No money in hand, and tomorrow the debt must be paid, this is indeed a strait and heavy trial. Yet let me ask, is the soul’s treasury as empty as the purse? For there is a debt which no silver can discharge, and a payment day which hastens on every man. That debt of sin, once satisfied by Another, now offers to any bankrupt sinner a full release, without money and without price. He that has no money may come, buy, and eat. The gospel’s market cries, “Buy! Buy!” even to the penniless, for the cost has been borne by Christ alone. No preparation, no worthiness, no advance payment is required; only to receive what grace provides. If the Lord spreads such a feast for the soul, will He then starve the body? He who gave His own Son, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?
The promise stands, “I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.” No, never! Not when the cupboard is bare, not when the creditor knocks. The best of blessings are secured to those to whom God has spoken this word. What you have in hand is but spending money for the road; your true portion is the Lord Himself. You may confidently fall back upon Providence in times of straitness and need. It is a positive command that we take no anxious thought for tomorrow; not that we should carelessly waste what we have, but that we should not borrow trouble before its time. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof, and sufficient too is the grace.
Yet I would also say, this trial is a searching thing. Are we not often like a man in deep sleep, dreaming of heaps of gold, when Charity herself stands by with help and he pushes her away? To lean upon the arm of flesh, to think we can manage without God, this is the common madness. We need Divine preservation for every breath, yet we strut about as if we were self-sufficient. The Lord may bring us low to teach us that none can keep alive his own soul, and that we need Him for every morsel of bread. Will you now, in the day of need, cry to Him? Will you trust, not the uncertain stream, but the fountain? The treasures laid up in Christ Jesus assure us that we have real needs; God’s supplies are never superfluous, but meant to meet those needs.
Perhaps the greatest wonder is this: that the very trial which brings you low is the handle by which grace may lift you up. Many have found that sickness and poverty are not evangelists, but the Spirit can use them. Do not let the present distress drive you to despair, but to the feet of Jesus. For if the Lord should open His hand, as He well can, and supply this temporal lack, it shall be but a little thing. The grander gift is Himself, a full and eternal salvation, perfected by His own hand, which needs no revision. I bear witness that I had no more preparation for Christ than the most distressed soul here; I came with nothing, and found all. No man among us can keep alive his own soul; let us then cast ourselves on Him who kills and makes alive. Come, then, with your empty hand, for the promise was never yet broken: no soul condemned for sin ever dared say, “I sought the Lord and He would not hear me.” No, it shall never be!