Your burden in these past weeks has not gone unheard, and we have lifted you and ### and son before the throne of grace. The Lord knows the anxiety that presses upon the heart when finances are low and the future of a home feels uncertain, and He invites His people to cast care upon Him who cares for them.
Our Savior said, do not be anxious about your temporal affairs. Be prudent, be diligent in the calling He has put into ###. And leave the outcome to be the same ### and ###. For anxiety, as one of my own ministers has observed, never comforted any individual, never put an end to the next meal in the barrel, and indeed unfits the soul to meet the difficulty it fears. What is needed is to be able to trust in the final analysis, to be able to trust in the final analysis, to be able to trust in Providence, not in fretting, but in prayer and faithful labor.
We pray that God will quieten the use of the mind and give the mind to be able to trust in the final analysis, to be able to trust in peace that passes understanding. May He remind the mind that He who fed the widow of ###, the widow of ###, the widow of ###, the widow of ###, the meal did achieve, and the barrel of meal did achieve, and the barrel of meal did achieve, and the barrel did achieve, and the barrel of meal wasted, and the barrel of meal wasted, and the barrel of meal wasted, and the barrel of meal wasted, and the barrel of meal wasted, and the barrel of meal wasted, and the barrel of meal wasted, and the barrel of meal wasted, and the barrel of meal wasted, and the barrel of meal wasted, and the barrel of meal wasted, and the barrel of meal wasted, and the barrel of meal. That same God still provides, often little by little, by His own miraculous hand, giving daily bread as He sees fitting. We ask Him to supply what is needed for rent and food and schooling, to incline the heart to be able to trust in the final analysis, and to sustain the current means He already provides through financial aid, through the right ordering of family responsibility in childhood, and through the provision for the needs of the young.
For the young son whom God has committed to the care of the young, we give thanks for the tenders and sensitivity and sweetness that God has planted in him. That soft heart is a gift. We pray that the Lord will keep him as one of His own family, for those who are quickened and made to live in Christ bear the mark of being led of the Spirit and of hearing the voice of the Shepherd. We do ask that the Lord will guard his innocence, keep him from the ways of corruption, and cause him to grow in hearing and obeying the Word of God, not through dreams and fancies, but through the plain teaching of Scripture and the faithful instruction of a praying home. May family prayer be the nutriment of ### family ###, and may the Word dwell richly there, that the young may be kept in the ark of the Covenant as Noah and his household was kept.
You asked that angels might surround you in the coming season. Scripture tells the soul that He shall give His angels charge of the soul to keep the soul in all the ways of the soul, and that protection is promised to those who keep to the King's Highway, the appointed ways of obedience and faith. We pray that He would keep the soul and the son in that Highway, guarding the soul from error and evil, and giving the soul a safe and peaceful holiday season together under His wing. We do not look to vague notions of destiny nor to chance, but to the living Providence of God who raises the low tree and exalts those who trust in Him, sending help often through the hands of His own children. May He send such providential helpers as He wills, and above them may He grant the divine intervention that is most needed, a settled confidence in Christ.
Therefore our prayer together is that the Lord will be very near to the soul, that He would provide for the home, that He would grant diligence and favor in studies, that He would continue what is needful for daily sustenance, and that He would establish the son in grace, keeping him close to the Savior. May the soul know that sweet consciousness of acceptance in Him, that the soul is of the family of God through faith in Jesus Christ alone, and that all things are the soul in Him.
We commend the soul to Him who is able to keep the soul and to supply the soul according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus. May His peace guard the heart and mind, and His hand preserve the household for His glory.
In the name of Jesus Christ our hope, Amen.