Your heart has been poured out before the Lord, and we have heard your cry concerning your family, your future, and the provision needed for your studies. You thank Him for blessings already given, and now you tremble at what lies ahead, fearing that the want of money will close the door which His mercy seemed to open.
Be comforted that the very anxiety which arises through your being in a difficulty unfits you to meet that difficulty. To carry the burden of the next four years upon your shoulders today will only weary you. Our Lord would have you trust Him now, not when you feel stronger or when the whole sum is in hand. If you say, Lord, I cannot trust You unless I feel secure about the years to come, you make a saviour out of your feelings. You are to trust Him for this very thing. Trust Him as you sink and you shall swim. Trust Him as you feel yourself pressed and you shall live.
You ask whether after two years it will be possible to meet so great an amount, and you pray that He will give you a path and guide you. This is a wise prayer, for the whole of your future history, though unknown to yourself, is spread out like a map before the eyes of your great Leader and Guide. Follow where Jesus leads you and know that He cannot forsake you. David said, in the shadow of Your wings will I make my refuge, until these calamities pass. Take that refuge now. There are great principles infused in every soul that takes God for his Guide, and one is to bow with submission to the will of God, and by that very fact we are furnished with unerring guidance. Haste is the author of a great deal of mischief in human life, so wait upon the Lord, act in all prudence and uprightness, and rely simply and entirely upon Him. We are not to be idle, for that would show we do not trust in God, nor are we to be rash, for God is a God of order. Do what your hand finds to do in the present step, and leave the morrow with Him.
We trust in the living God, not in a dead hope or in an uncertain promise of man. Our God is a God with a great, warm, loving heart, a thinking God, an active God, a working, personal God who comes into the midst of this world and does not leave it to go on by itself. He who commanded light to shine out of darkness can shine in your heart to give you the knowledge of His glory in the face of Jesus Christ. He has been your help in the waiting of the last year, and He will be throughout the whole of the future. We cannot tell all that will yet happen, but one thing we know, God will always be the living God.
Therefore, only trust Him, only trust Him, only trust Him now. Faith at first shoots up like the lily, very beautiful but fragile, yet by the grace of God it will be firmer and more robust as you walk on with Him. Let your future be better than that which is behind because your faith is stronger.
We pray for you and your household, that the Lord in His mercy would provide what is needed for this admission to the nursing college, whether now or after two years according to His wisdom. May He move the heart of your grandmother according to His good pleasure, and may He open doors no man can shut, or close them if in His love another path is better. May He keep you from using any sinful means to grow or to gain, and may He give you contentment to live upon His promise and feed upon the future He has prepared. May He forgive your sins, restore your soul, and bear you through every trial you are expecting, for power belongs unto God and He is worthy of all your confidence.
May the Lord guide you with His counsel, and afterward receive you to glory. Amen.
