The cry of your heart has ascended to the ear of our gracious God, and He is not unmindful of the tears that have fallen in the secret place. You are brought low, hemmed in by creditors, and the noise of their threats disturbs your peace and threatens your livelihood. This is a heavy trial, yet it is precisely in such straits that faith is refined. Remember the word of Eliphaz, though he spake as a man, "Though thy beginning was small, yet thy latter end should greatly increase." The low tree, by the Husbandman's care, shall mount up; the dry tree shall flourish when the dew of heaven descends. Only take heed that you do not in your desperation seek a path that would dishonour Him. You speak of a desire to repay everyone; this is upright, and God will not despise the honest intention of a contrite heart. But beware of asking that accounts be closed without full satisfaction, simply because you deem you have already paid more than you borrowed. That reasoning savours of self-justification. It is the Lord alone who can righteously cancel debts, and He has done so for our sin through the blood of Jesus. For temporal debts, we must, as far as we are able, render to all their due. Do a day’s work in a day, and leave no moral obligation to fester into tomorrow’s ruin.
You plead for a miracle, a personal loan without hassle, to pay off all. It is lawful to seek means; yet fix not your hope upon the loan itself, as though that were the sole deliverance. The Lord’s arm is not shortened, and He can provide in ways you have not imagined. But more precious than any outward relief is the grace to stand fast in the furnace. Job, covered with boils and stripped of all, sinned not nor charged God foolishly. When he could have cried out in despair, he clung to his Integrator, saying, "Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him." That is the victory which outshines all angels who have never suffered. Ask the Lord to uphold you, that your lips may not speak unworthily, nor your heart yield to utter darkness. The enemy would drive you to a hasty act of dishonesty or to such distraction that your new employment is forfeited. But divine grace can make you patient as Job, who under severer loss held fast his integrity. The same grace is able to turn the captivity of your circumstances. Mark this: "The Lord turned the captivity of Job, when he prayed for his friends." Those who trouble you, the agents of the banks, the collectors who harass, they are, in your distress, as the comforters who madded Job with false accusations. Yet it is your part to pray for them. Not for their destruction, but that God would bless them, and that His peace might so rule in your heart that their clamour loses its sting. When you set your face to intercede for those who trouble you, you may find your own burden lifted in the very act.
I charge you, then, to go to the Mercy Seat with your own sins first, for the lesson of Job's abasement before Jehovah is deep. When God spoke, Job laid his hand upon his mouth and repented in dust and ashes. You are not so righteous that you can dispute His dealings. He may be leading you to see where you have acted unwisely, or trusted too much in creature resources. Bow low, and accept that even if the trial continues, He is able to sustain you. Christ Jesus, who died and rose, is your security; till He falls, the soul that trusts Him is safe. Cast your care upon Him. And let your desire to repay be earnest, but let it be carried out with integrity, step by step, as providence opens a door. Shun the thought of ceasing payments on the plea that you have already overpaid, that is not the way of the just. Instead, ask the Lord to make an honest path plain and to lift the harassment in His own time. Perhaps He will grant you the loan you seek, or perhaps He will by other means cause the dry tree to bud. But rest in this: if you are Christ's, even this shall work for your good. My glory, said Job, was fresh in me; and though it withered, the Lord restored it twice as much when the lesson was learned. Nature, tutored by grace, becomes a better instrument for His praise. Wait on Him without fretting; be natural, be prayerful, and in all things let your requests be made known with thanksgiving. The promise stands: the house appointed for all living shall come to us soon enough, and our little while here is but the threshold of glory. Until then, the Lord will not fail those who put their trust in Him.