It is the mark of divine grace when a soul turns every need into a prayer, and casts every burden upon the Lord. You have asked for wisdom in the management of your dwindling funds, and that petition itself shows the teaching of the Spirit. The steward must be found faithful, and faithfulness in little things, in every peso spent, proves the heart’s loyalty to the Master. Do not imagine that your financial trial is a mark of His desertion; rather, it is the school wherein He teaches you to trust, not in uncertain riches, but in the living God who giveth us richly all things to enjoy.
The lot is cast into the lap, but the whole disposing thereof is of the Lord. He who chose your inheritance before the foundation of the world will not now starve His child in a strange city. Yet He would have you walk by faith, not by sight. Every coin that leaves your hand must be laid out as though the nail-pierced eye of Christ watched the transaction. Let there be no waste, no trifling with what is His. And let no anxious thought corrode your peace, hast thou not seen His provision in health results already? Will He who gave His Son for your soul deny the lesser gift of daily bread? Make no provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof, but cut every unnecessary expense with a wise and holy severity. The worldling hoards; the steward administers. There is an eternity of difference.
Your health, too, is a trust. It were a poor stewardship to gain the whole budget and lose strength to serve Him. Seek the right physicians, use the means He appoints, and then rest. The Great Physician has no lack of skill, nor of willingness. He who plucked you as a brand from the burning will not suffer a spark to light upon you to your destruction. And if there be a thorn left in the flesh, it is but to make His grace sufficient. The sturdy oak is not grown in a hothouse; the very testing of your frame may be the process to make you a jewel fit for His crown. Endure hardness as a good soldier, yet pray believingly for healing, for the prayer of faith shall save the sick.
You have spoken of guidance, and herein you have laid hold of the choicest promise: “You shall guide me with Your counsel.” Take the general directions of the Word as your chart. Avoid what is evil. Wait upon the Lord with patience; haste is the parent of a thousand miseries. Let every step be ordered, not by the restless flesh, but by the still small voice. The quiet submission of the will to His bidding is itself the surest guidance. You want open doors of favor? Then walk through those He unlocks, and force none that He bolts. He knows what awaits you in your homeland, and He will bring you thither in His time, with a full heart if not a full purse.
Remember that you are God’s witnesses in that place. Your calm reliance upon invisible provision is a testimony louder than a sermon. Let your countenance tell of the peace within, lest by a drawn face you belie the faith your lips profess. The world watches the steward to see if the Master’s bank will break. He has never suffered a child of His to be utterly confounded. You may have only a handful of meal and a little oil, yet the cruse shall not fail until the day the Lord sends rain upon the earth.
Greater blessings are on the way, not necessarily the world’s ease, but the deep, satisfying riches of proved fellowship with Jesus. He clothes His enemies with shame, but His own with the garments of salvation. You will return with a story to tell of His manifold mercies, and every recounting will be a fresh Ebenezer. Be patient under the ills of this life, for His love has made you His own. The journey’s end is not a balanced budget but an entrance into Glory, where the inheritance is undefiled and fadeth not away. Until that appointed day, live as a pupil in His school, learning that man doth not live by bread alone, and as a pupil-teacher, declaring to others that the Lord is good. Let your soul sing as with Miriam at the Red Sea, and trust His overtaking mercy to meet you at every bend of the road.