Chrysostom
Beloved Warrior
You give thanks for the good report on your husband’s heart, and that is right. Yet I see the fear that crept in so swiftly after, wrapping itself around the loss of his work, the pile of expenses, the dread of losing care for your body. Consider this: when the waves were calm, you praised the Lord of the sea. Now the wind has risen, will you fix your eyes on the height of the waves and not on Him who commands them?
You say God has led you through this before. That is the very ground under your feet. Why does the memory of His past deliverance not calm the storm within you now? The trouble is not that your husband lost a job. The trouble is that the thing you fear to lose has become too precious. You cling to the health insurance as if it were your savior, and the paycheck as your daily bread. I tell you, the loss would be far greater if this trial did not come. For wealth and security, when they flow without interruption, make the soul a slave to lifeless riches and cast it out of God’s service. You are being asked now: whom do you serve? The creator of the body, or the paper that pays for its medicine?
Your husband is worried for you. That is a husband’s duty, for he is your head, as Christ is the head of the Church, and he should have forethought for his own body. But see that you do not love him or your own ease more than God. I have said it plainly: love not thy husband more than God, and thou shalt not ever experience widowhood in the soul. Even if the worst should happen, you will not feel the affliction as those without hope, because you have an immortal Protector who loves you better. The blessed Job lost his children all at once, yet he did not sink, because he loved God more. Is your God alive? Then nothing that is lost can truly afflict you. The thing you fear is a phantom, a disturbance rising within the mind, not the reality of His care.
You ask for a perfect job, quickly. A good prayer, if rightly understood. But what is the perfect job? Is it merely the swift return of a salary and benefits? That is to ask for a stone when He holds out bread. The perfect job is one that does not draw your husband’s heart from God, does not make him a slave to mammon, and provides what is needed so that you may both serve the Lord without distraction. Pray for that, and then let God, who sees the need for your hip, your home, your daughter’s new life, answer as He wills. Do not dictate the terms to the physician of souls. The world runs after these things and is full of disturbance and unseemly contests, like rival lovers fighting in the streets. But you are not of the world. Let your conscience be crowned, the waves laid, because no true disturbance can arise from any quarter in a soul fixed on Christ.
Hold fast to what you have professed: “In Jesus’ name.” That is not a mere seal at the end of a request. It means you ask for what aligns with His will, what magnifies His glory, and what does not endanger your souls. If your husband finds work tomorrow, praise God. If the wait is long, praise God still, and let the waiting teach you that the body’s health and the money to pay for it are His to give and take. The unbelieving world panics at such news. But you know the Law: you are dead to sin, and this world’s claims have no dominion over you. The wife who trusts in the Lord is not shaken by a notice of layoff, for she has learned to bear unjust reproach, and much more a trial permitted by a loving Father. Stand firm, and let your husband see in you a quiet spirit, a soul that perceives the prophet’s word: He knows your circumstances perfectly, and His reproof, if it comes, is only to draw you nearer to the living water.
You say God has led you through this before. That is the very ground under your feet. Why does the memory of His past deliverance not calm the storm within you now? The trouble is not that your husband lost a job. The trouble is that the thing you fear to lose has become too precious. You cling to the health insurance as if it were your savior, and the paycheck as your daily bread. I tell you, the loss would be far greater if this trial did not come. For wealth and security, when they flow without interruption, make the soul a slave to lifeless riches and cast it out of God’s service. You are being asked now: whom do you serve? The creator of the body, or the paper that pays for its medicine?
Your husband is worried for you. That is a husband’s duty, for he is your head, as Christ is the head of the Church, and he should have forethought for his own body. But see that you do not love him or your own ease more than God. I have said it plainly: love not thy husband more than God, and thou shalt not ever experience widowhood in the soul. Even if the worst should happen, you will not feel the affliction as those without hope, because you have an immortal Protector who loves you better. The blessed Job lost his children all at once, yet he did not sink, because he loved God more. Is your God alive? Then nothing that is lost can truly afflict you. The thing you fear is a phantom, a disturbance rising within the mind, not the reality of His care.
You ask for a perfect job, quickly. A good prayer, if rightly understood. But what is the perfect job? Is it merely the swift return of a salary and benefits? That is to ask for a stone when He holds out bread. The perfect job is one that does not draw your husband’s heart from God, does not make him a slave to mammon, and provides what is needed so that you may both serve the Lord without distraction. Pray for that, and then let God, who sees the need for your hip, your home, your daughter’s new life, answer as He wills. Do not dictate the terms to the physician of souls. The world runs after these things and is full of disturbance and unseemly contests, like rival lovers fighting in the streets. But you are not of the world. Let your conscience be crowned, the waves laid, because no true disturbance can arise from any quarter in a soul fixed on Christ.
Hold fast to what you have professed: “In Jesus’ name.” That is not a mere seal at the end of a request. It means you ask for what aligns with His will, what magnifies His glory, and what does not endanger your souls. If your husband finds work tomorrow, praise God. If the wait is long, praise God still, and let the waiting teach you that the body’s health and the money to pay for it are His to give and take. The unbelieving world panics at such news. But you know the Law: you are dead to sin, and this world’s claims have no dominion over you. The wife who trusts in the Lord is not shaken by a notice of layoff, for she has learned to bear unjust reproach, and much more a trial permitted by a loving Father. Stand firm, and let your husband see in you a quiet spirit, a soul that perceives the prophet’s word: He knows your circumstances perfectly, and His reproof, if it comes, is only to draw you nearer to the living water.
