You have been praying for your landlord, and your heart is heavy with a desire for his soul. That is a tender thing, and I believe the Lord has noted it. You are like a watchman on the walls, and though you see no movement yet, the King is not deaf to the cry you make. The verse you have laid hold upon is a deep sea, dark to us at times, but full of pearl. “Whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it.” It sounds like a riddle, doesn’t it? But it is the very law of the kingdom: the way to keep is to let go; the way to rise is to sink down into the pierced hands.
Think of our Master. He did not clutch at His own life. Though He was the Lord of glory, He emptied Himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. His hands were pierced, His heart was broken, and to outward eyes it seemed a total ruin. A winter tree, stripped bare, with no fruit, no leaf, no beauty that anyone should desire Him. Yet that cross was the tree of life in its winter, and out of that death all our life has bloomed. So it will be for your landlord. You see him now as a man clutching what he has, trying to save his life in his own way. But the Lord knows how to bring a soul to the end of itself, to that blessed place where a man says, “I am not my own; I surrender all.” And do you know what happens in that moment? Grace rushes in. The Father does not war against the proud forever; the instant He sees signs of submission, His mercy comes running. Your landlord may be far off, but the Shepherd’s feet are swift on the mountains.
I want you to picture your prayer as a love-letter placed in a black-edged envelope. You have sent it by the hand of the great Messenger, and He will deliver it. The Holy Spirit can slip into a room no louder than the dawn, and when He breathes upon a soul, the dry bones stir. Perhaps your landlord lies awake in the night watches or feels a strange emptiness in the midst of his gains. That is the finger of God. You are not wrestling alone; the eternal God is your helper, and the blood of Jesus pleads more loudly than your words. Hold on. Lay hold on eternal life for him by laying hold of Christ afresh yourself. The faith that takes hold of Jesus for another is a faith that will not be disappointed.
I bless the Lord with you that Jesus reigns over every darkness. No heart is too hard, no life too tangled, for His mighty power. He who turned the wolf into a lamb when He met Saul on the Damascus road has not shortened His arm. Your landlord’s steps are marked out. One day, perhaps soon, perhaps after many prayers, he will look upon Him whom he has pierced, and mourning will melt into joy. Until then, let your confidence rest here: “Because I live,” says Jesus, “you shall live also.” That promise is a shoreless sea of comfort. Link your faith to the living Christ, and your landlord’s case is as good as done.
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Lord Jesus, we bring this man before You, the one who holds the keys of that rented apartment, who walks in ignorance or fear, clutching a life that must slip through his fingers. We ask that You would teach him the holy arithmetic of the cross: that to give all is to gain all. Loose his grip on the things that perish, and give him a new life that cannot die. Let him see, even in a flash, that he is utterly safe only when he is hidden in You. And we thank You, O Lord, that You are faithful. You will lose none of those the Father has given You. So we rest the weight of this request upon Your shoulders, in Jesus’ name. Amen.
