Since America began, prayer has been an important facet of it's dependence upon God. Consider these facts: In 1775 the first Continental Congress called for a National Day of Prayer. In 1863 Abraham Lincoln, embroiled in the Civil War, called for such a day. In 1952 Congress established NDP as an annual event by a joint resolution, signed into law by President Truman. And in 1988, the law was amended and signed by President Reagan, designating the NDP as the first Thursday in May. Recently, our current president, Donald Trump wrote,
"Our Nation’s honored tradition of prayer has sustained us and strengthened our trust that God will continue to watch over and accompany us through the best of times and the darkest hours. May we as Americans never forget the power of prayer and the greatness of our Creator. On this National Day of Prayer, let each of us, according to our own faiths, call upon God for His guidance and express our gratitude for the love and grace He bestows on us and our country.
NOW, THEREFORE, I, DONALD J. TRUMP, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, do hereby proclaim May 2, 2019, as a National Day of Prayer. I invite the citizens of our Nation to pray, in accordance with their own faiths and consciences, in thanksgiving for the freedoms and blessings we have received, and for God’s guidance and continued protection as we meet the challenges before us.
DONALD J. TRUMP
Our current state as a nation is dire. We are divided, and increasingly splintering. Huge cracks in our foundation are opening up and people are looking for answers. I believe the answers are still nestled in the Arm of our Mighty Creator God, and now more than any time before, we must kneel at the foot of the Cross of the Only God and Savior who can truly save us—Jesus. This can't be just for a day, but must be a lengthy season. We must seek our own forgiveness, and then pray onward for the sins of our country and our leaders. When all are looking up to Him, as we bow low to Him, God can be the glory and the lifter of our heads. Why pray? Consider these reasons:
1. Our nation needs a common faith in God--and not just any God. It is the God of Abraham and Moses. The God who owns us and loves us, without question. Americans need to know they are loved completely by Him, realizing that He shed His blood as an outworking of that love. Pray for this.
2. Our nation needs a common truth--the pristine truth of the Bible was His gift on Mt. Sinai to us all. He is the Word. When we love truth again, there will be healing in this land. Pray for this!
3. Our nation needs to surrender to Him. When we do, He will heal our land. “If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.” 2 Chronicles 7:14. The God who created this nation for His glory, can fix it--when we pray.
You may recognize the picture above as Sampson. In Israel's ancient history, the period of the ruling judges was an ugly cycle of sin and repentance. The truth they obeyed was not God. It was rather in doing what was right in their own eyes. It led to real alienation from truly knowing God's ways—into insane vows (Jepthah) and uncontrolled passions. (Sampson) It was only during times of extraordinary pain, when as a nation they would agree that they were living in the bed of suffering of their own making, that they would repent. God would deliver, but the lure of thinking that they knew better how to make themselves satisfied, would take them back into slavery again.
America is in chains, my fellow Americans. As we hurtle toward global systems and the end of the earth according to God's timetable, let us not be faithless, but believing. Let us not follow our own truth, but God's--no matter what persecution may be required. Let us re-surrender our hearts and homes to the Truth—our lives controlled by His will and not our own. Let not the demise of the land of the free and home of the brave occur on our watch! We can pray. And He can answer.
