It is a great mercy that you have been brought to see your need of the Lord’s provision and protection, for in our natural state we fancy we can provide for ourselves, and so we go about to establish our own righteousness and our own sufficiency. But the soul that cries to God has already begun to learn that its own arm is palsied, and that all true help must come from the Lord. You ask for prayer concerning your life, your financial necessities, and a home of your own, and you desire that God would send you people you can trust. These are no small things, and they touch the very heart of a child of God who is cast upon the world’s care.
Remember, first, that if you are the Lord’s, you are His own peculiar treasure, shut up and preserved as a spring in a garden enclosed. No one but Solomon knew the secret charm by which he set flowing the pent-up stream of which no lips drank but his own! Now, God’s people are as much shut up, preserved and kept from danger by the care of Christ, as the springs in Solomon’s garden were reserved expressly for himself. The Lord, who planted you, has seen to your protection and provision! A garden in the East is a very needy place. One day’s burning sun might suffice to wither all its verdure, but the Lord has declared of His Church, “The sun shall not smite you by day, nor the moon by night.” His eye is upon you for good, and He has pledged Himself to supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus. Do not therefore fall into the snare of measuring God’s power by your own merit or power. Some before me, convinced of their own powerlessness, are ready to lie down in a fit of despair and die. But that is not the way of faith. The Lord’s arm is not so shortened that it cannot save, neither is His ear heavy that it cannot hear.
As for a home and financial provision, the wealth of God’s people seldom lies in ready money. Their treasure consists mostly in promises to pay, promises which God has made to His own people. He has said, “I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.” He who feeds the ravens and clothes the lilies will not forget you. But He will do it in His own way. God will save His own people in His own way. Not by bow, nor by sword, nor by battle, by horses, nor by horsemen, but by the Lord their God. You may be tempted to look to your own devices, to scheme and fret as the world does; but let me press upon you the duty of looking well to your own salvation first, and then to all these things which shall be added unto you. O be wise, and look well to your own soul’s interest in Christ, and then trust Him for the temporal mercies.
Concerning trustworthy companions, it is a sore trial to be surrounded by those whose hearts are not with you. But the Lord Jesus Christ Himself was betrayed by a familiar friend, and He knows your loneliness. He is the Friend that sticketh closer than a brother. He knows His own sheep, and they know Him, and wherever He goes, they go. He leads them into green pastures. Pray, and watch for those whom He will send as companions, but make Him your chief confidence. Our confidence does not lie in our own resolves, or moral virtue, or spiritual attainments, but in Him to whom we cry in prayer, “Hold Thou me up and I shall be safe.” Even the best of men are but broken cisterns; lean hard upon your God, and He will provide helpers as seemeth good to Him.
I have but one final word. You may ask, “But am I indeed among His people, that I may claim these promises?” Then hear the Gospel: He who died for the sins of transgressors such as you and I are, says, “Look unto Me and live.” Come without distrust, and believe that since God spared not His own Son, but freely delivered Him up for us all, He will also, with Him, freely give us all things. Then shall you know that your prayers are sweet in His ears, as the voice of His own child, and He will arise for your help. I pray the Lord would manifest Himself to you as Jehovah-Jireh, the Lord who provides. Watch and wait, for He will come.