Truly, the burden of your soul for this man’s eternal welfare, even while you still smart from his wrongdoing, is a token of grace. When the flesh would cry out for mere justice, the Spirit within you pleads for his repentance and salvation. That is a mark of one who has tasted forgiveness and now yearns that others might find the same healing.
You ask prayer that he may repent and turn to God. I join with you in that entreaty, for repentance is no common trifle to be worked up by human resolve. Let it never be forgotten: “Repentance is to leave the sins we loved before, and show that we in earnest grieve, by doing so no more.” This is the work of the Holy Spirit, a gift purchased by the blood of Jesus. Wherever there is real sorrow for sin, wherever there is an honest determination, by God's grace, to cease from sin, that repentance has been produced by the Spirit of God, and it is as much a gift of God as the faith which lays hold of Christ. We do not seek to draw up repentance from the deep well of our fallen nature, as though we could manufacture it by terror or remorse alone. The sweetest and best repentance is that which comes, not by driving, but by drawing, for “the goodness of God leads you to repentance.”
Therefore, pray that the Lord’s kindness might yet break this man’s heart. The very fact that you have not returned evil for evil, but instead have brought his name before the throne of grace, is a faint echo of that divine goodness. Who knows but that the Holy Spirit may use your patient prayers to awaken his conscience? True repentance gives God glory. The real penitent asks that the Lord would reveal to him more and more of his true condition, that he may not cloak his sin, nor deceive himself in any way, but may be honest and upright before God. And when a man is truly broken, he begins to pray for the good estate of the church and the Lord’s people everywhere, yes, even for those he has wronged. This is what we must seek for that agent, and for his colleague who confessed his love of money.
Yet, while you pray for them, take heed to your own spirit. Do not let the poison of a vindictive hope fester within you. Long for their repentance, not chiefly that they may admit the truth to you, though that would be a practical fruit, but that they might be washed in the fountain opened for sin and uncleanness. For you cannot be saved by the merit of your repentance, neither can he; Jesus Christ will forgive his impenitence as well as his other sins, if he casts himself upon the Saviour. You must not make a Christ out of your tears, nor out of his admission of guilt. The one saving remedy is the precious blood of Jesus, received by faith.
Commit the whole matter into the hands of Him who judgeth righteously. If this man persists in hardening his heart, the judgments of this life are but faint warnings of a far more terrible tribunal. But oh, what a mercy it would be if he were broken all to pieces under a sense of the Redeemer’s love! Continue to pray, and may the Lord grant that this painful trial be the means of bringing a wandering soul to the cross, and of deepening your own assurance that the Judge of all the earth will do right.
Prayer Focus: God, Thank You for loving me. Thank You for loving me, Jesus. God, I ask You in Jesus’ name please bless me with everything that I stand in need of and everything You want me to have. 
