid of sin than of any calamity.
Now is the time to exercise faith upon a living God. Your God is not worth having if He cannot help you when you want help. Only to know that God is our Friend we will not ask who else is on our side, for having God we have all. Cast your lot with God and with His people. Come to Him always as a sinner, and He will deal truthfully with you.
May the Lord receive the forsaken, bind up the brokenhearted, keep the children in His own keeping, and grant rest and peace to those who trust in Christ. We join our prayers with yours, beseeching His mercy in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, who alone is our shelter and our salvation.
