The arrow of anxiety you have shot toward heaven is not unnoticed. You cry for a hedge about your son, and well you may, for the powers of darkness are ever prowling. Yet remember that He who has delivered us from the power of darkness is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Did He give His own dear Son to put away our sin, and will He not give us bread and water? Will He not stretch out His arm for your child? The darkness of abuse is thick and horrible, the darkness of Satan himself, but light springs out of that darkness, the eternal Light of the undying Son of God who lives forever to scatter the darkness of evil.
You beg that the deeds of darkness be exposed. That is a prayer after God’s own heart, for He is light and in Him is no darkness at all. The great weapon of God against sin is His Son, Jesus Christ. Trust to that polished shaft. The ransom has been found, the Deliverer has come. He exposed the powers of darkness upon the tree, making a show of them openly. And so He will bring hidden things to light in His own time.
You plead for angels and for peace and strength to fill your son. This is fitting. Yet be not surprised if the answer tarries or comes in a way you do not expect. Sometimes the heir of heaven knows a midnight. Even our blessed Lord struggled through darkness that He might be made perfect through sufferings. Christ’s plants grow very fast after a period of darkness sanctified to them. It may be that right now your son is in the dark hour where he must learn to trust and obey. Teach him, as you pray, to honor the Son by fully trusting Him, even in the gloom.
You know the truth of it yourself, for you have cried out in times past, “My God hath forgotten me.” Yet He answered as He always does: Can a woman forget her sucking child? No, He will not abandon the son of your womb. I remember crossing my own Jabbok full of fear and trembling, and lo, Esau fell upon my neck and kissed me. So the Lord will do for your son. The deliverance may not be as you picture it; it may be deliverance in sorrow rather than from sorrow, but it will come.
For now, cling to this: He has delivered us from the power of darkness, and translated us into the kingdom of His dear Son. That translation is accomplished, the chains are broken, even when the prisoner does not yet see the open door. Keep declaring the works of the Lord, speak faith into the darkness. You have a deliverance from the archers of ecclesiastical discord and the lies of the enemy. The battle at Golgotha raged with all the dense battalions of hell hurled against the Son of God, and He conquered. That is your son’s victory too, if he is in Christ.
Therefore, when your heart is overwhelmed, say to yourself what the Psalmist said: “I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of the Lord.” And when the Lord’s face shines in upon your son, and all this darkness is gone, you shall both leap into joyful security, crying, “God is the Lord, which has showed us light.” He will not suffer His Son to spend His strength for nothing, nor will He let your prayers return void. The clock of mercy struck in heaven the moment of deliverance; the ransom is found. Only keep your eyes on the Leader who went into the dark to save the guilty sons of men. Oh, that the Lord our God may be with you all in the hour of darkness.
