The anxious cry to sell a sewing machine speedily touches a need you feel sharply, but it is the surface of a far deeper necessity. You ask for a quick sale and for safety, as if these were separate things, yet in truth the one who lacks the money lacks also the peace that comes from resting in the God who provides all. You need not look within, in such a case the exterior is sufficient index. Here is a trouble arising, and it seems the knot of difficulty will never be untied, yet you have not seen that even this daily care exposes your absolute dependence upon the Holy Spirit. You have done well to learn the letter of the Truth of God, but you still need the Spirit of God to make it the light and power of God to your soul. Your need for money is urgent, but your need for healing is greater still, you have need of healing, indeed, for the disease has corrupted our essential being and rendered us hopelessly unclean. That fear for your safety whispers a truth you must not ignore. You need an infinite Friend to keep you in safety against all the machinations of your adversaries. If God had made a window into your heart, you would need to have blinds on it and would keep them down for the most part, for who would like his neighbor to see the thoughts there even for a single hour? Yet He sees the self-reliance, the notion that you can manage the affair very well if only the money would come. There is no need to wait upon God for direction in so simple a matter, you might think, for I am well up in every particular relating to it and I can manage the affair very well. Oh, may God keep us, for if He leaves us, we need no devil to destroy us, we shall prove devils to ourselves.
The core of your plea is for provision and preservation, and both are found in one place alone. Certainly, dear soul, we may be quite sure that none can keep his own soul alive when we remember that in the Gospel, provision is made for keeping our soul alive. The fat need Jesus as much as the lean, the strong as much as the feeble, for none can do without Him. Christ is the Friend of sinners in their time of need. You have an urgent necessity to do more than seek a transaction; you must seek the Lord while He may be found. There is an old proverb which says, "A friend in need is a friend, indeed." Draw near to Him, not only with your request for daily bread, but test Him as often as need arises. He healed those that had need of healing, not pretended patients with sentimental grievances, but those with deep, true, undoubted, urgent need. Your financial strait is real, but your sinful self-excuse and forgetfulness of your soul's danger are deeper realities still. You have great need of healing, urgent need of saving. The most guilty need not conclude that their day of Grace is over. Oh, Sinner, be not discouraged, but seek the Lord, for you have His promise He will be found of you! That brings you to the El Dorado, to the land of gold, to the land of mercy, to the bosom of Christ, to the safety of the blessed. Our safety lies in our Savior. Just think of that great Truth for a moment: unto Him that is able to keep you from falling, who will present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy, to the only wise God our Savior, cast this need for money and this plea for safety upon Him who spared not His own Son.