You have a name laid upon your heart, and you bring it to the mercy seat again and again. That is no small thing; it is the stirring of the Spirit who first taught you to love this soul. Do not think that because you cannot see the finish, the work has halted. The Potter’s wheel still turns under a steady hand, and the vessel is taking shape even when the clay seems formless and cold.
Think of the Good Shepherd’s way with a sheep that has wandered far. He does not stand at a distance and shout into the wind; He goes after it, over rock and thorn, until He draws near enough to call it by name. And when that call comes, what we rightly name effectual calling, it carries its own power with it. The sheep does not produce the hearing; the Shepherd’s voice gives it. I remember a little man up a tree in Jericho, hidden among the leaves, thinking himself quite unseen. Before he had caught a glimpse of Jesus, Jesus had fixed His eye on him and called him down by name. The call itself brought him down, changed his heart, and sat as a guest at his table that very day. So it may be with your precious friend. You cannot see the present working, but the same eye is upon him, and the same voice will sound at the appointed hour.
What you are asking, salvation, deliverance, sanctification, is not a gift given piecemeal, grudgingly, as if our Lord’s hand were short. All of it was wrapped up in the one offering of the body of Christ once for all. By that eternal will that cannot be overturned, believers are set apart, sanctified, before they have felt it themselves. The Father’s decree holds faster than any sin or hesitancy in the heart of man. He who began a good work in your friend will carry it on to completion until the day of Jesus Christ. The work may seem to crawl; to you it may even appear to stop, but the divine clock ticks on, and the hand of the Almighty cannot be detained. A child in a dark room may feel nothing but the rough blanket, yet the father is building the fire just beyond the door. Morning will come, and the warmth will be felt.
I urge you, then, to draw often from the deep well of the promises. There is a well that sings even when the bucket seems heavy, and that well is Christ Himself. Let your soul drink first, that you may have strength to keep holding up this dear one. Turn to the Scriptures, that golden book, and find a word upon which you can rest. The Lord has said, “I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground.” He is as good as His word. Let this be your quiet confidence: the Shepherd has already bought him, and though the sheep does not yet know the voice, the Shepherd knows the sheep. The time will come when that voice will cut through every other sound, and the feet that have stumbled will follow firmly. Then you will look back on these days of longing and see how the hidden hand was at work all along.
Let us go together to the throne:
Lord Jesus, great Shepherd of the sheep, we bring before You this one whom You already know by name. Speak that effectual word into the depths of his spirit, so that he hears and rises and follows. Finish the good work You have begun, and let no power of darkness delay it. Supply every need, his growth as a disciple, his place as a son, his bond with the brotherhood of the redeemed, and his own peculiar calling, out of Your unsearchable riches. And steady the heart of this intercessor who loves him, giving quiet faith to wait until the day when we shall see what You have done. We ask all in Your mighty and merciful name. Amen.
