On January 25th, 1988, the United States Congress declared the first Thursday of each May to be recognized as a National Day of Prayer.
“Be it enacted by the Senate and the House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, the joint resolution entitled ‘Joint Resolution to provide for setting aside an appropriate day as a National Day of Prayer’, approved April 17, 1952 (Public Law 82-324; 66 Stat 64), is amended by striking ‘a suitable day each year, other than a Sunday” and inserting in lieu thereof “the first Thursday in May of each year.” (I am exhausted in just writing that for your edification.)
I thought we might benefit from what is recorded in 2 Chronicles 7:12-22 following Solomon’s dedication of the temple.
12 Then the Lord appeared to Solomon by night and said to him: “I have heard your prayer, and have chosen this place for Myself as a house of sacrifice. 13 When I shut up heaven and there is no rain, or command the locusts to devour the land, or send pestilence among My people, 14 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. 15 Now My eyes will be open and My ears attentive to prayer made in this place. 16, For now, I have chosen and sanctified this house, that My name may be there forever; and My eyes and My heart will be there perpetually. 17 As for you, if you walk before Me as your father David walked, and do according to all that I have commanded you, and if you keep My statutes and My judgments, 18 then I will establish the throne of your kingdom, as I covenanted with David your father, saying, ‘You shall not fail to have a man as ruler in Israel.’
19 “But if you turn away and forsake My statutes and My commandments which I have set before you, and go and serve other gods, and worship them, 20 then I will uproot them from My land which I have given them; and this house which I have sanctified for My name I will cast out of My sight, and will make it a proverb and a byword among all peoples. 21 “And as for this house, which is exalted, everyone who passes by it will be astonished and say, ‘Why has the Lord done thus to this land and this house?’ 22 Then they will answer, ‘Because they forsook the Lord God of their fathers, who brought them out of the land of Egypt, and embraced other gods, and worshiped them and served them; therefore, He has brought all this calamity on them.’”
God rewards those who pray to Him and walk in His Ways – individuals and nations. In Job 33:26 we read “He shall pray to God and He will delight in him, He shall see his face with joy, for He restores to man His righteousness.”
I don’t know if there has ever been a nation like our nation, blessed by God for so many years. But in the past few years, forces have craftily crept into power that has an agenda that is not honoring to God.
I don’t believe God can or will bless us in our present state of mind. He would love to restore us to the point where we are truly honoring Him – but, will we humble ourselves, repent of our backsliding and return to Him?
This Thursday, May 6th, we will be having our regular noon prayer time. It is the National Day of Prayer with the theme, “LOVE, LIFE, and LIBERTY.
I want to encourage you to make time for these Thursdays noon times for prayer. There is something about people collectively coming together and praying that God loves. He promises “You shall seek Me and you shall find Me when you search for Me with all your heart.”
God bless you as you seek Him,
Pastor Leonard
