Your request concerning your father and his affliction of the liver, with obstructive jaundice and blockage of the bile ducts, has been brought before the Lord with sincere sympathy and prayer.
We very speedily care for bodily diseases, for they are too painful to let us slumber in silence, and they soon urge us to seek a physician. How much more should they urge us to seek the heavenly Physician, our Lord Jesus Christ. Calvary is the place for the healing balm, and there is an abundance of healing power in Jesus Christ and His salvation. It is written that the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations, to teach us that even the least thing about Christ is full of healing virtue. These healing leaves change the life blood and make the nature other than it was before, and from the great conduit Head abundant streams of healing flow down to men below.
We pray that you will view God the Father aright in this trial. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. When viewed aright He becomes the object of our gratitude, not of our dread, for the Father Himself loves you, and His love is in all respects equal to the love of the Son. He is our Father, our God, our Saviour's Father and our Saviour's God. Let us delight ourselves in Him. He has said, I will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty, and you shall find Him a better Father than the best of fathers could ever be.
We entreat the Lord for your father, that if it be His gracious will, He would lay His hand upon him and lift him up, as He took Peter's wife's mother by the hand and the fever left her. Healing must come from His hand, for a real saving and healing work is the work of God, and God alone. We ask the Father to deal with him according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus, to give skill and wisdom to those who care for him, to relieve the obstruction, to cleanse the jaundice, and to restore strength to the body. And we pray also for the greater healing, for healing and forgiveness are placed in happy conjunction. When Jesus healed the sick of the palsy He said, Son, be of good cheer, thy sins are forgiven thee, and pardon and healing were one. The Sun of Righteousness has risen with healing in His wings, and He was sent by the Father on purpose to forgive sin, and He is exalted to be a Prince and a Saviour to give repentance and forgiveness of sins.
We bow our will to the Father's will, saying with our Lord, Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in Thy sight. Abba, Father, there is heaven in the depth of that word, and there is all we need, all our necessities can demand. We leave your father in those faithful hands, trusting His goodness, whether He restores in this life or keeps to perfect health in the life to come.
May the Lord grant to you and to your father faith that comes by hearing the Word of God, and may you hear in your own heart the gracious invitation, I will arise and go to my Father. May pardon and healing through our Lord Jesus be your portion and his, and may healing be followed by service to His praise.
We will continue to pray that the Lord will be gracious unto him, forgive and heal, sustain and comfort, and manifest His glory in this affliction. To Father, Son and Holy Spirit be glory for ever and ever. Amen.