It is no small thing to have discovered, in the midst of such sore trial, that your help is in the name of the Lord who made heaven and earth. The hidden burdens and the secret fears you mention are not hidden from Him who sees in secret, nor are the fiery darts of the wicked one any surprise to the Captain of our salvation. Two years of continuous hurdles and medical grief would shake the firmest frame, but the promise stands sure: the Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of their temptations, and He will not suffer the enemy to rejoice over you. The low tree that the world despises, planted by the rivers of His grace, shall yet mount even to the stars, while the lofty cedars of ungodly power shall lie outstretched upon the plains of ruin. Your family’s present distress is not a sign of divine displeasure, but the very place where the great Healer loves to display His skill. I would have you mark well that the leaves of the tree of life are for the healing of the nations, not the fruit alone, but the leaves, the little things, the common mercies, the daily provisions of His grace, are full of healing virtue. The power of the Lord is ever present to heal when His word is being received; indeed, healing and forgiveness are so happily joined that the moment a sinner lays hold of Christ by faith, the pardon of sin and the medicine for the soul arrive in one glorious bundle.
Do not imagine that these spiritual forces arrayed against you have any authority of their own. He who took Peter’s wife’s mother by the hand and lifted her up has already bruised the serpent’s head, and the least touch of His garment can make you whole. The costly balm of His atonement has lost none of its ancient efficacy, there is an abundance of healing power in Jesus Christ, and the utmost length of human sickness, whether of body or of estate, can be reached by this great Physician. What you require is not a fresh baptism of terror, but a fresh sight of the Son of Righteousness, risen with healing in His wings. Come then to His word as a little child, hearing candidly and honestly, believingly and obediently. Bring out your hard thoughts, your fainting hopes, your unspoken dread of revenge and witchcraft, and lay them beneath the cross. The blood of Jesus speaks better things than that of Abel, and no curse can stand against a soul that is sheltered there. The dry tree shall flourish, and the green tree that plots your ruin shall wither and die, for God is just and faithful.
Remember also that deliverance rarely comes in the way we prescribe. Joseph in the dungeon, Hannah in the bitterness of her soul, Hezekiah when the Assyrian blasphemed, all found that the Lord of hosts was working out a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory through their extremity. Your present season is not forgotten. The very trial you dread may be the chariot in which Jehovah rides to create a deeper trust and a richer experience of His faithfulness. The battle is indeed not against flesh and blood; therefore arm yourselves with the sweet doctrines of free grace, the shield of faith, and the sword of the Spirit. The enemy would break your spirits by pointing to the long years of pain, but the Comforter puts a new song in the mouth of the brokenhearted. It is the heart crushed on account of sin and driven to cling solely to the merits of Jesus that God peculiarly delights to heal. And healed you shall be, not with a half-pardon or a partial cure, but with that sudden, complete, divine wave of mercy that washes every sin away and makes the lame man leap as a hart.
I charge you, then, to stop measuring the Lord’s love by your present feelings or finances. Bring every care of the family, every illness, every fear of financial ruin, and spread them before the mercy seat. The power that dwelt in Christ to heal the sick of the palsy is applicable most eminently to the removal of the guilt and tyranny of sin, and where sin is pardoned, healing streams will follow. Let your household be a little sanctuary where evening sacrifice is offered in songs of trust. And as you do this, be watchful for the first tokens of returning health, perhaps a small mercy, a leaf-like kindness, or a word spoken in season, for the least thing about Christ is healing. May the Lord, the ultimate Healer and your fortress, put forth His hand and touch you all; may the Sun of Righteousness arise and scatter the shadows, and may you soon say from a full heart, “He has done all things well.” Amen.