Landlord

[Chrysostom]

Your prayer is a holy desire, and I join you in lifting it before the throne of God. Yet remember what I have often said: we need both our own part and God’s part if we are to be duly saved. So pray without ceasing, but let your life also adorn the Gospel before this landlord. If he sees you conducting yourself with all humility, obedience, and patience, even in difficult dealings, then the doctrine of Christ will not be blasphemed. For a servant’s meekness often subdues the most brutish master, and God may use your gentle submission to soften his heart.

Do not think that prayer alone suffices if it be not mingled with the testimony of a godly life. When the owner beholds your forbearance, your refusal to return evil for evil, your readiness to serve as unto the Lord and not unto men, then God’s voice may speak through your deeds more loudly than through any words. And if an occasion arises to give a reason for the hope that is in you, do so with all meekness and fear, convict him first by your conduct, and then offer the healing word of exhortation, that he may see his need to surrender his will to the Father.

Pray also that God would move his soul without destroying his free will. For the Lord does not compel; He calls. Even as He moved Cyrus to release the Jews, and as He called Paul from above while preserving their choice, so pray that this man’s heart may be stirred by grace to submit to the voice of the Master. Let your prayer be that greatest weapon, that impregnable wall, but remember that we must contribute our share as well. Then, when you have both beseeched heaven and walked in worthy conduct, leave the outcome to God, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. Continue in this good labor, and may the Lord grant that you see your landlord bow the knee to the Father, surrendering all his will.

 

[Silas]

Praying for a landlord’s heart to soften toward God is a weighty and right thing to bring before the throne. What you are really asking is that this person stop wrestling against the Lord and learn the surrender that leads to true blessing. We know from Scripture that God sets before every soul the way of life and the way of death. There is a voice that keeps calling, and as long as that voice is present, hope remains. The tragedy is that many resist until the voice grows silent. Your prayer is for ears to be opened now, while God is still speaking.

Surrender to the Father is never a shallow decision. It means laying down not just isolated habits, but the whole will. A person can promise, “Whatever God says, I will do,” yet still scheme to keep control, just as Jacob did before that long night by the river. Sometimes God allows a severe breaking, a dislocation of our natural strength, because a crippling must happen before a crowning can come. You are praying that this owner will not need to be brought low by ruinous circumstances in order to yield. You are praying that the kindness of God will lead him to repentance before the sword, the tearing, or the desolation arrive as warnings fulfilled.

Spiritual adultery is anything that takes the worship and love owed to God alone and hands it over to something else. Many rebel against God’s commandments not out of ignorance, but because they love their own will, their possessions, or their position more. You are engaged in a battle that is not against flesh and blood. The weapons of our warfare are mighty through God for pulling down these very strongholds, and the greatest of those weapons is prayer like yours.

Keep asking that the Father would open his eyes and turn him from darkness to light and from the power of the enemy to God. True prayer is not trying to bend God’s arm to what we want; it is tuning our heart to His will so that His will is done on earth. It is good to cry out for a man’s entire life and will to be laid on the altar as a living sacrifice, because that is the only place where peace offerings of genuine communion can follow. Pray until the voice of weeping is no longer heard in that relationship, and so that one day, the faithfulness of God’s promise will be the firm ground he finally stands on.