Silas
Beloved of All
What you are describing is more than just a business ledger out of balance. What you call a sore heart is exactly where God is meeting you. He does not look at the numbers first; He looks at the heart. And the yearning that has grown so heavy, this cry for Him to come like a rushing wind, did not originate in your own frustration. He works in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure. He placed that deep desire in you to cry out to Him, because He wants to do something in you before He does something for you.
The temptation in times of financial distress is to focus entirely on the debtors, on the circumstances, on the boisterous wind and the waves. But the heart is deceitful above all things. We can easily deceive ourselves into thinking our only problem is other people’s failure to pay. The deep sickness of heart you feel is an invitation to stop looking at the faces of those who owe you and to look into your own heart alongside the Lord. Ask Him to search you. Is there any place where your own heart has been divided, or where you have trusted in your own schemes rather than in Him? The man who trusts in his own heart is a fool, because what comes out of the heart, apart from God’s cleansing, is not trustworthy.
Rend your heart, not your garments. This pain you carry is better than feasting and merriment that hides a hollow heart. Sorrow has a way of making the heart better when it drives you to God. Do not let this trial harden you. He who is often reproved and hardens his neck will suddenly be broken. Let this financial struggle be the chisel God uses to cut away the foreskin of a fleshly heart, a heart that might have been quietly looking to money for its medicine and its peace. A merry heart does good like a medicine, but that kind of joy is the fruit of a heart right with God, not a heart satisfied by a balanced account.
As you wait on Him, examine your own giving. Not because you must earn His intervention through a payment, but because a willing heart is the only kind He can bless. God loves a cheerful giver, one who purposes in his own heart. He never pressures or constrains. He wants the first fruits of your heart, not the leftovers of your pocketbook. When you bring your own giving before Him willingly, from the bottom of your heart, you are placing your trust in His provision over your business. You are declaring that He is first, even before the settlement of these debts. Do not guarantee what you cannot control. Do not meddle with a burden God has not asked you to carry. Your part is to keep your own heart with all diligence before Him.
What you need is not for the wind to merely blow against your debtors. You need Jesus to come walking on the very storm that terrifies you. Right now, Satan wants you to see nothing but the boisterous wind and the high waves of the money owed. When you get your eyes off Jesus and onto the circumstances, you begin to sink. The rushing wind you are praying for is already here in the fact that God is shaking your heart awake to trust Him alone. Stop looking at the debt and start looking at the Deliverer. His business is to sustain His own. He knows your distress. But first, He wants your heart to be perfect toward Him, not divided between trusting Him and worrying over what others owe you. Cry out for a clean heart and a right spirit. Then you will see His salvation.
The temptation in times of financial distress is to focus entirely on the debtors, on the circumstances, on the boisterous wind and the waves. But the heart is deceitful above all things. We can easily deceive ourselves into thinking our only problem is other people’s failure to pay. The deep sickness of heart you feel is an invitation to stop looking at the faces of those who owe you and to look into your own heart alongside the Lord. Ask Him to search you. Is there any place where your own heart has been divided, or where you have trusted in your own schemes rather than in Him? The man who trusts in his own heart is a fool, because what comes out of the heart, apart from God’s cleansing, is not trustworthy.
Rend your heart, not your garments. This pain you carry is better than feasting and merriment that hides a hollow heart. Sorrow has a way of making the heart better when it drives you to God. Do not let this trial harden you. He who is often reproved and hardens his neck will suddenly be broken. Let this financial struggle be the chisel God uses to cut away the foreskin of a fleshly heart, a heart that might have been quietly looking to money for its medicine and its peace. A merry heart does good like a medicine, but that kind of joy is the fruit of a heart right with God, not a heart satisfied by a balanced account.
As you wait on Him, examine your own giving. Not because you must earn His intervention through a payment, but because a willing heart is the only kind He can bless. God loves a cheerful giver, one who purposes in his own heart. He never pressures or constrains. He wants the first fruits of your heart, not the leftovers of your pocketbook. When you bring your own giving before Him willingly, from the bottom of your heart, you are placing your trust in His provision over your business. You are declaring that He is first, even before the settlement of these debts. Do not guarantee what you cannot control. Do not meddle with a burden God has not asked you to carry. Your part is to keep your own heart with all diligence before Him.
What you need is not for the wind to merely blow against your debtors. You need Jesus to come walking on the very storm that terrifies you. Right now, Satan wants you to see nothing but the boisterous wind and the high waves of the money owed. When you get your eyes off Jesus and onto the circumstances, you begin to sink. The rushing wind you are praying for is already here in the fact that God is shaking your heart awake to trust Him alone. Stop looking at the debt and start looking at the Deliverer. His business is to sustain His own. He knows your distress. But first, He wants your heart to be perfect toward Him, not divided between trusting Him and worrying over what others owe you. Cry out for a clean heart and a right spirit. Then you will see His salvation.
