💭 All week long my mind keeps rewinding a campmeeting moment when i was preaching -- many summers ago -- in North Carolina. It was, it seems, a Tuesday evening service and the district leader had asked all pastors to come and stand upfront with anointing oil for the corporate prayer time. Next the people were invited to come to one of the individual pastors to be anointed and prayed over.
As i stood amongst the clergy holding a small bottle of olive oil, i remember thinking no one will likely come to me because i was the guest preacher and surely folk would go only to the pastors they personally knew. And i was fine with that.
Yet, i was wrong. One person actually came straight to me. It was a precious 8-year-old girl. i bent over and leaned in close and asked her in a whisper what her prayer request was? Shaking slightly, she tearfully said in a most beautiful, yet broken southern accent these three hard-to-forget, heart-wrenching words: "My daddy’s drinking." My own heart broke in half immediately.
As i passionately prayed specifically for her little hurting heart and her daddy’s drinking, i lovingly wept along with her for Jesus to hear and to help. i never saw her again. i later learned she had ridden unaccompanied by a parent on a local church van to the district gathering.
i am unsure why i haven’t been able to get this old memory out of my thoughts all week, and still again tonight it’s what i am thinking, but maybe it’s for some daddy or mommy who has a child desperately seeking and praying that you will seek Jesus and His healing deliverance for an addiction that is breaking your dear child’s heart and maybe even tearing your family apart.
Lord, Your grace is still amazing and surely You are close to the broken-hearted. [Psalm 34:18] Help souls to seek You for new mercy and real restoration. Amen. 🙏🏼
Note: "And they cast out many demons and healed many sick people, anointing them with olive oil." Mark 6:13 NLT
Jesus saves.
Pastor Kerry Willis
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