It is no small thing you have done, this choosing to hold back when the law gave you a full hand. To forgo the police, to lay down the right to sue, this is a rare mercy in a world that reaches so quickly for the sword. And you have done it with a hope in your heart: that the one who wronged you might see, might feel the weight of what was done, and might at last fall upon the grace of God. That is a burden few would carry, and I want you to know the Lord sees it.
You are praying for the landlord's eyes to be opened, and that is a prayer sprung from the soil of Christ's own Spirit. For only He can cause a man to look upon his carelessness and call it sin. Do not be surprised if the awakening comes slowly. A conscience long neglected is like a rusted lock; the key of grace may turn, but it often turns with difficulty and with groaning. Yet the Lord knows the combination. He who made the heart knows every ward and tumbler within that secret place, and He can make a man see what he has been so careful to hide from himself.
Consider this: the very mercy you have shown, this decision not to demand justice, may become to him a black-edged envelope with a love letter inside. At first it looks severe, terrible. To be confronted with one's own sin, to face the harm one has caused another, that is a scorching thing. But folded within that hard discovery is the tenderest news a soul can hear: that forgiveness is found in Jesus Christ. You have, perhaps without knowing it, set a table before him in the presence of his own guilt. You have made it possible for him to hear, not the roar of the courtroom, but the still small voice that whispers, "I, even I, am He that blotteth out thy transgressions."
I would have you remember this for your own comfort: the Lord does not ask you to carry the outcome. You have prayed. You have shown forbearance. You have planted the seed. Now the Lord of the harvest will see to its springing up, in His own wise time and in His own prevailing way. You are not responsible for the softening of that hard heart; you are only called to keep your own heart tender before God. And in that, by His grace, you have already walked well.
Think of it this way. Here is a person who, by all appearances, sits aloft beyond the reach of consequence, so the proud always fancy. They think their careful management, their legal position, their station in life will keep them from ever having to stoop and say, "I was wrong." But God's right hand can find out His adversaries in the most unexpected ways. He can send a heat upon the sun of a man's prosperity until the day burns as an oven. And yet, here is the wonder, that very heat may drive him to the shadow of the cross. The Lord knows how to make a man miserable until he finds his rest in Jesus. Your prayer is part of that strange, severe, and altogether gracious work.
And what of you, as you wait and pray? You have known a captivity of affliction. The shock of what happened in those apartments, the violation of a place meant to be safe, the burden of dealing with one who did not take responsibility, this has been a long season in a dry land. But I would have you lift your head. Do you see what the Lord has already done in your own soul? He has made you an intercessor. You are praying for the one who caused your trouble. That is no small evidence of the Spirit's work. It was when Job prayed for his erring friends that the Lord turned again his captivity. Your prayer for this landlord is the dove returning with the olive branch; it is the voice of the turtle announcing that your own summer is on the way.
Let this sink into the quiet places of your heart: the forgiveness you long for him to taste is the very forgiveness that upholds you this moment. The sins that trouble your memory, the failures that haunt the edges of your peace, these are laid on Jesus. God has made them all to meet on Him, concentrated there as a burning glass draws scattered rays into one fierce point. The substitution is complete. The Savior bruised is the healing of your bruised heart. And if this is true for you, it can be true for the most careless soul. None have wandered so far that the Shepherd cannot track their steps and bring them home. The sheep is the most foolish of creatures for finding its way back, but the Shepherd does not wait for it to be wise. He goes after it.
Keep praying then, and let your prayer be sweetened with this confidence: the Lord is able. He can write upon that man's conscience a word he cannot ignore. He can take the very mercy you have shown and make it a goad to drive him to Calvary. And one day, perhaps sooner than you think, you may sit at the same table of grace with one who will say, "It was your kindness, your restraint, that first made me think God might yet have mercy on me."
Now let us go together to the throne.
Lord Jesus, we bring before You this soul who has wronged another and yet walks in darkness, unaware of the danger or the Deliverer. Break through, we pray. Let the weight of what was done be felt, not to crush but to drive him to the only shelter for the guilty, Your own wounded side. And for this dear one who prays, steady the heart. Let hope keep its seat. Turn what has been captivity into the broad place of liberty and singing, for Your name's sake. Amen.
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. 
