You speak of wickedness in high places, but what of the wickedness that poverty can root out of a man's own soul? You cry out against the government and the foreigner, and I hear the cry of a man who believes his very life depends on a certain wage, a certain job. But is that so? The Lord of all became poor, taking on flesh, emptying Himself of glory, that through His poverty you might become rich. Not rich in silver vessels and houses, but rich in the things that neither moth nor rust can corrupt. If you believe not that poverty is productive of riches, have in mind your Lord and doubt no longer.
I see that you are distressed, and that the sufferings of your neighbors who have taken their own lives press heavily upon you. Yet consider: God has sent the poor through the world as common teachers. There are those who beg in the streets, who have lost more than a job, they have lost their health, their children, their limbs, and they do not blaspheme. They make the whole narrative of their beggary in thanksgiving, magnifying God and calling Him merciful. He who is perishing with hunger calls God merciful, but you who are in plenty, if you cannot get the possessions of all, call Him cruel. How much better is that poor beggar than we are!
You fix your eyes on the high-paying jobs that the foreigners hold, and you see only the favoritism of men. But the wisdom of the poor man is despised, you say. Those words were spoken under the old covenant, where wealth was accounted a blessing and poverty a curse. But now it is no longer so. Now it is the greatest good to the sober-minded. Do you tremble at poverty? Why do you pursue after wealth? If we all fill but one belly and clothe one body, neither will the rich gain aught by his abundance nor the poor lose aught by his poverty. The thing to be feared is not poverty, but the not being willing to be poor.
You say the government will not repent of its policies. But look to your own doorstep. When you are weary of praying and do not receive, consider how often a poor man has called upon you and you have not listened to him, and he has not been angry nor insulted you. You, from cruelty, did not hear your fellow-servant and expect not to be found fault with. Do you then find fault with the Lord, who out of mercy does not hear His servant? There is great inequality there, and great injustice in your own heart.
The poverty of the apostles was exceeding great; they were mending their worn-out nets, not able to buy new ones. And this was a proof of virtue: bearing poverty with ease, supporting themselves by honest labor, bound together by love. Their goods were taken from them, and they took joyfully the spoiling of their possessions. You ask me to pray that the importing of foreigners stops, so that your job may be restored. But I ask you: what if God, in His mercy, has allowed this furnace of poverty so that you might learn to labor with your hands at whatever honest task is before you, to give thanks in all things, and to lay hold of the true riches that are in Christ Jesus?
You will find no command to demand back your privileged place in the market. But you will find a command to work, to give thanks, and to set your mind on things above. Let no man accuse poverty as being the cause of these evils, nor contradict Christ, who declared poverty to be the perfection of virtue. Theft, violence, and despair are the effects of idleness, not poverty. Poverty rather compels us to work. So I will not pray as you have asked, for you have asked amiss, seeking only the filling of your belly. Instead, pray that your own heart may be changed, that you may not fear poverty, and that you may learn to magnify God even in this hour of need. Then you will truly be rich.
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. 
