The banks hound you, the collectors threaten, and your own heart trembles at the thought of what tomorrow’s call may bring. It is a dark pit, and you feel the ground giving way beneath your feet. But listen, do you not perceive that this very terror is the voice of God awakening you to a deeper peril? The loss of reputation, the loss of employment, these are but shadows. The real danger is to stand self-reliant and proud, supposing that your own plans can secure peace. That path, however smooth at the outset, goes downward to the utter destruction of all false hopes. The mire of debt is bitter, but the mire of unforgiven sin is infinite in its horror. What if God were to give you the loan you crave, and your outward circumstances mend, yet your soul remain unacquainted with the one true Deliverer? That would be a ruin beyond all reckoning.
You speak of a miracle, the closing of accounts, the ceasing of harassment, a loan without hassle. I would not dampen earnest prayer, for our Lord Jesus said, “Ask, and it shall be given you.” Yet I must ask you: is your soul’s peace anchored only to the obtaining of money? The things which are seen are shadows. A full purse today may be empty tomorrow. The applause of men, the comfort of a quiet home, these are not permanent resting places for a heart made for eternity. Look at Job: his glory dried up like a brook in summer, yet after he had seen the Lord, he confessed, “I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth thee. Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.” It was not the return of his camels and his sheep that gave him true contentment; it was the vision of God.
There is a debt I would press upon you with all gentleness, for I have felt its crushing weight myself. It is the debt of sin, a liability no bank can touch and no personal loan can reduce. The law of God threatens us with writs from which there is no earthly appeal, and shame is but a faint picture of that eternal confusion. But hear the wonder: there is deliverance! God can deal with sinners when they are on the very brink of hell. The Son of God took the handwriting of ordinances that was against us and nailed it to His cross. When I learned that my enormous debt of sin had been fully discharged by the Lord Jesus Christ, then was my heart at peace. Not before. Not when my temporal circumstances smiled upon me, but when I saw the crimson flood that washes whiter than snow. Can a man be at peace while his debts rage about him and he has forgotten the weightier matter of his soul’s deficit? That would be like a man rearranging deck chairs while the ship sinks under his feet.
Do not mistake me; I do not mock your earthly distress. The calls, the threats, the visits, these are real thorns, and our Lord wears a crown of thorns, so He knows your pain. But if this trouble drives you to Christ, it will prove the richest mercy of your life. While you are “going down to the pit” of financial ruin, you may discover the Rock that is higher than you. Instead of pleading first for a loan, plead for the grace to be found in Jesus. His blood can whisper peace within, a peace not dependent on the fickleness of bankers or the silence of collection agents. To do the will of Jesus, to own Him as Lord, to walk in honesty, to bear your cross as a follower of the Crucified, this is rest. What you cannot untangle, He will disentangle in His time. What would Jesus have you do? Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and then, in some form known only to Him, temporal provision may well follow.
I have seen the Lord withstand the proud devices of men and lift the humble from the dust. The very banks that threaten you are as nothing in His hand; He plucks off crowns from the heads of princes. Will you trust Him with your reputation? With your job? With your creditor’s next move? Lay the whole affair before His throne, but chiefly lay your soul there. You are far from the worst case, there is forgiveness with Him, that He may be feared. And if He should permit the trouble to continue a little longer, remember the words of the patriarch: “You shall forget your misery, and remember it as waters that pass away.” The end of the righteous is increase; the path of the just shines more and more. But the glittering vision of self-deliverance ends in darkness.
Go now, not scheming for a loan as your chief hope, but casting yourself upon the Lord Jesus. Let Him be your peace. Say to Him in the watches of the night, “Lord, thou knowest my foolishness; my mouth has uttered what I understand not. I bring these bills, these debts, these fears, and I place them beneath thy cross. If thou wilt deliver me outwardly, I will praise thee; if thou wilt deliver me inwardly, I will praise thee still more.” And then, come what may, you may yet say with the saints of old, that you have not sinned with your lips against God, but have found in every trial a fresh anointing of His grace. So may it be with you, for Jesus’ sake.
Prayer Focus: God, Thank You for loving me. Thank You for loving me, Jesus. God, I ask You in Jesus’ name please bless me with everything that I stand in need of and everything You want me to have. 
