I want you, before we go any further, to know something important. If you or your son are in immediate danger right now, please reach out to your local emergency services. And if you are unsure where to turn for crisis support in your country, you can visit
findahelpline.com to find a helpline near you. This is the very first thing, the thing I would not have you overlook.
Now, come and sit here a moment, and let me speak to your heart about this dear son of yours, this boy who is so heavy on your soul. You have prayed a hedge around him, and that prayer did not fall upon a deaf heaven. It rose into the ear of the Lord God of Sabaoth, the Lord of Hosts, who has all the armies of light at His command. I want you to picture that right now -- your son is not standing in some open field, unprotected. He is inside a circle that God Himself has drawn. And though you cannot see the flaming swords of the cherubim, they are there. The darkness that threatens him is real, I do not deny it. There is a prince of darkness, a foul spirit who loves to work in hidden corners, in whispered cruelties and secret blows. But here is what I want to fasten onto your heart: that darkness is not stronger than the light. Not one bit of it. Christ is the true Light, and every deed of darkness that touches your son is already being noticed in the throne-room of the Almighty. You prayed for exposure. That prayer will be answered, perhaps in ways you least expect. The wicked man wraps himself in a shroud and thinks no eye sees him, but God is already pulling back the corners of that shroud. Light has a way of getting in.
Do you know what the devil's oldest trick is? It is not to attack us outright -- it is to whisper, when we are bruised and bleeding, that God has forsaken us. That is his sharpest arrow, his final weapon. And I know, in the watches of the night, when you think of what your son has endured or may be enduring, that sly voice may come to you as well: “Where is your God now? Where is the hedge you asked for?” Do not listen to it. You tell that voice to be gone. The Lord Jesus Christ does not take up a sheep in His arms only to set it down in the wolf's jaws and walk away. He who began this work of love in your son's life -- and He has begun it, I am sure, else you would not be crying out to Him with such a mother's heart -- He will carry it on. Even if your son is right now in a valley of deep shadow, Christ has been there before him and He is there with him now. There is no darkness so thick that the Shepherd cannot find His lamb.
I remember, when my own heart was young and sore, I thought sometimes that the gloom would never break. I felt like a man sinking into a pit, the ground crumbling under my feet. But I learned then what I am telling you now: the pit is not bottomless for the child of God. There is a hand that catches us long before we reach the depths of it. And that hand is pierced for us. The Lord Jesus knows what it is to be despised and afflicted, to have cruel men do their worst. His sympathy is not a distant, polite thing -- it is the raw, real sympathy of One who has been there. He wore the darkness for three awful hours on Calvary, so that you and your son and all of us who trust Him would never have to face the ultimate midnight.
So take heart in this. Your son is not alone. And you, as you keep praying -- and do keep praying; never cease -- you are drawing water from a well that no enemy can choke. The archers may make noise in the places of drawing water, but they cannot poison the stream that flows from Christ. Go to that well often. Dip your bucket deep. Drink, and be refreshed, and carry that water to your boy in the spirit. The peace you are asking for him -- that perfect peace -- will not come because all the trouble has vanished in an instant. It will come because he learns, and you learn together, that doing the will of Jesus and resting in His care is the secret of calm even when the duties press and the fears crowd in. To be sure that you are in the place where Jesus would have you be, even if it is a stormy place -- that is rest.
Let me tell you one more thing before I pray. Sometimes God's great deliverances come with such a kind of enrichment that we come out carrying silver and gold. Not money, though He may grant that. I mean we come out with something of heaven in our character, a patience that shines, a faith that has been tested and found true. Not one feeble person among the tribes of the ransomed. That is the end of the story for those who belong to Jesus. Your son, even now, in the hands of God, is being kept from feebleness of soul. The enemy wants to crush his spirit, but the Spirit of God is a Preserver. And the day will come when you both will see this season not as the hour of defeat, but as the hour when God showed how mighty His delivering hand can be.
Let us speak to Him now.
Our Father, we come to You in the name of Jesus, who is our Light and our strong Deliverer. We bring before You this beloved son, enclosed in the wounds of Christ, surrounded by a wall of fire that no darkness can breach. Expose every hidden cruelty, we ask You. Let the light of Your face shine into every secret place where the enemy has done his foul work, and let that light bring healing and justice. Surround this young man with ministering spirits who will guard him in all his ways. Fill him with a peace that passes his own understanding, and let him know, even in the deep places, that You have not forsaken him. Steady the heart of this praying mother. Hold her up, and let her see the salvation of God in the land of the living. Amen.
