The Lord in wisdom and love keeps all our needed grace in His own hands, and deals it out just as our circumstances demand. O, who that knows his own heart, and the heart of Christ, would not desire that all his supply should be in God, and not in himself! Who, so to speak, would wish to be his own spiritual treasurer? Who that knows the blessedness of a life of faith, the sweetness of going to God in everything, and for everything, would wish to transfer his mercies from Christ’s keeping to his own, or wish to hold in the present, the supply of the future?
Be satisfied, dear reader, to walk by faith, and not by sight. You have a full Christ to draw from, and a faithful God to look to. You have a “Covenant ordered in all things and sure,” and the precious promise, “As thy day so shall thy strength be” to lean confidently upon, all the journey through. Be content, then, to be poor and dependent. Be willing to travel on empty-handed, seeing God’s heart opened, and Christ’s hand outstretched to supply your “daily bread.”
O, it is sweet to be a dependent creature upon God—to hang upon a loving Father—to lean day by day, moment by moment upon Jesus—to trace God in ten thousand ways, to mark His wisdom here, His condescension there; now His love, and then His faithfulness, all combined and exerted for our good—truly it is the most holy and blessed life upon earth!
The Lord imparts extraordinary strength to meet extraordinary occasions. Why should we, then, shrink from any trial, or flee from any duty, or turn aside from any cross; since for that trial, and for that duty, and for that cross, Jesus has provided its required and appropriate grace? You are, perhaps, exclaiming “Trouble is near.” Well, be it so. So also divine grace is near—and strength is near—and counsel is near—and deliverance is near—and Jesus is near—and God is near—and a throne of grace is near; therefore why need you fear, though trouble is near?
“God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.”
There is a table in the wilderness. There is a supply in the desert.
“I sat down under His shadow with great delight, and His fruit was sweet to my taste” (Sol. 2:3).
Our Joseph lives, and in anticipation of the seven years of want, He has amply provided for His brethren. He will send them on their journey with full sacks, and with their money in their sack’s mouth, that free grace might have all the glory.