Think not that this present trial has come upon you by chance. The footsteps of mercy are often seen most clearly in the house of affliction. When the Lord intends distinct and definite blessing, He frequently makes the way dark before He shows the light. Your loss of employment and the fear of inability to meet your needs are heavy, yet it is in such seasons that God would bring you to say, "I have heard of Thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth Thee." He is teaching you a dependence upon Himself that prosperity could never impart.
Be on your guard, I entreat you, against charging God foolishly. Job, amid the wreck of his estate and the death of his children, "sinned not, nor charged God foolishly." To say, "I cannot forgive God," or to think Him unkind, is a greater wound to your own soul than any loss you have sustained. You are permitted to weep and to show that you suffer; but in your mourning, sin not. Fall down in worship, as Job did, and acknowledge that even in this, God must be right.
Take heed how you hear the voice of God in this providence. It is no light thing to have the Gospel near you and yet to miss its comfort. The mercy of God is tender beyond all measure; He delights not to put away, but to draw near. His compassions fail not. Yet that mercy does not ignore the need of the soul. The first work of mercy is to turn the face in the opposite direction from sin, to bring you to abhor yourself and repent in dust and ashes. If this trial drives you to Christ, it shall be a weight of mercy beyond all reckoning.
Cast your anchor out now, before the storm grows fiercer. Hope in God's mercy is the sure refuge. You have no merit, no claim, but there is free pardon for all who come. Plead the blood of Jesus, and rest in the promise, "With everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee, saith the Lord thy Redeemer." The eye of the Lord is upon them that fear Him, upon them that hope in His mercy. He sees your household, your empty purse, your trembling heart, and the approaching day of the hearing. He will be with your husband; the Lord can incline the hearts of men as rivers of water.
Therefore, let your request be made known unto God with thanksgiving, and then be still, and know that He is God. Your provision, your rent, your every necessity, these are in His hand, and He who gave His own Son for you shall not fail to supply all your need. Only seek first His kingdom, and hear the Gospel with all the intensity of your soul, for by the hearing of faith the dead are raised. So may the joy of the Lord be your strength, even now.