It is a sweet and holy instinct that turns a child's heart toward the Father's throne on behalf of a beloved parent. The Lord has begun a work of healing, and though the way seems long and the wound weeps afresh, remember that the great Physician never abandons His patient. Healing and forgiveness are placed in happy conjunction; when the Lord draws near, pardon and health are often one blessing. The bleeding foot and the bleeding heart are both before His eye. He sees the weariness, the cloud of depression that whispers he can no longer do the things he once did. But it is precisely in such weakness that the strength of Christ is perfected.
There is healing for him, not merely in the distant hope of a restored body, but in the very fact that Jesus Christ took our flesh and touched our infirmities. The least thing about Christ, the mere hem of His garment, a single leaf from the Tree of Life, is full of healing virtue. Your father has not slipped beyond the reach of that gentle hand that lifted Peter’s mother-in-law from her fever. The Lord’s touch is the healing point, and He is quick to relieve. Though the recovery creeps slowly and the soul feels cast down, encourage him to ruminate upon a single promise. Turn it over and over, as the cattle chews the cud, until he gets all the sweetness and nourishment from it. A little joy is so precious to a soul that has been much bowed down.
The ground of holy joy is not the strength of our own frame nor the ease of our circumstances, but the character of an unchanging God. His promises are the same yesterday, today, and forever. When the flesh fails and the spirit staggers, then let the heart cry out to Him. It is the Father’s will that of all He has given to Christ, nothing should be lost, but that He should raise it up at the last day, and this includes the broken, bleeding body and the heavy, depressed spirit. Jesus Christ will plead the cause of His people. He takes our poor, unworthy prayers, sprinkles them with His own blood, and presents them to the Father, saying, “For My sake, heal this child; for My sake, restore his joy.”
You have asked that the Lord carry your father through this hard time. This is a prayer that touches the heart of the Covenant. The Savior once spent a heavy day in healing and knew the exhaustion of the body. His sympathy is deep and real. Do not fear that a selfish motive, a mere desire for relief, makes the prayer unacceptable. The prodigal’s return was for bread, yet the Father’s welcome was full and hearty. So too, our cries for physical mending are met with a compassion that understands our frame. The Lord will not leave even the least of His people to perish in despair.
Let your father look quietly to Calvary’s bleeding Savior. Even there, light arises in darkness. Tell him that the very least of Christ’s gifts is medicine fitted to raise the dead and cheer the living. The joy of faith is a logical and defensible thing; it burns like coals of juniper even in the dampness of affliction. This joy is full and it is meant to remain in us, not as the surf and foam of a passing wave, but as the deep, settled current of a soul anchored in Christ. May the Master smile upon your father, making even this sick-chamber a place of holy healing, and may the Lord give you, too, to see His wonderful works and declare His works with rejoicing. Amen.
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. 
