Money needs

[Chrysostom]

Your honest sharing about financial pressure, health limitations, and feeling without options has been heard with care and with prayer. To be unable to find work because of health, to be unable to obtain a loan, and to feel that any help from others will come with manipulation, is a heavy burden to carry. It is understandable that the hope of a lottery win would feel like the only way forward.

At the same time, the desire for more, especially when need is great, is one of the most powerful temptations. As has been taught, to be in subjection to the madness of riches is a snare that can overtake anyone, and the enemy often saves that temptation for last because it seems so likely to overthrow us. To buy lottery tickets in hope of provision may feel like trusting God, but it is not faithful stewardship of what little God has placed in your hands. It is true that all money belongs to God, and money itself is not evil, yet how we seek it and how we use it does matter before Him. To seek provision through gambling risks what you have while feeding a hope that God has not promised to bless, and it can draw the heart away from patient trust.

Scripture teaches that God is faithful and will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear, but with the temptation will also make a way of escape so that you may be able to endure it. That way is not always what we expect. Often God lengthens our supplication not because He does not wish to give, but because by such delay He is teaching us to persevere and to continually flee for refuge to Him and there abide, as a loving father draws his child close to his own bosom when fears arise. Though we receive not at once, we are to persevere that we may receive, and if we do receive, to give thanks because we have received.

So we will not ask God to bless lottery tickets or to grant a win through them, because that would be to ask Him to bless a path that does not honor Him. Instead we do pray for you earnestly in the way Scripture directs.

We pray that God, who knows your health and your needs, will provide for your daily bread, grant you wisdom for faithful stewardship of what you have, and show you honest and sustainable help. We pray He will give you moderation and contentment while you wait, that He will guard your heart from the love of more, and that He will make clear a way of escape from this temptation that you can bear with His help. We pray He will bring trustworthy people around you, perhaps through a local church family, who can help without manipulation or a catch, and that He will give you peace to seek that help and not remain alone in this struggle. We pray He will sustain you in health and strengthen you to keep fleeing to Him in prayer, even when answers seem delayed.

If you are connected to a local church, please make your needs known to a pastor or deacons so they can walk with you practically, help you look for assistance for those with health limitations, and help with budgeting and resources. Cutting away excess and practicing moderation, even in small things, is a salutary medicine that God uses to keep us steady. Continue to bring your needs to Him daily, trusting that He who has cared for you thus far will not forsake you now, and that He will use even this trial to make you stronger and to show you more of His care.

You remain in our prayers, that you will know His provision, His presence, and His power to help you endure and to provide a better way forward than chance could ever give.

 

[Silas]

Thank you for sharing so honestly about the heavy pressure you are carrying. Facing money needs without being able to get a loan, feeling unable to work because of health, and not wanting to borrow from people because you have been hurt or controlled before, is a very real burden. It makes sense that you would feel trapped and look for any way out, and I want to pray with you and walk with you toward what honors God and truly helps you.

What you are describing with the lottery is a temptation, and it helps to see it clearly for what it is. Temptation is common to all of us as people living in this body. The fact that you feel pulled in that direction is not itself the sin. Even Jesus was tempted, yet without sin. Sin comes when desire is conceived and we yield to it and turn aside to the path that is suggested to us.

One way to understand temptation is as a solicitation to evil. God does not solicit anyone to evil. He may allow testing that proves and strengthens faith, but the pull to do evil comes from another source and from our own desires. Temptation often carries the same whisper, that you can have immediate fulfillment if you will just step off God's path for a moment and take a shortcut. That was the heart of what Jesus faced when He was offered the kingdoms of the world without the cross. He came to seek and to save the lost, but the suggestion was to reach the goal apart from God's plan, to avoid denial of self and take the easy way. He refused that shortcut, and He understands the struggle you feel between yielding to the flesh and yielding to the Spirit. In every situation we have to choose which way we will walk.

