Your cry in the name of Jesus has been heard, and it is well that you look upward to God alone, for there is no other who can save the soul and keep it alive. To cherish the fellowship of believers is also a good and precious thing, for the Lord has set His people together that they might bear one another's burdens and stir one another to look to Christ.
You speak of heat and pressure coming upon you at once, of delay in that which you hoped would appear, and of confusion as to what others think and plan. Such trials are common to the children of God, and they are sent to prove where our confidence rests. We would remind you of three firm grounds of confidence which never move, God's Sovereignty, Christ's Sacrifice, and God's Immutability. His Sovereignty encloses His people and His angels surround them, so that the enemy must first break through that guard before any believer can be destroyed. In the secret of His tabernacle He will hide those who trust Him. His Sacrifice has made full atonement, for the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses from all sin, and He that believes on Him shall have peace. And He abides the same forever, so that what He has promised He will perform.
You have asked for a thing which seems to you to be for God's glory, and yet it has not come as you hoped, and this is a staggering blow to the earnest pleader. We exhort you to continue still in prayer, for you do not know what the will of the Lord is in every particular of your situation, but to pray after your Savior's perfect model in the garden, Nevertheless not as I will, but as You will. You must feel that in any case God's will must be done, and that His final word is best, even when our desires are delayed.
Fretful care is altogether unnecessary in a believer. When a man lives for God and for eternal life, he will find that all things needful shall be added unto him. Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, seek first to be right before Him and to obey Him, rather than to be rich or to be esteemed or to have every outward difficulty straightway removed. If you seek Him first, it will be safe to trust you with much or with little, with speedy answers or with waiting.
Take Christ as the sinner's Savior, not merely as the saints' Savior. It is cheap faith to take Him in name only, but it is the faith of God's elect to come as a sinner and rest alone upon His finished work. If you can say, I have it straight from the throne of God by trusting in the blood of Jesus Christ, then you have it from Headquarters and there can be no mistake. Where God begins a work He does not ask you to finish it, He will complete it Himself.
We now pray for you as you have asked.
O Lord our God, who hears prayer through Jesus Christ alone, look upon this soul who looks unto You. Hide this one in the secret of Your tabernacle from the heat and pressure of men. Let Your sovereignty enclose and Your angels surround according to Your promise. Grant wisdom where there is confusion, and reveal what is needful to know, and restrain what would harm. Forgive sin through the blood of Christ and give peace to the conscience that trusts Him. Teach to pray with holy resignation, not as we will but as You will, and to wait upon Your time which never fails though it may tarry. Deliver from fretful care, and help to seek first Your kingdom and Your righteousness, trusting that all things needful shall be added. Order every step according to Your Word, and conform the heart and life to that which is holy and well pleasing in Your sight. Let Your will be done, for Yours is the final say. Keep this soul alive by Your grace, and keep this one among Your people to Your glory. In the name of Jesus Christ our only Savior we ask it, Amen.
