National Day of Prayer

(Phil 4:6 NLT) Don't worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank Him for all He has done.

This morning we take a break from our current our series to acknowledge the Nation Day of Prayer. There have been several formally acknowledged National Days of Prayer in the history of the United States. In 1775 the Continental Congress issued a Day of Prayer, in 1798 President John Adams declared a day of Solemn humiliation, fasting, and prayer.

In 1952 President Harry S. Truman made it official. He signed a bill proclaiming that the US would always have an annual National Day of Prayer. In 1988 President Ronald Reagan made it the first Thursday in May.

But this morning we look back to look forward. Let’s go back to the morning of April 30th, in 1863, when President Abraham Lincoln, seeing the necessity for national prayer, initiated the following:

"Whereas, the Senate of the United States devoutly recognizing the Supreme authority and just government of the Almighty God, in all the affairs of men and of nations, has by a resolution, requested the President to designate and set apart a day for National prayer and humiliation (fasting): and whereas, it is the duty of nations, as well as of men, to own their dependence upon the overruling power of God to confess their sins and transgressions in humble sorrow, yet with assured hope that genuine repentance will lead to mercy and pardon; and to recognize the sublime truth, announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history, that these nations only are blessed when God is the Lord:And, in so much as we know that, by His divine law, nations like individuals are subjected to punishments and chastisements in the world, may we not justly fear that the awful calamity of civil war which now desolates the land, may be but a punishment inflicted upon us for our presumptuous sins, to the needful end of our national reformation as a whole people? We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of Heaven. We have been preserved, these many years, in peace and prosperity. We have grown in numbers, wealth and power as no other nations has ever grown. But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us and we 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.

Now, therefore in compliance with the request and fully concurring in the views of the Senate, I do, by this my proclamation, designate and set apart Thursday the 30th day of April, 1863, as a day of national humiliation, fasting, and prayer. And I do hereby request all the people to abstain in that day from their ordinary secular pursuits, and to unite, at their several places of public worship and their respective homes, in keeping the day holy to the Lord, and devoted to the humble discharge of the religious duties profer to that solemn occasion.
All this being done, in sincerity and truth let us then rest humbly in the hope authorized by the Divine teachings, that the united cry of the Nation will be heard on high and answered with blessings, no less than the pardon of our national sins, and restoration of our now divided and suffering country, to its former happy condition of unity and peace."

So what does this mean to you today? It simply means that you should take a few moments to pray. After reading what one of our former Presidents said, you can clearly see how far our nation has fallen in our relationship with God. Pray for our nation, our leaders, the President, the Supreme Court, the Congress, our schools, the economy, our military, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, your local city, city officials, policemen, firefighters, public servants, and much, much more. Pray and know that countless others are praying with you for our nation. Pray in faith, without doubting, and fully believe that the Father will hear your prayer and make a difference in our nation