Many come to the Lord seeking relief from bodily ills and pressing debts, and this is natural, for these burdens are heavy. Yet consider how God often deals with those He loves. He does not will that we should enjoy security after confessing Him, as if that were enough for our salvation. He wills that we too should contribute something and be more approved through many toils and dangers. Your sicknesses, your financial straits, these are not signs of His absence but the very arena of His work. He could hinder every trial, yet such is not His will, for your sake, that you may yourself contribute endurance and be more approved. Do not imagine that the absence of immediate healing means He is not listening. He heard the cry of the poor blind man and the leper, yet He also allowed Lazarus to die that a greater glory might be revealed. So with you, the illness that clings to your body and the anxiety for your son, these are an opportunity. When we hear of one bewailing such evils and looking up toward heaven, we must not, like the world, call out impostor or think God has forgotten. Give your suffering to Him, but do not demand that He act only by removing it. For we wish to do kindness to those we love by appearing first to have received something from them. What have you to offer in this trial? Your repentance, your patience, your refusal to curse Him. In this, you become a debtor to His grace, and He will repay.
And concerning your son, beware of resting hope in a permanent job as if that were the ultimate good. The Lord drew His disciples away from vain imagination about things of the body and from refuge in forefathers, so that they might ground the hope of their salvation in their own repentance and continence. A job is a provision, not a savior. Pray for him to find work, yes, but far more, pray that he would seek first the Kingdom. That rest, the true rest which is the Kingdom of Heaven, is the only end from which labors and troubles cease. The rest of Palestine, the rest of a steady income, these are types and shadows. Many have money and still know no peace; many in debt have found the pearl of great price in their affliction. Urge your son not merely to send out applications, but to examine his life. Has he given himself up to luxury, to the fullness of bread, to the belly? Fasting from sin and self-indulgence is a most powerful shield against every trouble. You ask for healing of skin and body, and that is a right request, but remember the root: often our disorders grow from the incontinence of our appetites, as in the days of Noah and Sodom. Not that your specific sickness is a direct punishment, for was the man born blind punished? No. But let this drive you both, mother and son, to that discipline of the soul which alone yields the fruit of endurance.
Do not look at your village, your poverty, your lack of money, and think God cannot bring good from it. From what country came the Apostles? From a land little esteemed, from a family of poor fishermen so pressed by poverty that they mended broken nets. Nothing can be poorer, meaner, nor more ignorant than such a trade, yet from that Christ called them. He is not an impostor who delays, testing your resolve. Do you manage all your affairs well? Are there not shipwrecks, lawsuits, dangers, and illnesses that fall upon all? If we hold fast to faith in these storms, we offer a sacrifice. He suffered deadness for us and united Himself to our nature, so that whatever is of the Father is His to give: not just a temporary fixing of the body, but the firstfruits of resurrection. That is the fullness that dwelt in Him, not a mere energy but His very Substance. Cling to that promise. Let your son cling to it. The false brethren of this age will tell you that relief must come now, that you are cast out of grace if you suffer, but the Apostles themselves permitted condescension to infirmity while pointing to a higher continence. The intention of the enemy is to cast you out of grace and reduce you back under slavery to fear. The intention of the Lord is to build you up, even through the very thorns that now pierce you.
Consider that woman who was more vile than any on the stage, and yet she outwent many in exceeding continence, putting on sackcloth and disciplining her body all her time. Was her healing an easier life, a debt-free existence? No, it was a transformed soul that no governor or soldiers could drag back to her former shame. This is the Lord's great lovingkindness: He arranges that we first give up something, our own son perhaps, our own health, our own will, so that He might seem to do nothing great in giving His own Son and granting us Himself. We boast more of receiving a little thing from us than of giving us all. Offer Him your endurance in these pressures, your refusal to despair. Offer Him your son's obedience to whatever righteous labor presents itself, even if it is mending nets, rather than holding out for a permanent career. Then you will find that He is not a debtor to you, but you to Him, and the debt He acknowledges He pays with the riches of His glory. Do not seek the rest of this world only; seek that Sabbath rest where God rests from His works, the kingdom where those who enter do indeed rest from their labors. Until you enter it, let the trials of urine and skin and want be to you what the wilderness was to the Lord: a place where Satan comes because he sees hunger, but where the Word of God proves a stronger shield. Fast from complaint, feast on prayer, and trust that He who sanctified you in baptism will present you as firstfruits, offered as a living sacrifice.
Prayer Focus: God, Thank You for loving me. Thank You for loving me, Jesus. God, I ask You in Jesus’ name please bless me with everything that I stand in need of and everything You want me to have. God bless me to prosper, walk in excellent health, and never stop growing in the love, grace, wisdom, and knowledge of Christ Jesus. God bless me to know You in truth, fall in love with You with all my heart, mind, soul, body, and strength and never fall out of love with You. God, bless me to have an ever growing closer stronger, more intimate relationship with You. Bless me with the love, desire, strength, and the spirit of obedience to always delight myself in You, seek first Your kingdom, Your righteousness, and to always respect and obey You. Bless me to know You, so that I can trust You with all my heart, acknowledge You in all my ways, and lean not to my own understanding. Bless me with knowledge, wisdom, and understanding in all You have called me to do. 
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