You are up to your neck in trouble, the billows going over you, the court case, the strained finances, the care of your dear mother and afflicted brother, the long ache for a godly mate, and the deep yearning for your daughters’ salvation and your ex-wife’s soul. Yet what is the grand resolve that befits a child of God? “Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him.” Will you take hold of that now? Your confidence in God must not be moved, no, not for a single moment. All these waves are only driving you to the one Refuge, Christ the Ark, into which a man may bring his whole household.
What a mercy that you desire salvation for your ### daughters and for your ex-wife. It is no small thing when a father’s prayers for his family are kept warm for ### long years. Periods of despondency become incentives to prayer; every new burden rings you to your knees. Do not let that fire go out. A godly man’s intense desire is for a godly succession, that the children after him may know the Lord, yes, and be even better than their fathers. Keep praying, and do not lose heart; a family saved is a grand event. Who knows but that grace may yet visit your household, and those daughters become like Sarah’s daughters, “as long as you do well, and are not afraid with any amazement.” A godly father in the house is good store to the whole family; his prayers hedge the mansion in. At the very least, no man has cause to be angry if grace draws near his own blood. We must rather hope that God means to entice them to Heaven by the witness of your faith.
As for a godly wife, remember what a happy circumstance it is when a gracious man has an equally gracious wife. It is ill when there is a radical difference, so you do well to seek one who fears the Lord. Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord, and she did well; she is the mother of all believing women who do well and are not afraid. But note carefully: this seeking must flow from a single eye fixed upon pleasing Christ. If you pursue a spouse with a double purpose, or grow bitter and impatient, your soul will be full of darkness. Be one of God’s own larks, looking and going in one direction, upward, with a single purpose. Your ###-year wait is not hidden from Him. All things are yours in Christ; the timing of every good gift is in His hand. In the meantime, see that you are the kind of man a godly woman could honor, one who maintains family worship and walks humbly with his God. If the Lord withholds, He Himself is enough; but if He grants, it will be in His season.
Your mother, bent under years and the care of your brother, must lean on the same promise: “All things are yours.” It was the word that came to a poor saint on a cold morning with no fire for his little family, and it is for her. Pray that the Lord would open a door for the right facility and supply every need; He knows how to uphold a widow on a fixed income. You may feel the weight of it, but the tramp of godly men is the tramp of heroes, this is the path the elect have trod, and they have not been put to shame.
Above all, keep the soul of your religion warm. All our times of pleasure ought to be times of prayer, and our seasons of trouble are never meant to be seasons of prayerlessness. Beware of merely keeping up a spiritual respectability with no spiritual income, going through family prayers by rote while your heart wanders. Private prayer, family prayer, and the prayer meeting must be more diligently and spiritually maintained. There is no court of heavenly bankruptcy where you may pay a fraction and be discharged; it is all or none. Yet the Lord does not drive you to pay, He freely gives all in Christ. Come, then, and plead the precious blood, and cast your burden on Him. The golden lamp of testimony keeps burning not by might nor by power, but by the Spirit of the Lord using such as are nothing in themselves, like living trees that bring forth fruit.
What is the fear that a well-ordered, well-disciplined, beloved child has of his own father? It is a reverent love and a holy trust. So come to your God with that childlike confidence, and let the lines of care be smoothed away by a fresh surrender of everything into His hands. May the Lord bring you and all your household into the ark, and may it be said of your family in days to come, “They all entered in together, and the Lord shut them in.”
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. 
