Your request concerning your father and his serious illness with low blood pressure and obstructive jaundice has been heard, and we have brought it before the throne of grace with you.
There is a mercy in this, that you have turned to intercession for another. Intercessory prayer is the sweetest prayer God ever hears, for it is most like the prayer of Christ who ever lives to make intercession for us. It is also exceedingly prevalent, and has in times past even stayed plagues. When you plead for your father, you are doing what love and nature and grace all prompt you to do, and the Lord will not despise it.
Do not think your prayer is too broken or too selfish to be heard. A true prayer from one who is near unto the gates of death is a prevailing prayer, and God will hear the prayer of a staggering man, even the prayer that seems to have no order in it because the one who prays is at his wit's end. You may only be able to cry, Lord, save my father, have mercy upon him. That cry, like the prodigal returning only that he might be saved, is not rejected by the Father. He who has seen Christ has seen the Father, and the Father Himself loves you. Viewed aright, He is not an object of dread but of gratitude and trust, for He is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, and in Christ He is your Father also.
We would have you spread this case before the Lord and plead with Him with holy arguments, as Jacob did. Plead the covenant, plead the blood of Christ, plead the Father's own compassion. And look to Jesus as the Good Physician. There is an abundance of healing power in Him. Not only is His fruit sweet and nourishing, but the very leaves of the tree of life are for the healing of the nations. The least thing about Christ has healing virtue, to change the life blood and make the nature whole. Whether the Lord is pleased to raise your father up speedily or to deal with him according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus, His healing and His pardon are joined together, and to be near to Christ is to be near to both.
Let us pray together.
O Blessed God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Abba, Father, we bless Thee that Thou art our Father and that Thou lovest us even as Thou lovest Thy Son. We bring before Thee this dear father now laid low, suffering in body with low blood pressure and jaundice that obstructs him. Thou knowest his frame, Thou seest his pain, and Thou art very pitiful and hast compassion upon misery. We ask Thee to lay Thy healing hand upon him. Be pleased to guide the hands and minds of those who care for him, to restore his strength, to relieve the obstruction, and to raise him up again to praise Thee. If it seem good in Thy sight, grant him healing in this life that he may tell of Thy goodness. And above all, let the Sun of Righteousness rise upon him with healing in His wings, that being pardoned through the blood of Christ he may know himself Thy beloved child, and may cry, Abba, Father, with a new heart. Sustain his family, keep them from evil, and keep them in perfect peace as they wait upon Thee. Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in Thy sight. Hear our staggering prayer for Jesus Christ's sake. Amen.
We will continue to bear you and your father up before the Lord, and we encourage you to continue in prayer and to trust the care of the earthly physicians to the direction of the heavenly Physician, who alone can make whole.