You write as one whose soul is cast down, and I cannot pass by such a cry without a word of entreaty and, I trust, of consolation. It is a heavy thing to see the year wearing away and no door opened, to feel the pinch of poverty, and to look upon two boys who look to you. Yet I must first ask you, do you yourself belong to the family of God? Is Christ your ark, into which you have fled for refuge? You speak of repenting of your sin, but has that repentance brought you to a vital union with the Lord Jesus? The whole family in heaven and earth is one, an undivided household; but the question that must burn in your heart is, do I belong to it? If you are His, then all things are yours, not your husband's slender wage alone, but the unsearchable riches of Christ. I remember a cold morning when a poor soul had no fire for his little family, and that text came again and again, "All things are yours." Let it ring in your ears, and see whether you possess them by faith.
Yet I hear also a murmuring: "Why God made me this person, uneducated, jobless, living in a wendy house." O soul, beware of charging the Almighty with unkindness. Did He not fashion you? And is He not able to bring honey out of the rock? The straitness of your condition may be the very strait gate that presses you to enter into true life. I could scarcely ask for you a better thing than that you should fully know the horribleness of sin in your own spirit, for out of deep humiliation rises the palace of hope. David, when he saw his guilt, compared himself to a leper. And perhaps the Lord in wisdom shows you no immediate breakthrough that you might learn to trust Him in the dark and to lean upon Jehovah-Shalom, the Lord who sends peace.
Consider your household. In that tiny dwelling, is there an altar to God? Family prayer is the castle of Protestantism; it is the nutriment of family piety, and woe to those who allow it to cease. If you knew your children would be sick through its neglect, would you not pray? And if a reward were offered, would you not rise early to secure it? Yet here is a blessing, and you are slack. Let the father of the house lead, or if he will not, let the godly wife stand in the breach. Noah and his whole house entered the ark, and so were saved. That ark is Christ; have you entered with your sons? He has made a covenant to be a God to us and to our seed. Do not say, "I am only a poor woman." Noah's wife came in, a queenly dame with her sons and their wives. The son's wives found it a happy circumstance to be joined to that believing family. Even so, let your household be ordered aright, with double zeal in prayer, and you may yet see the Lord's hand.
Lay hold of the truth that the Lord's family is not divided by poverty, nor by want of learning, nor by a low station. Neither do errors and failures of understanding divide the family of God. If you are Christ's, you are one with the glorified in heaven; their riches are your portion, and your present trial is but for a moment. Do not look at your husband's wage, but at the God who multiplies the loaves. Cease to say, "I have repented and still no breakthrough." The strong man may have been cast out, but is the house only swept and garnished, yet empty? The Stronger One must dwell within. Entreat the Spirit to make you not merely a hearer but a daughter of the Lord God Almighty. Then, though you live in a wendy house, you shall dwell in the secret place of the Most High, and your heart shall sing amid straits, for His name is your strong tower. The covenant promise to Noah was fulfilled, yet Noah acted in perfect freedom, choosing to enter the ark. So you must choose to cling to the promise, to cry day and night to the Lord, and to wait until He comes to you with deliverance.