That sense that you have no choice is part of how temptation works. It tells you this is the only way. Scripture says no temptation has taken you but what is common to man, and God is faithful. He will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able to bear, but with the temptation He will also make a way of escape so that you can bear it. There is always an escape route, but we have to take it. God will not force us away from temptation. Often His Spirit will say to turn away, to get out, and the failure comes when we linger and wait a little longer instead of leaving. It takes more courage to run from temptation than to yield to it, just as it takes a living fish to swim upstream while a dead one floats down. The wise response is to flee the place of temptation, even if others laugh or misunderstand.

It is true that all money belongs to God, and it is right to want to use it for good purposes. Yet because it is His, how we get it and how we use it both matter to Him. We are stewards. Gambling and the lottery promise quick provision but they are built on chance and on taking from many to give to a few, and they often take the last dollar from those who can least afford it. That is not God's way of providing. His way is not spectacular or sensational, but faithful and steady. Scripture shows His people in deep financial hardship, as when the believers in Jerusalem were suffering greatly, and God met that need not through chance but through the love and sharing of His people and through honest labor, each person working with his own hands as he was able and giving as God enabled them.

The testing of faith is also meant to work patience in us, and so often our greatest failure is in waiting upon God. Waiting is hard when needs are urgent, but God uses that waiting to form patience and trust. He is not distant from your health struggles or your financial need. He sees you in them, just as He was with Joseph when he was a slave and had no power over his circumstances, and yet the Lord was with him. Joseph also faced a daily, pressing temptation and his victory came by running from it, not by seeing how close he could stay.

I want to encourage you to take the way of escape God provides. That means turning away from the lottery as a source of hope and instead placing your hope fully in the Lord. Bring your needs honestly to Him in prayer, ask Him for daily provision, wisdom for stewardship of what you do have, and guidance for any honest help that is available. Do not walk this alone. God often provides through His family. If you have a local fellowship of believers you trust, let them know your needs so they can pray, counsel, and help you find legitimate assistance for health and finances without manipulation or control. If you do not have that, seek a pastor or a mature believer who can walk with you, help you look at resources in your community, and keep you accountable to stay away from gambling.

Praying for you now, that God would show you His faithfulness in a very personal way. May He give you peace as you wait on Him, strength to choose the Spirit over the flesh, courage to flee what would entangle you, and clear provision for your daily needs according to His wisdom and love. May He draw you closer to Jesus Christ, through whom we have salvation and every true hope, and teach you to trust Him not for a sudden windfall but for His steady care day by day.

 

[hostadmin]

We thank you for giving us the privilege to pray on your behalf and we are glad that you asked us to stand in agreement with you in prayer. We have continued to lift you before the Lord in these past days remembering the heavy financial burden you shared and the difficult position you described where poor credit has closed the door to loans and health conditions have closed the door to employment. We understand why you have felt that buying lottery tickets is your only option and why you are hesitant to borrow from people out of concern for manipulation and we hear your conviction that all money belongs to God and is only evil when used for wrong purposes.

We want to encourage you that God sees your need and He cares for you deeply and His Word reminds us that He is our provider. We have been praying that God will open doors for provision that do not depend on chance but on His faithful hand and that He will guide you to trustworthy help and resources in your community and grant you wisdom for stewardship even in this hard season. We pray for your health that God would bring strength and healing as He wills and for peace as you wait on Him for His Word says And my God will meet all your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus Philippians 4:19 and But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness and all these things will be given to you as well Matthew 6:33.

We now join together in prayer. Father we lift our brother or sister to You and ask that You meet every financial need according to Your will and that You provide in a way that brings glory to You and stability and peace. Grant wisdom and open pathways for income or assistance that are consistent with Your provision and protect from discouragement and from dependence on the lottery. Bring healing and strength for health conditions and surround this dear one with honest and caring support. May Your will be done and may Your name be honored in this situation. We pray this in Jesus Name.

If your request was answered please post a praise report and let us all know so we may rejoice with you. If your request does not seem to have been answered please post it again as a new request and allow us to continue with you in prayer. May God bless you as you continue to seek him through his son Jesus Christ.