National Day of
Prayer
The National Day of Prayer (NDP) is Tomorrow, Thursday, May 3rd, 2018
The
theme of this year's NDP is Unity. The church must unite in prayer for unity
among the American people. With men it is impossible, but with God, all things
are possible! (Mk
10:27)
Enacted by the U.S. Congress
and signed into law by President Truman in 1952, the annual National Day of
Prayer is now a part of the law of the land in recognition of God's vital role
in establishing and sustaining
The
first settlers prayed when they set foot on our shores, thanking God for and
dedicating it to him. Colonial American governors and mayors issued prayer day
proclamations from the early 17th century. During its first days in 1774, the
First Continental Congress held an extended prayer meeting with the delegates on
their knees, seeking God's grace and guidance in their deliberations and for his
help in dealing with many challenges Americans faced as a people with the
specter of war looming on the horizon. In June of 1775, the Second Continental
Congress issued an authoritative proclamation to the people of all the colonies,
charging them to refrain from labor to observe a day of "humiliation, prayer and
fasting" that July. The first shots of the War for
While
not all Americans of the Colonial and Revolutionary eras were born-again
believers, they were far more biblically literate than believers today, and they
held, by and large, to a biblical world view. They believed God was sovereign
and that he would bless or curse our nation based upon our obedience or
disobedience to his commandments (Dt
28: all). Many if not most feared God. They
believed that if Americans honored God, God would honor
Stirred by
the Lord in the mid-1980s, Mrs. Vonette Bright (cofounder of Campus Crusade for
Christ, with her husband, Dr. Bill Bright) together with the National Prayer
Committee set about to lobby Congress to permanentize the National Day of Prayer
on a specific day each year so that believers could plan for and grow the
observance. In 1988, Congress voted to designate the first Thursday in May as
the National Day of Prayer. President Reagan signed the measure into law. Up
until then, the annual NDP proclamation had no fixed date, so believers and
leaders had great difficulty planning and promoting the observance. The new,
fixed day each year changed all that. The National Prayer Committee launched the
National Day of Prayer Task Force, which has labored year-round ever since to
organize and promote the National Day of Prayer. Growing each year, there are
now up to 50,000 or more observances around the country. Presidents and
governors of the states make annual proclamations recognizing the day. Thus
began a fresh effort to preserve this powerful component of our amazing American
spiritual heritage: civil officials joining with spiritual leaders across our
nation to call the American people to seek the Lord in united prayer on behalf
of our nation.
The
practice of such days of prayer goes all the way back to the kings and leaders
of ancient Israel, who, at the behest of God, often through his prophets, called
for days of repentance and solemn assembly. From the beginnings of
Benjamin Franklin, in his famous appeal to the delegates of the 1787
Constitutional Convention, when they could not find unity, spoke of the effect
of their prayers during the War for
Yet
this was not a single instance. Our history is replete with example after
example (visit
The Founding Fathers on Prayer
and
The Proclamations Library
-- follow the links and view scores of proclamations). Even a casual reader can
tell by the language and spirit of the numerous prayer proclamations that the
writers were believers who were addressing God-fearing Americans. We must
rebuild the broken-down walls of this heritage in our day.
Are
you observing the National Day of Prayer tomorrow? If not, don't hesitate. Find
one in your area. If there is not one, call a few praying friends and have your
own observance. Even if just a few of you gather together, Jesus said he will be
in your midst (Mt
18:20). If you do, please remember to post your
gathering on the National Day of Prayer website so that your observance can be
counted and prayed over. The goal of the National Day of Prayer is the healing
of