Son, protection

[Chrysostom]

Your plea rises to the throne of God as a longing perfectly aligned with His will, for it is the Father’s great delight to deliver us from the power of darkness and translate us into the kingdom of the Son of His love. You have asked for a hedge of protection, and that is a holy cry. Yet consider the surpassing wonder of what God has done: He has not merely built a rampart around us, but has plucked us out from the very dominion of the devil, breaking the chains of error and sin that held us fast. Where the enemy sought to hold your son with power, the ease of God’s work overcomes it, leading him over as if from a dungeon into the light of a royal court. This is the inheritance of those born after the Spirit, that we might receive the adoption of sons.

You pray that the deeds of darkness be exposed and brought to light. This is exactly in keeping with the nature of the Gospel. The love of money, the will to abuse, all such things are a thick darkness, a sickness that warps the sight so a man knows not the beauty of what is worthy. To drag these hidden cruelties into the glaring light of day is not an act of vengeance but a work of the highest mercy, both for the one trapped in sin and for the one suffering under it. For as long as evil is carried on in the dark, it breeds and strangles with greater security, but when many eyes witness it, the mist is scattered, the disease is laid bare, and the Sun of Righteousness begins to heal. Do not hesitate to be an instrument of that exposure, for in sound health you must run to meet those who are in blindness, that the light shining in the darkness might overcome it.

Do not let your heart be troubled by the ferocity of the battle, for think on this: your Son, who gave His life as a ransom for enemies, will not now abandon this child. The same Christ who endured the cross to deliver us from the curse and bring us into sonship stands with you. The peace and strength you ask for are already flowing from the very fact that your son is no longer a subject in the realm of shadows. He has been translated, and the light of Christ, which no death or error can overpower, shines with its own proper strength even now into his spirit. Therefore, instruct him who walks in the darkness of another’s sin by your own unwavering faith. That dark power has been broken, its hedge trampled down by the appearance of the new polity of grace. Stand firm then, expose the works of darkness, and receive the full redemption that is already written over your household. Hold fast to this charge with all vigilance, for the light has already come, and the darkness has not overcome it.

 

[Silas]

Your cry for your son rises from the deepest place of a parent’s heart, and your plea is heard by the One who knows what it is to give His own Son. Into the darkness that threatens him, into every hidden cruelty and every form of abuse, you are asking for the light that cannot be overcome. It is right to pray that way, because the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has never been able to extinguish it. When deeds of darkness are exposed and brought into the open, it is not merely for our comfort; it is because God is light and in Him there is no darkness at all. That exposure is what His light does.

Your prayer for angels and peace and strength is a prayer that your son would be kept in the light, and that anything or anyone walking in darkness would be unable to hold him. There are only two kingdoms, in the end: the kingdom of darkness and the kingdom of God’s beloved Son. You are asking that your son be translated, guarded, and delivered from the power of darkness. That deliverance is real and it is the heart of the gospel. The record God has given is not uncertain. He has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has life. That is the firm ground beneath your feet as you pray.

So as you continue to lift your son’s name, do not let your own heart walk in hatred toward those who have caused harm. Walking in hatred is itself a way of walking in darkness, and it will blind the one who hates even while claiming to stand in the light. I know how that burns when a child is in danger. The anger is real, and the offense is grievous. But the command is to walk in love, because the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining. Stay near that light yourself. Let your own heart be cleansed from every shadow so that your prayers are offered from the place of fellowship with the Father and with His Son.

Remember that the Father loves your son more than you do. The deepest picture we have of love is a father willing to give his only son, the son whom he loves. Abraham’s trial on Mount Moriah was a faint foreshadowing of what the Father in heaven actually did. He did not spare His own Son but gave Him up for us all. That same love now stands over your son. Like the boy Isaac on the altar, he is not unseen. The Lord who provides will supply what is needed, and the same Lord who sees in secret will expose what must be exposed.

When you pray for protection, you are asking for your son to be hidden in the Son of God. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal Him. Entrust your son to that revelation. Ask not only that angels would surround him, but that the Son of God himself would make himself known to him, that your son would hear the voice of the good shepherd and follow where he leads. There is no safer place.

And do not lose heart if the answer seems delayed. Like Zacharias, who kept praying long after his own hope had grown thin and his faith had dimmed to a glimmer, you may find that the word comes when you least expect it: “Your prayer has been heard.” God’s timing is not our own, but nothing is impossible with Him. The prayer of a righteous parent, offered in faith and bathed in the love of the Father, has great power as it works.

Keep holding your son up to the light. The darkness will not have the final word. He who has the Son has life, and that life is the light of men. You are not simply asking for a hedge; you are asking that your son would live in the kingdom of the Son, and that is what the Father most wants to give.