Happy Friday, everyone. Today we're going to do something a little bit different. Instead of a question, we're going to encourage one particular listener, and hopefully many like her. This is a letter from Pastor John to a mother he knows personally, who wrote him because she needs strength in the great calling that she carries.

She's been caring for a disabled son for over 20 years. A son who cannot talk, a son who cannot dress himself, a son who cannot feed himself. He's now turned 20 years old. And most of us can only imagine the enormity of the burden this mom carries every day as his primary caregiver, now for over two decades.

So, Pastor John, what did you say to this amazing mom in your letter? Maybe what I should do is this. I'm sure this mom would not want me to lift her up as a hero and make her name public or her situation known, so I won't. But I know that she wouldn't mind if I took this public occasion to share with others the kind of encouragement I wanted her to feel, because there are thousands of moms, and not just moms, of course, who quietly carry huge burdens for their disabled children and for other relatives.

And I am sure that they often feel like this is one of the loneliest jobs in the world, with little or no public recognition or reward. So how do you last? How do you keep on so quietly and out of the way, bearing so much weight? How do you press on?

So I'm going to make enough changes in this letter that I wrote to this mom to encourage her on the birthday of her disabled son so that she won't be given away, but I hope the basic message comes through and that all those who have the relentless job of caregiving will take heart.

So here's what I wrote to her. "Noel and I remember being at your dining room table, talking about this new little one who had just been born. You were just beginning to come to terms with his disabled situation, and you were wondering about how to think about healing and prayer.

And now here we are, over two decades later, and your world has been forever changed. So my birthday wish and my prayer is that John"—I'm going to call her son John, that's not his real name, because that's what I would want somebody to pray for me. I'll stick my name in there.

"My prayer is that John will be able in some way to show you love and that you will be strengthened in the depths of your soul. Or, as Paul says, that according to the riches of his glory, he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith that you may be rooted and grounded in love." Ephesians 3.16.

I would love to share with you my most recent effort to grasp the psalmist's meaning when he says in Psalm 1 about the man, or let's say about the mom, who delights in the law of the Lord and meditates on it day and night, that she will prosper in all that she does.

Hmm. Really. I know. And the psalmist knew. He knew it because he said so in Psalm 44, verses 20-22. He knew, we know, that in the believer's life there are dozens of things that do not feel like they are prospering. I can imagine you feel this day in and day out.

But here is what I think he meant, since he knew as well as we do that there are horrible days for the worshippers of the true God. I think he meant when he said everything you do prospers, if you delight in the law of the Lord and meditate on it day and night, everything you do prospers.

I think what he meant was this. There is a day coming when a Redeemer will arrive, and he will snatch futility and death out of the hands of Satan. And like Isaiah 53, 6 says, he will bear all our iniquity, and so will cover all our sins and obtain grace that is so powerful and so pervasive that it turns every disappointment and every frustration and every pain in the path of obedience to Jesus, turns it into a final triumph.

In other words, he will pay the price, this Redeemer who will come will pay the price to purchase for us Romans 8.28. He will purchase for us Romans 8.32. Everything is going to work for our good, and he's going to make that come true because he bought it for us.

And here's why I think that's what Psalm 1 is getting at. Because when he says, "In everything you do, you prosper in caring for your son." Everything, you prosper. Paul said, "Whatever good anyone does, this he will receive back from the Lord." Ephesians 6.8. In other words, not one expenditure of effort in the service of your son will go unrewarded.

This was spoken to slaves who probably were rewarded in this life with pain for doing good things. In other words, in this life, it regularly does not look like the things we are doing are prospering. They're not being rewarded with good. It doesn't look like all the expenditure, energy, and effort, and care is prospering.

But Paul says, "In the end, every good deed will come back with great reward from the Lord." In other words, in the long run, you will prosper in all of it. All of it. And to say it another way, Paul makes it even clearer. I love this text. I've never seen this in this light before.

1 Corinthians 15.58. "Therefore, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor," all of it, "your labor is not in vain." Now, that's a negative way of saying something. What's the positive way of saying, "Your work is not in vain"?

Isn't the positive way of saying, "Not in vain, your work will prosper"? It will. And the "therefore" at the front of verse 58 makes this promise the outcome of the resurrection. In other words, the sting of death is sin, the power of sin is the law. "Thanks be to God who gives us the victory, yes, through Jesus Christ, risen from the dead.

Therefore, everything you do will prosper." So when Psalm 1 says, "You will prosper in all that you do," I don't think the psalmist is naive. He was prophetic. Jesus came, he paid our debt, he defeats Satan and death, he secures our future, he takes note of every good deed, writes them in a book, and he will make them prosper.

He will reward us in due time. And let's just put one more promise on the table to make this crystal clear. Jesus said, Luke 14, 13, "When you give a feast, invite the poor, like a disabled child, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed because they cannot repay you.

You will be repaid at the resurrection of the just." Wow. Your son cannot repay you. Even if there's some wonderful deep longing in his heart that he could do it, he can't. His disability is too profound. You spread a feast of love for him every day, and he cannot repay you.

Yet, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the just. And I don't think I'm going too far beyond Scripture to say, "Your son himself will join the Lord on that day in act of joyful repayment." So, happy birthday to you both, to John who cannot respond, and to you who makes his life possible.

May you and he know deeply and sweetly the love of Christ, and may you be strengthened with the promises of your merciful high priest who is always there with mercy and grace to help in time of need. Some really profound promises here, Pastor John. Thank you for serving this mom and for sharing these thoughts with us.

This is so humbling and sobering to hear of this mom's story. Thank you for joining us today. For more information about the podcast, go to our online home at DesiringGod.org/AskPastorJohn. There you can explore all of our 1,200 episodes. You can scan through a list of our most popular ones, read full transcripts, even send us a question of your own.

And to get new episodes delivered to you three times per week, subscribe to Ask Pastor John in your favorite podcast app. Well, Scripture uses 22 different names for Satan. His diabolical aims are recorded for us all over our Bibles. He is still present and active in this world, even in each of our lives.

But when and how and where? Those questions are on the table next time. I'm your host, Tony Reinke. We'll see you back here on Monday. Thanks for listening to the Ask Pastor John podcast with John Piper. We'll see you then.