Thoughts On the National Day of Prayer

Tomorrow is the day we set aside as The National Day of Prayer. I hope each one of us who call Jesus Lord understand that tomorrow is not the only day we need to be praying. As Christians, we not only are commanded to pray every day, we are commanded to pray without ceasing, as we see commanded in 1 Thessalonians 5:18. Personally in my own life I have learned that my very existence depends upon following this commandment. What this verse is not saying is that we are constantly in a literal state of being on our knees in a formal posture of prayer. What it is saying is that we must walk through every moment of our lives in communication with God. If you are a Christian, then you ARE the temple of the God. This is accomplished through the indwelling Holy Spirit, who takes up residence in ALL believers (1 Corinthians 3:16). This is life changing. This means that the same power that raised Christ from the dead (Romans 8:11), lives inside us. There is nothing that God wills that we cannot accomplish. But if we tune out the Spirit, we will walk in the flesh. Since the Holy Spirit is not an “it” but a person, and the Holy Spirit is God, then we can understand that God truly is with us all the time, everywhere we go. So, praying without ceasing simply means we communicate with God at all times for He is right there with us.

So, tomorrow is our chance to possibly share with unbelievers the power of prayer and the joy of the eternal relationship we have with Jesus. It is an opportunity to demonstrate how our faith carries us through these dark and difficult days. It is a chance to show that we walk, not by sight, but by faith. And it is because of that faith and the promises we are sure of as written in our Bibles, we know we can trust God. We also know He hears our prayers and He wants us to come before Him with our daily needs.

And the National Day of Prayer reminds us of those needs. It is easy to remember our own personal desires. And praying for those is ok, God tells us through James that we don’t have because we don’t ask, so clearly it is right to come before God with all our requests. We just need to remember that James also tells us that we “…ask and do not receive, because [we] ask with wrong motives, so that [we] may spend it on [our] pleasures.” - James 4:3. It is important that we grow in our prayer life to a place where we pray more for God’s will than for our own.

But scripture also commands us to pray for others and for our leaders. So, tomorrow is a good opportunity to renew our commitment to praying and to reevaluate our priorities in it.

Our country is in trouble. It is in moral decline and moving away from God more each day. One of the most popular scriptures is we hear around the National Day of Prayer is 2 Chronicles 7:13-14
 

"If I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or if I command the locust to devour the land, or if I send pestilence among My people, and My people who are called by My name humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”

America has not yet been placed under a complete judgment by God. But the signs are there. God is watching. He has blessed us as a nation with many things that include freedom to worship, bountiful food and clean water, and except the Civil War, we have not had to face war on our own land in modern times. We can debate all day, whether America was ever a Christian nation, but it is indisputable that we were a people who sought the God of the Bible. The Ten Commandments were the basis for our justice system. Prayer was part of schools. Celebrations of holidays such as Christmas and Easter, though certainly filled with consumerism, had at their root, Jesus Christ. Though certainly sin always existed in the American culture, it was not celebrated and shame was associated with it. The legalization of abortion, the removal of the Ten Commandments from our buildings, lawsuits over having a manger scene in front of our buildings, prayer stripped from the schools, and the complete acceptance of same sex marriage is a clear message to God, as a people we don’t want you ruling over us. We no longer place the Holy Bible up as the standard for morals and law. God is watching.

So we need to pray just as 2 Chronicles 7:13-14 says. But we better be praying for a change in our nation as a people because if we want God to heal our nation we must humble ourselves, we must seek God’s face, and we must turn from our wicked ways. If those things don’t happen? The God will not heal our land and we will end up in the judgment of God. The full judgement and it won’t be pretty.

We need revival. Hear God’s Word from 1 Peter 4:17
“For it is time for judgment to begin with the household of God; and if it begins with us first, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God?”

Revival must begin with us. It must begin in the churches of America. It must start in our own hearts.

What should we pray for tomorrow?

Pray for yourself to put God first in all things and to be bold in sharing the Gospel. Pray that we would preach a Gospel of repentance, for that is the Gospel.

Pray for the church and its leaders. The church must stop seeking to please man, but must seek to please God and give all glory to HIM.

Pray for the government. We need Godly people running our country. Godly police officers and a justice system that is about justice. We need judges who follow God’s law. We need a system of rehabilitating people not simply caging them up then letting them back out unprepared.

Pray for the family. We need divorce to stop. We need fathers to be fathers and mothers to be mothers. God has a design for families and we must return to that design.

Pray for the educators and the system. We need our children to be taught and given opportunities to develop their God-given talents.

Pray for those who run our businesses. We need people to be able to have employment that is fair and balanced so that our economy isn’t self-defeating but instead provides a cycle of earning and buying that keeps itself viable and gives opportunity to all.

Pray for each other and for others. We need to replace violence, hate and mistrust with attitudes that are like the attitude of Christ, who gave Himself up for others. Pray that we might consider others as more important than self.

There is no end to the prayer needs of our people and our nation. Pray without ceasing.

Get involved tomorrow. But let it be the day that marks the rest of your life. Let us become a people that every day humbles ourselves before God with confession, repentance, thankfulness, and worship for our God.

Revival starts within our own heart. Imagine the possibilities if we all just start there.