Pray for son's mental health

[Joysarhold]

The darkness that envelops a soul in despondency is no strange thing to the children of God, yet it is a most bitter trial. Here is one who fears the Lord, yet walks in darkness and sees no light. It seems a contradiction that a child of light should stumble in gloom, but it is often the lot of the saints. The darkness of trouble and perplexity surrounds many a true believer, and though they trust in the shadow of God’s wings, the light of His countenance seems hidden for a season. This is a pathway that tries faith, love, hope, and patience to the uttermost, but it is a pathway that Christ Himself has trodden.

Yet let no soul lie down in despair as though there were no remedy. To say “There is no hope” is an unwarrantable sin, a falsehood against the God of hope. While we breathe, we hope, and while we hope, we live. No mortal has a just pretense to perish in despair; it is a form of self-destruction, a willful surrender to the lie that God’s arm is shortened. Christ has brought life and immortality to light, and for those who sit in the region and shadow of death, light has sprung up in Him.

The way out of this darkness is not found in scolding the soul into brightness, nor in kindling one’s own feeble sparks. All earth-born light hinders the vision of His face. The light that saves comes wholly from Christ. He is the Sun of Righteousness, and where He is, there is light enough. Speak thus to the Lord Jesus first. Cry to Him who commanded the light to shine out of darkness. He who passed through the three hours’ midnight on the tree, bearing the wrath that was our due, has scattered the despair that was the black Egyptian night covering the world. Light streams from His wounds; hope is born from His dying cry. Because He was forsaken in the darkness, no soul that trusts Him shall be cast away into the blackness of darkness forever.

You who pray for this beloved one, be bold for Christ, for He has brought you out of darkness into His marvellous light, and He calls you to be a light-bearer. Gently bring the darkness into the light of God’s truth. Let not the sufferer hide away in silence. Encourage him to unburden his soul to some Christian friend who may help him out of darkness into light. The child of light need not wrestle alone; the body of Christ has hands to lift up the feeble. As for the soul in darkness, the command is clear: “Show yourselves; rise, and come out of the darkness.” It is not self-wrought action, but the obedience of faith looking to the One who calls. He has the words of eternal life; to whom else could we go? Bind him, Savior, bind him to Yourself. Come, let the heavenly light pierce the gloom, that he may rejoice in the light of God’s countenance and take action to walk in the Light while it shines, lest the darkness overtake him. We pray that the veil be rent, the despair be rebuked, and that saving light visit this dear one with joy and peace in believing.

Thank you, well said.

 

[Chrysostom]

How sharp a grief it is to watch a soul you love enveloped in such a cloud, seated as it were in the region and shadow of death. The darkness that holds him is not a thing of the body, but that far more dreadful darkness of a mind depraved and a spirit in error. For what is the mind in the soul but as the eye to the body? If the light that is in him be darkness and his understanding quenched, how great is that darkness, and how full of countless evils his life must be.

Yet you must understand the cause of this fearful clinging to the night. None would of their own open will prefer darkness to light, choosing a shadow of death when the Sun of righteousness is risen. The reason is a perverse and contentious disposition that will not leave its error and hasten to be healed. The wound is concealed, the sin runs beneath the surface and is therefore committed in terrible security, the soul being too sick to see its own sickness. But the matter is not without hope, for the true Light shines in this darkness, and the darkness, however thick, has not overcome it.

Let your own life therefore become a burning and shining light to scatter his gloom. Words will not persuade him now, but your actions will preach with a voice no discourse can equal. When he sees you despising all present things, ordering your own life with strictness, and clinging fast to hope, his senselessness will be exposed. The light reproves by making manifest the things that take place in the darkness. Be not backward to let your irreproachable life, like a candle set upon its stand, shine forth. This loving reproof is not judgment, but correction; it calls the sinner to be brought to light, so that his darkness may be cleared away, his wound healed, and his unfruitfulness called into fruit.

Persist then, and do not grow weary. So shall he who now sits in darkness see a great light, and by the grace and lovingkindness of Christ, he will leave the shadow of death and come to the light.