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May 02, 2007
FROM THE COUCH
National Day Of Prayer
I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone--for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet livesin all godliness and holiness. 1 Timothy 2:1-2
If you are reading this on Thursday, then today is the annual National Day of Prayer. It is a day when we are called to set aside some special time to pray for our nation and her leaders. As I look around at our culture, I’m convinced that every day should be a national day of prayer for Christians in the United States. We desperately need the Gospel to penetrate the hearts and minds of American people and be salt and light to American culture.
Today is set aside for us to cry out to our great God and ask Him to bring blessing, healing, forgiveness, and protection to our nation. This is nothing new. National prayer is something that is woven into the fabric of American history and has become the foundation of our greatness. In 1775, the First Continental Congress sent out a plea to the colonies to pray for wisdom and guidance in seeking independence from England. In 1863, Abraham Lincoln made a National Proclamation of Prayer and Repentance. In it, he wrote these words - “We have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace, and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us; and have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us! It behooves us, then, to humble ourselves before the offended Power, to confess our national sins, and to pray for clemency and forgiveness.” In 1952, a joint resolution of Congress, signed by President Truman, declared an annual National Day of Prayer. Ronald Reagan amended it in 1988 to be held on the First Thursday of May each year. So you see that national prayer has been a big part of the life of our nation from the beginning. I think that it’s important to keep this perspective as we see how some in government and popular culture strive to remove this Christian heritage from the world around us. We can’t forget these words - “Unless the LORD builds the house, its builders labor in vain. Unless the LORD watches over the city, the watchmen stand guard in vain” (Psalm 127:1).
Let’s join together today and every day in acknowledging this great God who liberated us not only from the tyranny and oppression of a king, but also from the chains of sin and death through our Savior Jesus Christ. May the Lord hear our humble prayers, forgive us for our sins, rain down blessings on our lives, and may He continue to uphold our nation with His mighty Right Hand for all generations until Christ returns.
Pastor Couch
Posted by Jennifer Herrmann at May 2, 2007 01:48 PM