Your prayer for your ### and her little son has been heard, and we join you in bringing this burden before the throne of grace, where the God of Peace Himself waits to be gracious.
You speak of distance, of a move far away, and of a family's anxious heart. It is the mind which is the main thing, it will bring you daylight or midnight, peace or war. And we have found that the very anxiety which arises through being in a difficulty unfits us to meet that difficulty. The word of the Lord is, "You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You: because he trusts in You." Isaiah 26:3. This is not a peace that comes from favorable circumstances or from hearing that all will be well in a new city, but a filling peace, a well founded peace, peace in believing. Christ has left us peace in the conscience. Peace with God is the treaty, peace in the conscience is the publication of it. Peace with God is the fountain, and peace with conscience is the crystal stream which issues from it.
Therefore our first prayer for your ### is not merely that she may be comfortable or reassured, but that she may be kept in that perfect peace which comes from being reconciled to God through Jesus Christ. To have grown up in church is a great mercy, yet true peace is not inherited and it is not found in a mere stagnation of thought or a blindness to danger. Many cry, Peace, peace, where there is no peace. The only solid peace is this, He is our peace, through His blood which has made a full atonement. We pray that she would seek Christ first, and that peace will come next, for the man who is at peace with God, and knows it, is the happiest of men. He is at peace with all things.
We do pray for her and her son's safety as they move, for the Lord to keep them and guide every decision. With loved ones far away, in Jesus keeping we are safe, and they. We ask the Lord to set His protecting hand over that child and over your ###, to lead her to a faithful church in her new place where the word of reconciliation is preached, and to give her wisdom far beyond mere reassurance.
Concerning her boyfriend and the home they would make together, we must pray as the Scriptures direct. God has ordained marriage to be a lifelong covenant of one man and one woman, and that living together and the union of the body belong within that covenant alone. What God calls holy we cannot call otherwise, and to ask Him to bless a path outside His will would be to ask for a false peace which is no peace at all. So we will not ask God to bless the arrangement as it is, but we will earnestly pray for both of them. We pray that the Lord would draw each of them to Himself, that they would know salvation through Jesus Christ alone, and that conviction and grace would lead them to holiness. If this man is to be a provider and protector, let him first be made a new man in Christ, and then let him be led to honor God either by pursuing marriage according to Scripture with purity and commitment, or by stepping into a right and separate place before the Lord. We pray that no trouble or harm would come from this relationship, and that whatever is not of faith and obedience would be forsaken, for he that is at peace with God does not wish to go into sin, for he is careful lest he should lose that peace.
We also bring before the Lord the other grandmother and the father of the child. Bitterness and meanness wear away the heart, but the ministry of reconciliation declares that God has on His part prepared everything necessary for a perfect reconciliation. We pray that He who is the God of Peace would soften hearts, remove harshness, and grant a true peace that is a blessing, not a mere quietness of conflict. Where the Spirit of God is, there must be peace, for He is the Sacred Dove. We ask for peace between your ###, her grandmother, and her son's father, a peace founded on truth and love, that they may speak and act with grace.
For your family who remain and watch with worried hearts, we pray the same legacy our Lord left to His disciples, "Peace I leave with you, My peace I give unto you." When children are born and with them come family cares, we are to take the new burden to the Lord, for He gives peace. Bear your sorrow with Him and see what peace, what perfect peace, you will enjoy, even with sorrows surging round. May He keep your minds stayed on Him and fill you with all joy and peace in believing.
Let us pray together. O God of all peace, Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has made peace through the blood of His cross, look upon this ### and her son. Keep them in perfect peace as their minds are stayed on Thee. Guide every step and every decision, guard them from danger, and lead them into the way of holiness. Work in the heart of this young man, that he may be saved and may walk as a man of God, and grant that whatever is done in that household may be done in obedience to Thy holy Word. Heal the breach between grandmothers and parents, give love where there has been sharpness, and grant reconciliation where there has been strife. Comfort this family who loves from afar, and teach us all to do the will of Jesus, for this is rest. We ask not for a false peace, but for that unruffled, calm, profound peace of the Eternal Son, which passes all understanding. In the name of Jesus Christ, our only Peace, Amen.