The soul that lives day by day, lacking a home and knowing trouble, is in a place where the Lord’s hand can be most clearly seen when He provides. There is a laudable pursuit of gain, without which business would not be properly carried on, but there is a line, scarcely as broad as a razor's edge, between diligence in business and greediness for gain. Your clarification puts this petition squarely where it belongs, upon the Father’s tender care for our common needs.
But consider a deeper point: your prolonged life is not given merely to rectify mistakes of business or to accumulate more money. It is time to seek the Lord! Our topic, then, is the life business of the Christian, to teach transgressors God's ways, that sinners may be converted unto Him. Your one business in life is to lead men to believe in Jesus Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit, and every other thing should be made subservient to this one objective. If you can but get them saved, everything else will come right in due time.
Behold the condescension of the Son, who became the servant of the Father to do His business. If you make your own business God’s business, you will do your business well, and you will be useful in your day and generation. Oh, it is sweet employment to serve your Father! You need not turn aside from the way of business to do that. Let your daily commerce become the field where you transact your Master’s errand.
Like that faithful servant Eliezer, who meant business and would not even eat until he had explained his errand, put your Master’s business before your own ease or even the necessary quest for bread. He opened his pack, exposed his wares, and sought at once to do business on his master’s account. When we come on our Master’s business, we seek those who shall become heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ.
Your present penury, your loss of a settled home, your daily dependence, these answer to Paul’s accounting: “For whom I have suffered the loss of all things.” Let this press you not toward carefulness, but toward a single-eyed covenant with God. True provision often comes when the heart is weaned from covetousness, that sin so subtle that multitudes confess grosser evils but never this one. Do not let the raging hunger for things seen choke out the contentment that is great gain.
Settle it, then, that the top and bottom of the business is this: throw your whole strength into one objective, by any means to save some. Pray indeed for customers, but ask for souls. Seek those buyers who will in turn become buyers of the truth. I feel that if I were a business man I should like to make money for Jesus. Let the grander work of the kingdom intertwine with your daily labor. Go straight to the mark, even as Eliezer sought one who would leave her home and be united to his master’s son. So may the Lord grant you daily bread and an eternal harvest from the same field.