You ask God to spare you from shame and from the triumph of your enemies over you. But consider well what the true shame is, and who your true enemies are. The debt of money is a small matter. It presses upon you, yes, and you have done all you can. Yet the debt of sin is far heavier, and the enemy is not the creditor, but the devil who desires you to place your trust in riches rather than in the mercy of God. When the apostle says, "I am not ashamed of the gospel," he teaches us that shame belongs to sin and unbelief, not to poverty or affliction. You fear being put to shame before men if this bill is not paid. But Christ endured the cross, despising the shame, to free you from an eternal disgrace. Why then do you tremble at a temporary embarrassment, as if men's opinions were your salvation?
Now hear what is far more urgent. You ask for the full amount, but have you asked with the same fervor for the forgiveness of your sins? The servant in the parable fell down and begged for patience, and the master forgave the entire debt. You have done all you can, so you say, but what have you done for your soul? Have you pruned away excess, cut off luxuries, and made provision for the flesh only for health, not for wantonness? To be drunk with anxiety over earthly debts while neglecting the debt of prayer and repentance is a dangerous sleep, a dream from which we must wake. The present life is a dream, and its riches and debts vanish like visions of the night.
Do not mistake this. I do not belittle your distress. Our Lord cares for our bodily needs, as Paul advised Timothy to use a little wine for his stomach. It is right to ask daily bread. But if God in His wisdom sees that paying this bill by your deadline would harm your soul, He may delay or deny in mercy. What then? Will you be ashamed? Let not your enemies triumph, you pray. But if you become a wolf to those you owe, if you scheme or despair, then the Shepherd leaves you, and the true enemies, unbelief and the demons, prevail. Remain a sheep, gentle and trusting, even if wolves prowl. For so long as we are sheep, we conquer, though ten thousand wolves surround us.
Search your life. Is there any hidden sin, any adultery of the heart, any murder of anger, that you have not confessed? I say this boldly, as the Scripture records David's sins to magnify the cure. The sickness is great, but the Physician is greater. Your debt may be God's medicine. Receive it as such. And if the money comes, use it with thanksgiving, and forgive every debtor of yours, no matter how small, remembering the ten thousand talents forgiven you. If it does not come, do not think yourself put to shame. Paul considered bonds for Christ no shame but boldness. So too, honest poverty for a time is no disgrace. The end of sin is death; the end of temporal debt is but a light affliction. Set your face toward the joy set before you, despising the shame, and you will find that even in this trial your boldness in the gospel is not diminished. Pray then, not only for the bill, but for a heart that clings to nothing but Christ.