You lay your need before us, and it is well that you seek the prayers of God’s people. This trial of employment presses heavily, and the passing of days with your visa soon to expire adds a sharp edge to your anxiety. Yet let me speak plainly to your soul. The Lord your God is not slack concerning His promises, nor is He baffled by the deadlines of men. In all this, the urgent question is not whether you shall obtain the post before the month’s middle, but whether your heart shall keep right with God while you wait. Job, with all his losses howling at his gate, tore his mantle, shaved his head, and fell down upon the ground, and worshipped. In all this he sinned not, nor charged God foolishly. That is the triumph of a gracious spirit. Look to Him for this divine support, that you may likewise bow before Him without a question, prostrating your desires and your thoughts and your judgment before His throne.
Our longest sorrows have a close, and there is a bottom to the profoundest depths of our misery. Did the Lord turn the captivity of Job? He will turn yours also, if you confide in Him. Job prayed for his offending friends, and then, mark you, not before, his own prosperity returned. How much of your present straitness might be the birthplace of intercessory prayer? Use this season to plead for others, to carry the ungodly world, your church, your neighborhood before the mercy-seat, and you may find your own burden strangely lightened. The most of us are of such coarse material that we need melting before we attain to that sacred softness by which the Lord God is joyfully perceived. This very pressure may be the melting fire.
You fear the expiration of your visa, and the loss of opportunity. But you must know that every man, woman and child in this place should unite in saying with Job, “I know that Thou wilt bring me to death.” Earthly stays are brittle. The glory of estate and bodily health and prosperity are as the flower of the field. It scarcely comes before it goes. Yet even if the lower springs should fail, there is a covenant fountain that never dries. It is not your employment that makes you acceptable before God; you have no need of shillings to pay the priests, nor is any doing, being, or suffering of yours required to complete the task. Christ’s atonement wants no eking out. Cast yourself upon Him alone for your salvation, and then, having done all, stand.
You cry out for a speedy answer, but do not dispute with God. Let a man strive with his fellow, but not with his Maker. Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him. Job meant that he was confident the Lord was just, even when the knife was at his own throat. Can you say as much? The devil still whispers, “Does Job fear God for nothing?” But you may silence that slander by clinging to His righteousness when every visible prop is gone. Your prayer is heard. In the meantime, you have need of the Spirit of God to make this trial the light and power of God to your soul. The letter of the truth will not sustain you; you must know Christ, grace, love, and the truth of God, yourself. Bow low before His throne, yet let it be with the cry, “Nearer to Thee.” The Lord grant you fresh oil, and soon turn this captivity, for He is Jehovah, and that ends the matter.