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Real Answers™
jw22
Copyright: © 2009 Jan White
515 words

PRAY FOR THE USA ON THURSDAY, MAY 7TH

By: Jan White

Millions of Americans will unite in prayer during thousands of events taking place across the nation on Thursday, May 7, the 58th Annual National Day of Prayer.  Go to www.ndptf.org to search for an event in your city, county, or state.

The theme for this special day is “Prayer…America’s Hope,” based on the verse from Psalm 33:22, “May your unfailing love rest upon us, O Lord, even as we put our hope in you.” 

Shirley Dobson, chairperson of the National Day of Prayer Task Force that is encouraging people to pray, commented on this year’s theme, “At this time of economic downturn, terrorist threats, and relentless assaults upon foundational biblical principles, it’s heartening to reflect that we serve a God who has repeatedly shown Himself mighty to save in the lives of those who trust in Him.

“Since the days of our Founding Fathers, the government has protected and encouraged public prayer and other expressions of dependence upon God,” Dobson notes.  The history of our country reveals numerous occasions when our nation’s leaders referred to the necessity of relying on the Almighty God.

Eighty-one-year-old Benjamin Franklin called for a time of prayer during the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia when the delegates were deadlocked on deciding congressional representation.  Nearly every President has called the nation to prayer during critical times.  In his inaugural prayer, George Washington began, “Almighty God, we make our earnest prayer that Thou wilt keep the United States in Thy Holy protection.”

In 1863, President Abraham Lincoln declared a national day of prayer and fasting.  President Franklin Roosevelt led the nation in prayer on D-Day, June 6, 1944, “Almighty God: Our sons, pride of our nation, this day have set upon a mighty endeavor, a struggle to preserve our Republic, our religion and our civilization, and to set free a suffering humanity…”  The National Day of Prayer was created in 1952 by a joint resolution of Congress and signed into law by President Harry Truman.

The National Day of Prayer Task Force organizing events encourages people to participate in public prayer on May 7 because we live in a country that allows us the freedom of religious expression in public.  It’s important, too, because in recent years a small but determined number of people have increasingly been contesting any public mention of God - as in our Pledge of Allegiance.

President Ronald Reagan once said, “If we ever forget we are one nation under God, we will be a nation gone under.”  The National Day of Prayer provides an opportunity for people of faith to gather publicly to pray and worship God.  

Why should Christians pray for the USA?  “More things are wrought by prayer than this world dreams of,” Alfred Lord Tennyson has emphasized the importance of prayer.

And, God tells us in His Word, “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 will forgive their sin and heal their land” 2 Chronicles 7:14 (NKJ).

"Real Answers™" furnished courtesy of The Amy Foundation Internet Syndicate. To contact the author or The Amy Foundation, write or E-mail to: P. O. Box 16091, Lansing, MI 48901-6091; amyfoundtn@aol.com

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