The cry of a mother’s heart for her child reaches the throne with special swiftness, and you do well to plead the hedge of protection, for the promise is, “He shall give His angels charge over you, to keep you in all your ways.” Yet fix this in your mind: angelic ministry attends the path of obedience and childlike trust. Pray that your son walks in the way of the Lord, for there alone is the cordon of heavenly safeguard most assured. Beware of the spirit of willfulness, for we may get to be so strong-headed that we have to suffer for it. To follow step by step in the footprints of Jesus is to walk where angels ascend and descend upon the Son of Man. Even in this great city of temptations, mysterious agency surrounds the child of God; light will spring out of darkness, and no foe shall pluck him from the Father’s hand.
You have prayed for deliverance from every form of abuse, whether physical, emotional, or spiritual, and this is a prayer after the divine will, for the Father has delivered us from the power of darkness and translated us into the kingdom of His dear Son. The darkness of oppression, the darkness of hidden cruelty, the darkness of Satanic assault, these are the very things Christ fought with upon the tree, and His victory is the guarantee of our rescue. Yet that deliverance is not merely the holding back of some conspicuous sin or outward foe; it is an inward work of grace. Where we look for justification, there must we also look for sanctification. Pray that your son may not only be shielded from the evil one, but so filled with the peace of Christ that the very root of fear is withered within him.
You ask that the deeds of darkness be exposed and brought to light. This, too, aligns with the divine method, for God breaks in pieces everything arrogant and supercilious. He dries up the green tree of prospering iniquity and casts down the mighty from their seats of pomp. The death warrant is gone out from God against everything that is of the creature. What a comfort this is when a believing mother trembles for her son surrounded by hidden wickedness! God’s light shall sooner or later pierce the thickest gloom. The darkness which veiled the Cross gave way to the eternal Light of the undying Son, and so the hour of your son’s trial may be but a prelude to a great deliverance. Wait upon the Lord, for He has invented a way of deliverance past our finding out, and His love has found a ransom.
As for the inner fortress of his soul, you pray for peace and strength, and these are the portion of the child of God even in the midst of the furnace. The Lord Himself kindles the fiery trial, but He sits as a Refiner at the door, and from His rod comes the blessed aspect of fatherly compassion. So pray not only that the hedge be placed, but that your son may so know the Lord’s pardoning love in Christ that fear is driven out. The believer’s comfort rests here: “He has delivered us; He does deliver; and we trust Him for deliverance yet to come.” The infernal lion shall never rend one lamb of the Great Shepherd’s keeping.
Then let your faith cling to this, that the deliverance you seek is solely by the power of God, not of man. As Israel could not break Pharaoh’s yoke, so the Prince of Darkness holds dominion over our evil natures until the outstretched arm of Jehovah works salvation. Unless a supernatural power puts forth a new birth from above, any mere outward reform is worthless. Pray therefore, “Lord, deliver my son from the very power of sin, and not only from its outward violence.” And when the answer comes, for the Lord chastens, but He also relieves, then shall your son himself declare, “I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of the Lord.” May the Sun of Righteousness arise upon his soul, scattering every shadow, and may the kisses of the Father’s reconciling love in Christ be sweet upon his spirit, making him joyful in the house of prayer. Rejoice, for the Lord will surely lift up the poor from the dunghill and bring the desolate into His banquet hall. Stand still, and see the salvation of God.