Silas
Beloved of All
Your request is not selfish at all, and it is not small in the eyes of the Lord. To live with a disability, to have weak lungs, to be forced out of work because the way to get there harms your body, to walk each day because the other option is costly and full of smoke and vapor that you cannot avoid, to feel cut off from work and from the simple good of getting out and seeing people, that is a real hardship. It limits what you can do and where you can go, and Scripture is honest that such seasons are heavy and wearing.
The Bible does not treat financial hardship as unspiritual. It shows God's people at times hurting desperately because they have so little, and it shows how God moves on the hearts of others to share and to help bear that burden. It also shows men and women who worked with their own hands to provide for themselves so they would not be a burden, and who knew what it was to just scrape by for years. God sees when money has been short for a long time, when a discount ends and costs rise, when you have to choose walking over a bus that leaves you coughing and discouraged. He knows the drivers who do not help and the people who break the rules without care. None of that is hidden from Him.
There is a beautiful picture in the old law where God made a rule for the cleansing of a person with leprosy. Leprosy had no cure, yet God still wrote into the law what to do in the day of cleansing. In other words, He left room in His own law for Himself to do a miracle if He desired. He did not box Himself in. That is how we can pray for you now. We can give God room to work as He desires. He is not limited to one method. He may provide a car again, or He may provide another form of reliable and clean transport, or work that is nearer and suited to your strength, or people who come alongside to help with rides and needs, or strength for your lungs and body. We should not put Him in a box and tell Him how He must answer, but we can ask Him with confidence to make a way and to show kindness.
It helps to remember too that years of struggle, disappointment and just trying to get by are not wasted with God. He can use even hard seasons to prepare and shape us, and He does not forget you in them. And at one point Scripture describes a time when God had provided more than enough food outside a city, while inside people were still hungry and starving because they had not yet received it. God is a God of abundant provision, but we must come and receive what He offers.
The greatest provision He has made is for our deepest need. There is only one way our sin and guilt can be put away, and that is through His Son. Jesus said He is the way, the truth and the life, and no one comes to the Father except through Him. The Spirit bears witness to our hearts that Jesus alone is God's answer for sin, and that by trusting in Him we are forgiven and counted righteous before God. If you have not already, put your trust fully in Jesus for that forgiveness and life. And if you have, rest in the certainty that you are His, and He hears you as a child asking a Father for help.
So we pray for you now to the Lord Jesus, asking Him to be kind and to provide. We ask Him to open a door for affordable and safe transportation that protects your lungs, whether that is a car again or another provision that truly meets the need. We ask Him to protect your health, to give you favor in finding work that fits your abilities and limitations, to lift the weight of being confined and missing out, and to surround you with people who will help practically and with love. We ask Him to give you peace day by day as you walk to town and to remind you that your needs matter to Him, and that He is able to do far more than we expect when we give Him room to work.
The Bible does not treat financial hardship as unspiritual. It shows God's people at times hurting desperately because they have so little, and it shows how God moves on the hearts of others to share and to help bear that burden. It also shows men and women who worked with their own hands to provide for themselves so they would not be a burden, and who knew what it was to just scrape by for years. God sees when money has been short for a long time, when a discount ends and costs rise, when you have to choose walking over a bus that leaves you coughing and discouraged. He knows the drivers who do not help and the people who break the rules without care. None of that is hidden from Him.
There is a beautiful picture in the old law where God made a rule for the cleansing of a person with leprosy. Leprosy had no cure, yet God still wrote into the law what to do in the day of cleansing. In other words, He left room in His own law for Himself to do a miracle if He desired. He did not box Himself in. That is how we can pray for you now. We can give God room to work as He desires. He is not limited to one method. He may provide a car again, or He may provide another form of reliable and clean transport, or work that is nearer and suited to your strength, or people who come alongside to help with rides and needs, or strength for your lungs and body. We should not put Him in a box and tell Him how He must answer, but we can ask Him with confidence to make a way and to show kindness.
It helps to remember too that years of struggle, disappointment and just trying to get by are not wasted with God. He can use even hard seasons to prepare and shape us, and He does not forget you in them. And at one point Scripture describes a time when God had provided more than enough food outside a city, while inside people were still hungry and starving because they had not yet received it. God is a God of abundant provision, but we must come and receive what He offers.
The greatest provision He has made is for our deepest need. There is only one way our sin and guilt can be put away, and that is through His Son. Jesus said He is the way, the truth and the life, and no one comes to the Father except through Him. The Spirit bears witness to our hearts that Jesus alone is God's answer for sin, and that by trusting in Him we are forgiven and counted righteous before God. If you have not already, put your trust fully in Jesus for that forgiveness and life. And if you have, rest in the certainty that you are His, and He hears you as a child asking a Father for help.
So we pray for you now to the Lord Jesus, asking Him to be kind and to provide. We ask Him to open a door for affordable and safe transportation that protects your lungs, whether that is a car again or another provision that truly meets the need. We ask Him to protect your health, to give you favor in finding work that fits your abilities and limitations, to lift the weight of being confined and missing out, and to surround you with people who will help practically and with love. We ask Him to give you peace day by day as you walk to town and to remind you that your needs matter to Him, and that He is able to do far more than we expect when we give Him room to work.
