Property repairs, favorable dealings, the help of a family member, safety from intruders, and a reputable tenant. These are the things that occupy your heart, and so you ask for prayer. It is right to bring your concerns before God, for He cares for our daily needs. Yet I must ask you, while you lay out these requests with such care and detail, where is your petition for the one thing truly necessary? You speak of smooth repairs, clear communication, and a tenant of excellent credit. These are all external things, loans for use, like a house you rent for a season. Think of how little use they truly are. For when you die, willingly or unwillingly, all you have goes to others. This wealth is not a possession; only the virtues of the soul are properly our own. You are so earnest for the body of your property to be secure, but what of the house of your soul? Are you as diligent to repair its breaches through repentance, to cleanse its stains through tears, to lock its doors against the trespassing thoughts of the evil one?
You pray your nephew keeps his word and charges a good price. A fair concern, but see that you do not hold him to a standard you do not first apply to yourself. Are your dealings with God so strictly accounted? Do you keep your word to Him with such precision? The body is not evil, but it can be an instrument of righteousness. Let your concern for fair labor be a mirror for the labor of your soul. Before you worry over the painting of your walls, look within. Use not filthy communication, is that difficult? If you blush to say a shameful thing before your wife, do you not blush to think it before God, who is everywhere present and hears all things? Let the repair of your home remind you to build the eternal mansions by sending alms and charity before you.
You fear trespassers and desire a safe home. But there is an intruder more dangerous than any thief in the night: the sudden coming of the Lord, which happens when the many are living in luxury, speaking of peace and safety, utterly insensible. Do not be caught off guard, like those in the days of Noah, attending to eating and drinking and marrying, until the flood came and took them all away. A secured home on earth is no defense if your heart is unsecured for heaven. Is your prayer merely for the safety of your property, or for the safety of your soul from the dominion of sin? For you have been freed from that chain, not so you can be listless, but so you can serve in newness of spirit.
You ask for a tenant of fine reputation. But examine yourself: are you a tenant of such quality in the house God has given you, this body and this life? Do you pay your due to the Lord in full each month, offering the rent of prayer, thanksgiving, and holy living? Or do you fall into arrears, giving Him only the leftovers of your time and thought? It is good to seek a respectable tenant for your property, but it is urgent that you be a faithful tenant of the grace given to you.
Do you notice how in all these requests, you have made no prayer that your will be aligned with God’s, but only that circumstances be in your favor? This is the prayer of a merchant, not a disciple. Christ did not teach us to seek favorable prices and smooth dealings above all, but to exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees or else be shut out of the kingdom. Remember the father who cried out, “If thou canst do anything, help us.” The Lord answered, “If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth.” The more urgent question is not whether the repairs will go smoothly, but whether you truly believe. For with true faith, even you are able, through His power, to endure all manner of trials with thanksgiving.
You are pained in mind over these domestic matters, and you cry aloud. Yet it is the part of one exceedingly pained to pray silently, from the heart. Moses cried out without a voice and was heard. Hannah’s heart cried out and she received her request. Abel’s blood cried from the ground. Send up such a cry to God: not a clamorous list of fears and bargains, but a silent, burning plea for His mercy, that you may first be made a dwelling place for His Spirit before you fret over a dwelling place for a tenant. Do not admire these trifles. Raise your eyes to heaven, think of the riches there, and smile at the prospect of a worldly credit score, which compared to eternity is as a drop of water to a boundless ocean. Seek first the kingdom, and all these other matters will find their proper place, whether in provision or in the grace to endure their loss with a peaceful heart.