Of course we are praying earnestly that God will change his heart. Over the years my prayer for him has always been that the Lord would do whatever it takes to bring him to faith. If this illness is the answer to that prayer then it will be yet another illustration of God working all things for good for us to marvel at and praise him for. Those of us who are Christians in the family are continuing to take every opportunity to witness to him and urge him to trust Jesus Christ as Saviour.

In the meantime, I thought I’d share just a few of the things the Lord has been teaching me through this process. The words of Isaiah 26.3 have come back to me again and again: You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you. In all times of life, good and bad, we need to stay our minds on God. This means we need minds that are well-stocked with truth about Him so that we can draw on that truth to sustain us. Just as food in the stomach nourishes the body, so truth in the mind nourishes the soul.

Now, as a Pastor, my mind has been pretty well stocked with truth about God through three years of full-time theological study followed by almost 20 years of constant study and preaching of the Scriptures. But what I need to do is stay my mind on those truths I know, and trust the One of whom they speak. I need to cling to these realities, believing every day that they are true, regardless of what news may come. As I do this, I experience God’s peace. ‘Perfect peace’ translates the Hebrew phrase ‘peace peace’. In Hebrew words are repeated for emphasis. It’s not that I don’t feel sad or walk around with an absurd smile all the time, as if dad’s condition has no effect on me; rather it means that in the midst of the pain and anguish there is a calm confidence that my times are in God’s hand—even this time.