You speak of a check that must arrive, of bills that press upon you, and you ask prayer. But I perceive in your words a deeper need, a soul troubled by the irregularity of provision, casting about for some anchor in the shifting tide of circumstance. The Lord would teach you to trust not in the check, but in the God who sends it. Sit down calmly and say, "Here is God's promise: that He will supply all my need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus." Trust Him for this very thing. When the appointed means delay, it is that you might look beyond the means to the Appointer. His promise may tarry, but it never fails, and if it seems to fail for the time being, will it fail forevermore?
Is His arm shortened that He cannot save? Has He forgotten to be gracious? What hot shots these are for unbelief! Yet I would not have you trust your own feelings or the sight of the envelope in your hand. You are to trust Him before the provision comes, just as the lepers were cleansed as they went, not after they arrived. The wiser way is to lean upon His bare word. The blood of Jesus Christ, God’s dear Son, cleanses us from all sin, shall it not also secure the daily bread of His beloved? God’s mercy is extended freely to such anxious saints as you, but there is a wonder I do not often see, when a child of God, having prayed, rises from his knees and walks in peace before the answer dawns. This is to make God your treasure, and your check but the wrapper of His gift.
That which you call sporadic, He calls a school. He has taught you from your youth, and until this time you have seen His wondrous works, object lessons in providence, that you might observe and wonder. The making up of your provision is delayed, it may be, because certain graces in you, partly polished, are missing; but He will not lose His gems. Though you feel yourself dying under the weight of these obligations, trust Him as you sink and you shall swim. The poor raving maniac among the tombs, tearing chains asunder, was yet found of Christ and clothed in his right mind, will He not meet you in this smaller tempest? I could trust Him with a million souls; can you not trust Him with one day’s bills?
Go now, gird up your loins, and ask not with a whimper but with boldness at the throne, for you are His hidden one, beloved and bought with blood. Heaven would not be complete without you. May this time of pressing need become a visitation in mercy, a moment when you learn that God’s fatherly pity is as near as your cry. And if the check comes not by day’s end, know that His grace arrived long before, to keep you patient in the ills of this life. The whole end to which we drive is this: may God enable you to see that your salvation, and your provision, are in Him.