My dear friend, I want to speak a quiet word to your heart right now, for I know you have been watching someone you love tossed about by these last few days. You have seen a measure of darkness creep back in where you had hoped the light was fixed, and that is a heavy thing to carry. Before I say anything more, let me say this plainly: if your loved one is in any immediate danger, or if the darkness seems to be closing in swiftly, please reach out to those who are trained to help in such moments. You can find a helpline in your country at
findahelpline.com, and your local emergency services are there for you as well. Do not hesitate to use what God has provided in these means.
Now, come and sit down here a moment. Let us look at this trouble together, not as though we could mend it with our own hands, but as those who know the One who can. You have been pleading the blood of Jesus over your dear one, and that is no small thing. You have been asking for peace, not a shallow calm that merely skims the surface, but the kind of peace that goes down deep into the soul, the peace that surpasses all understanding. And I want to tell you, that peace is a real thing. It is not a pleasant fiction we tell ourselves to keep our spirits up. It is a solid possession, purchased by Christ Himself and left as a legacy to His own.
But you must understand something about this peace, so that you are not unsettled when the storm still rages for a time. The peace that Christ gives does not depend on the weather of our circumstances. If peace could only live in a house where all was orderly and every duty came in its proper time, then none of us would ever know it. No, the true peace of God flows like a river, and a river does not stop flowing because a wind rises and ruffles its surface. It keeps moving, deep and steady, even when the rain beats down upon it. Your dear one has had setbacks these three days. That is the wind upon the water. But underneath, Christ is still at work. He has not unclasped His hold.
I remember learning this lesson in my own soul. When I saw that my enormous debt of sin had been fully discharged by the Lord Jesus Christ, not in part, but entirely, and not by anything I had done, but by His own blood, then my heart came into a peace that I cannot describe. It was not that all my troubles vanished. Far from it. It was that the root of the trouble had been cut. The ground of my enmity with God was taken away. And that, dear friend, is what you are asking for your loved one, and it is exactly what Christ delights to give. The blood of Jesus does indeed whisper peace within. It speaks a better word than all the accusations of the enemy, than all the memories that haunt, than all the fears that rise in the dark hours of the night. That blood has a voice, and it speaks pardon, cleansing, acceptance.
You have also asked that your loved one be saturated with peace in the thick of daily duties and ordinary trials. And you are right to ask it, for this peace is meant for the thronging pressures of life. I know there are times when cares come rushing in, not one by one, but all demanding attention at once, and the soul is first wearied and then worried. But here is the secret: to be sure that what we are doing is what Jesus would have us do, that is rest. Now, you cannot steer another soul entirely, but you can pray them into the hands of the Good Shepherd, and you can trust that He is able to guide them. What we cannot do, we leave to Him, being certain that our duty does not lie in the region of the impossible. God comes in where our capacity ends.
So do not let the enemy convince you that these three days of setback are a sign that your prayers have failed. That is the poison of false reasoning. The peace Christ gives can bear up under tribulation. In fact, it is meant to be proved there. You see a ship in the harbor, painted and neat, you cannot tell much of her seaworthiness by that. But send her out into deep water, let the winds howl and the billows heave, and if she rides it out and comes home with her cargo, then you know what she is made of. These very setbacks may be, in the hand of God, the occasion for your loved one to discover that Christ is his peace, not a doctrine merely, but a Person, holding him up when every outward prop gives way.
And do you know what I see in you? I see a heart that has been poured out like that dear woman who came to Jesus with her tears and her ointment. You have been weeping over these wounds. You have been anointing the feet of your Master with your supplications. And I hear Him speaking over you, and over the one you love, words like these: "Your faith has saved you; go in peace." He does not merely give peace as a distant gift. He is our peace. He Himself is the peace between the warring heart and the holy God. He has broken down every wall. He has settled the quarrel. There is no enmity left for those who are in Him. So you may plead His name with boldness. You are not asking God to make peace; you are asking that the peace already made by the blood of the cross would be shed abroad in your dear one's heart by the Holy Spirit. That is a prayer God loves to answer.
I want you to picture a little child walking through a dark wood at night, clinging not to a lantern of his own lighting, but to his father's hand. The darkness has not gone. The noises are still there. But he has his father, and his father has him. That is peace. Not the absence of difficulty, but the presence of Someone greater than the difficulty. Christ has promised, "I will never leave you nor forsake you." That promise is for your loved one. And He who gave the promise is Lord of all, over every setback, every dark memory, every trembling thought.
Let me pray with you now, and let us commit this whole matter into those pierced hands that were stretched out for us on the tree.
Lord Jesus, we come to You who are our very peace. You have torn down every wall that stood between us and the Father, and we rest in that finished work tonight. Now we bring before You this dear soul, so beloved, so precious in Your sight. You see the setbacks of these recent days. You see the shadows that have crept back in. But You, Lord, are the Light that no darkness can overcome. We ask that You would saturate this one with Your peace, not a counterfeit calm, but the deep, steady, unshakable peace that flows from knowing that his sins are forgiven, that he is loved with an everlasting love, and that no weapon formed against him shall prosper. Speak that peace into the conscience. Whisper it in the night watches. Let it be the pillow on which he rests. Guide the hands and hearts of all who care for him. Give them wisdom, patience, and tender understanding. And for this dear intercessor, Lord, Your child who has labored in prayer with tears, grant a quiet confidence that You are at work even now, and that the God of peace will soon crush Satan under Your feet. Restore the joy. Restore the safe outings and the glad fellowship. Restore the years the locust has eaten. We ask it not because we deserve it, but because You are gracious and because Your name is the Healer, the Restorer, the Prince of Peace. In Your strong and gentle name we pray, 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. 
