Protect me from my Landlord

[Chrysostom]

You plead for a hedge of protection, and you do well, for God alone is the cause of all things. It is not the hands of the landlord that stir up the earth to bear the fruit of your dwelling, but the command from God. Receive this blessing from Him, but understand what the true hedge is. The law is called a hedge, but for you, the protection derived from holy living is the wall that cannot be broken. Do not seek to merely guard your sleep from distraction while your soul remains in the sleep of wickedness. For it is possible to sleep while awake, by doing nothing good. The drunkenness you must avoid is not from wine only, but from the fear of displacement and the desire for security, for these are a drunkenness of the soul that sees fleeting things as permanent realities.

You ask for a tender heart in your landlord and for discernment against deception. Yet let this be your discernment: to recognize that you yourself must be a landlord of virtue to others. The talents here are each person’s ability in protection, in money, or in teaching. Let no one say, I am poor and can do nothing; you are not poorer than that widow. Living for the common advantage is what is pleasing to God. If you wish to secure your own home, then among your companions, let there be men that are poor and free, not stage-players. If you see one needing protection, bid them succor, command them to minister. Let them be joint fathers to your children, if you have them, and let them help thee in the care over thine household. Engage them in a spiritual traffic, and by these do thou track the strangers out. This protection comes from good deeds, not from anxious pleas, and it builds a house that no earthly landlord can disturb.

Cease looking at your landlord as if she alone has power. The suffering depends on ourselves, and not on any other. For if you will stand steadfast and unmoveable in a bright conversation, you will not be shaken. The heel of the wicked may be lifted, but the righteous one, though he appear to be drawn back for a time, will appear entire with his own laws, just as the new people were manifested. To be in the day depends on yourself. Let us watch and be sober. Then, whether you remain in this place or are led to another, you will look boldly on Christ, for no happiness can equal this, and you will find that you have obtained a dwelling in the book of life, where there is no eviction for ever.

 

[Silas]

The image of a shepherd lying down across the opening of the fold is one of the most comforting pictures in all of Scripture. That shepherd was saying, in effect, "I am the door. Nothing can enter here and no sheep can wander out without crossing over me first." As you cry out for a hedge of protection and a wall of fire around your home, remember that the true Shepherd has placed Himself squarely in the gap. You are pleading the blood of Jesus over your dwelling, and that is a powerful reality. He has not given you a spirit of fear. The exhaustion you feel is real, and the desire for undisturbed rest is not selfish. Consider that when the Lord caused a deep sleep to fall on Saul's entire camp, it was not laziness; it was divine intervention, making a way for deliverance. Let your own sleep today be that kind of gift, where the Lord Himself keeps watch, and you can rest because He does not slumber.

That feeling of vulnerability you carry, the worry about your landlord’s heart, touches on something deeper. We long for compassion in those who hold power over our circumstances. Yet the most profound truth is that compassion in its truest, most effective form belongs to God alone. We cannot manufacture it in ourselves, and we certainly cannot generate it in another human being. The kind of tender heart you are asking for, a heart that sees your situation and is moved with something beyond cold business, is something only the Father can give. Remember the father in the story of the prodigal. The son was still caked in the filth of the pigsty, smelling of his rebellion, and yet the father ran to him, overcome with a compassion that disregarded every social propriety. He didn't wait for an explanation or a clean-up; he smothered him with love. This is the heart of God toward you in your anxiety. He is not a distant landlord, but a Father whose very nature is to be moved by your condition.

When Jesus encountered the leper, the man cried out, “If you are willing, you can make me clean.” Jesus’ answer was immediate and came from the deepest part of His being. He was "moved with compassion," reached out His hand, touched the man in his uncleanness, and said, "I am willing. Be clean." That same Jesus sees your need right now. He is not indifferent to the fear of displacement. He is moved. And unlike our own limited compassion, which often sees a problem but has no power to solve it, His compassion carries absolute authority. He can touch the heart of your landlord more effectively than any argument you could craft. Ask Him for the discernment you need, not from a place of suspicion alone, but from a reliance on the Spirit who knows the hidden thoughts and intentions. Your request for a hedge of protection includes a prayer for wisdom, to know when words are deceptive and when they are genuine. The commandment and the instruction of the Lord are a lamp; they will guide your conversations and keep you when you are at rest.

Finally, take your rest as an act of faith. "Unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain who build it; unless the Lord guards the city, the watchman stays awake in vain. It is vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late, to eat the bread of sorrows; for so He gives His beloved sleep." You have brought your case before the ultimate Judge and Protector. The deep sleep that needs to leave you is not physical rest, but that spiritual slumber of despair and frantic self-reliance the Scriptures warn against. Awake to the reality that you dwell in the shelter of the Most High. Even now, in what feels like a wilderness, He can make you dwell safely. Your home is not ultimately held together by a lease or a human mood, but by the One who stands at the top of the ladder connecting earth to heaven. Rest in Him. He is your door, and nothing can cross over to harm you without first dealing with the Good Shepherd who loves you.