The words you have sent speak of a soul that has been in the school of God, learning by many struggles what it is to depend wholly upon Him. It is a blessed thing when financial trials teach us that bread alone does not nourish, but every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. You say you have learned that fleshly strength avails nothing; that is a lesson well worth the cost. He has taught you from your youth, and it is His way to break the staff of self-reliance that we may lean only upon His arm. Let that memory stay with you: O God, You have taught me.
But I must urge you to examine the ground of your confidence. That you believe God is restoring what was lost, opening doors, and establishing the work of your hands, do you look for these mercies as a sign of God’s approval, or as the free gift of His grace to one who was once not beloved? The original state of God’s people is a gloomy picture: we were not God’s people, having not His approval. We were objects of Divine disapproval. And if we are now beloved, it is only because He has had mercy upon us in Christ Jesus. Take care that you do not imagine that business success or financial freedom is the mark of Divine favor in the same way that the blood of Jesus Christ, God’s dear Son, cleansing us from all sin, is. Let not profit disguise itself as piety. The prince of this world gilds many a counter with fool’s gold.
Yet I would not quench the smoking flax. If your heart truly desires that your business might glorify God, then ask whether its practices and profits are laid at His feet as witness to His grace. A business can be a pulpit; the merchant’s trade may declare God’s wondrous works. But remember that God’s work is not merely in opening doors of silver, but in transforming the common stone into a diamond. That is a secret and mysterious process. Your story is not one of climbing from debt to ease, but of being plucked as a brand from the burning, kept by immutable love. And if He has restored to you the light of His countenance, then sell all to follow Him; let your commerce be the quiet declaration of the Gospel.
There is a warning, too, for those who taste of God’s restoring mercy. Revival of Divine Grace in the heart is the death of presumption. The man who runs risks with his soul, thinking he may dabble in the world’s methods because he means well, is not in a right state. Peter’s fall came when he warmed himself at the enemy’s fire, and his restoration came by a look of sorrowful love. That look worked wonders. If you are truly His, He will not suffer you to make a home where Christ is denied, nor build a kingdom on values the world applauds but heaven despises. You may sing loudly of financial freedom, but I charge you before God, make sure it is not bought by silence about the Truth.
And what of your debt to the household of faith? When He restores your soul and your substance, He does so with a design that you should strengthen your brethren. It is a part of the Divine design that grace given is not for the receiver alone. If your business prospers, let it become a fountain opened for the house of David, a means by which the weary are refreshed and the laborers in the vineyard are supported. Too many, when prosperity returns, keep back from God’s service the money which is needful for the carrying on of worship and mission.
Finally, rest your peace upon nothing short of Divine Grace. He does not pray that we might have peace apart from grace, but, “Grace be to you, and peace.” You long for financial freedom, seek first to be free from the love of this world, which crucifies the Lord afresh. If you have found peace through the Cross, then you are God’s beloved. He who made the heavens loves you; He who bought you with His blood will not let heaven be incomplete without you. Go back to your business, back to your burdens, and bear them for the sake of Him that spoke out of heaven and saved your soul. Let your dealings become a witness: “Am I God’s witness?” For the world will read in your use of money and power either the clear testimony of a pilgrim or the blurred lines of a double-minded man. May you be enabled to see that your whole salvation is in Him, and that whatever restoration of business and finance He grants, it is not the prize, but the platform from which to declare His wondrous works until he call you home.