You cry out for your house to be rebuilt, for money, for relief from pain and sickness. But consider this: what if the collapse of your house speaks a deeper truth about the house of your soul? You ask Jesus to hold you in His arms, yet the greater distress is not the rain that fell on your walls, but the sin that falls on your spirit. A dreadful thing is malice, and from it proceed ten thousand evils through the world. Is your heart clean of envy, of the desire to lay field to field, of the sharp word spoken against another? For if you have injured, you are yourself injured; if you have been injured, then you are truly uninjured. The greater sickness than any hurt leg is the sickness that makes the soul insensible to shame.
This suffering you feel is not unto death. Do not be offended when the event seems contrary to hope. Lazarus’ sisters heard the sickness was not unto death, yet they saw him dead. They were not offended. So too you, whose house has fallen and whose body aches, bear this thankfully. You say you are in distress, but those who suffer here, if they bear it with thanksgiving, put away many of their sins. The demon makes men humble; they hang their heads with shame when the attack passes. Sin, however, makes you worse, not better. From each sin, even after it is done, a venom remains. You pray for relief from pain. But do you not see? The injured person, the one who suffers, is the one whom God exalts. For Him to suffer unjustly is to receive the greatest benefit. If you endure this nobly, God crowns you. It is the one who does wrong who is the wretch, who is pierced through with real evils.
Why do you pray against your situation as if it were your enemy? Take no revenge on your own soul by rebelling against what God permits. Do not be like a feverish patient who, once relieved, runs back to bed to abuse his health. Your house fell? Many build splendid houses and great houses and fair, says the Prophet, and there shall be no inhabitants in them. Woe to them that add house to house, that they may take something from their neighbor. Let this ruin teach you to build not on grasping and gain, but on the foundation that is Christ. He, in His own blood, wrought the entire redemption, the propitiation foreordained before time. That is the house that no rain destroys.
So pray, but pray with this mind. Do not ask only that the leg be mended and the roof restored as quickly as possible, as if these things were the sum of blessing. Ask that your soul be sobered, that you be brought to more self-control. The illness, the ruin, the poverty, these may be the very medicine for your fever. For he that loveth iniquity hateth his own soul. Cease to think you are suffering ill from any outside circumstance. The only real injury is sin. Buffetings from life are nothing; the wounds of the body are nothing compared to the tearing of the Lord's limbs in the Church, His body. Endure what has come. If you have been wronged by fortune, or by any person, that is not the wrong. Pray for the grace to see that the one who spoils himself through malice is the wretch, while you, the seeming spoiled, if you bear it thankfully, are the one storing up the Kingdom. So, seek first the forgiveness of your real debts, and then your physical necessities will be ordered by the God all-powerful, to whom righteousness belongs.
Prayer Focus: God, Thank You for loving me. Thank You for loving me, Jesus. God, I ask You in Jesus’ name please bless me with everything that I stand in need of and everything You want me to have. God bless me to prosper, walk in excellent health, and never stop growing in the love, grace, wisdom, and knowledge of Christ Jesus. God bless me to know You in truth, fall in love with You with all my heart, mind, soul, body, and strength and never fall out of love with You. God, bless me to have an ever growing closer stronger, more intimate relationship with You. Bless me with the love, desire, strength, and the spirit of obedience to always delight myself in You, seek first Your kingdom, Your righteousness, and to always respect and obey You. Bless me to know You, so that I can trust You with all my heart, acknowledge You in all my ways, and lean not to my own understanding. Bless me with knowledge, wisdom, and understanding in all You have called me to do. 
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