Editor's Note:  I often file pages from the journals of Pastors and great prayer warriors.  Here is a page from one great pastor of our day, Dr. Vander Warner, Jr.  from his journal he wrote...

Years ago while preaching in a revival near Washington, D.C., the pastor asked me to join him in visiting an elderly man who was unsaved.  He alerted me that the old man had made many refusals to men who had come and gone.

          After pleasantries I inquired about his soul, made an effort to walk him through the roman road.  He let me do it though obviously with less than any real interest.  I was moved deeply, because of his age, and further he was quite ill.  I did the best I could to be sensitively persuasive, but to no avail.

          As we were ending our visit the pastor asked that we pray.  I will long remember the passion of his voice as he prayed:  “Dear Lord, have mercy. (I looked into his face as he prayed….there were tears and brokenness….he repeated, “Lord have mercy.”  I do not recall such pathos in a human voice ever.  He went on to pray, pouring out his heart of love.  I knew what intercessory prayer was ever thereafter.

          Just the other day, a mother with a grown son who has gone way on the back side of the desert, was telling me how she prayed for him.  She said, “I pray that God will grant him mercy and that he will encounter the truth.”  That’s praying.

           Here is something I ran across with no name appended to it.  It is very thoughtful and filled with the kind of empathy needed for real intercessory praying.


 Heavenly Father, Help us remember that the jerk who cut us off in traffic last night is a single mother who worked nine hours that day and is rushing home to cook dinner, help with homework, do the laundry and spend a few precious moments with her children.

 Help us to remember that the pierced, tattooed, disinterested young man who can't make change correctly is a worried 19-year-old college student, balancing his apprehension over final exams with his fear of not getting his student loans for next semester.

Remind us, Lord, that the scary looking bum, begging for money in the same spot every day (who really ought to get a job!) is a slave to addictions that we can only imagine in our worst nightmares.

 Help us to remember that the old couple walking annoyingly slow through the store aisles and blocking our shopping progress are savoring this moment, knowing that, based on the biopsy report she got back last week, this will be the last year that they go shopping together .

Heavenly Father, remind us each day that, of all the gifts you give us, the greatest gift is love.  It is not enough to share that love with those we hold dear.  Open our hearts not to just those who are close to us, but to all humanity. Let us be slow to judge and quick to forgive, show patience, empathy and love.

          And I add “In the name of Jesus, our Savior, our Friend, our soon coming King. Amen

               

               

 

From the ministry of

Vander Warner, Jr.

Home Before Dark, Ltd.

8836 Pebble Beach Court

Chesterfield, VA 23832



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