Thursday, May 4, 2017

2017 NATIONAL DAY OF PRAYER

For this year’s 2017 National Day of Prayer, we will post several prayers for us to pray for crime victims and some issues.

National Day of Prayer

[PHOTO SOURCE: https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/9-things-you-should-know-about-the-national-day-of-prayer]

The National Day of Prayer (36 U.S.C. § 119) is an annual day of observance held on the first Thursday of May, designated by the United States Congress, when people are asked "to turn to God in prayer and meditation". Each year since its inception, the president has signed a proclamation, encouraging all Americans to pray on this day.

The modern law formalizing its annual observance was enacted in 1952, although earlier days of fasting and prayer had been established by the Second Continental Congress from 1775 until 1783, and by President John Adams in 1798 and 1799. Most presidents have issued annual or special occasion proclamations for a national day of prayer, with the notable exception of Andrew Jackson. Thomas Jefferson also issued a day of prayer and thanksgiving, but this occurred while serving as governor of Virginia.

The constitutionality of the National Day of Prayer was unsuccessfully challenged in court by the Freedom From Religion Foundation after their first attempt was unanimously dismissed by a federal appellate court in April 2011.

Serenity Prayer

[PHOTO SOURCE: http://www.courageouschristianfather.com/serenity-prayer/#axzz4Qs3XNgyP]

[BLOG POSTS: http://bornagainchristians2012.blogspot.com.au/2014/06/the-serenity-prayer.html & http://bornagainchristians2012.blogspot.com.au/2014/06/serenity-prayer-and-7-lessons-from-it.html]

INTERNET SOURCE: http://www.nationaldayofprayer.org/national-prayer

National Prayer

Hear Us…Forgive us…Heal us! For the Glory of Your Great Name

We worship You, God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. You are the living God of our nation’s founding fathers: George Washington, John Adams, John Hancock, Benjamin Franklin, Samuel Adams, Patrick Henry, and many others. When we pledge our allegiance, it’s as one nation under You. Every time we use American money to buy or sell, we make the statement that in You we have placed our trust.

We acknowledge that You are the One who has set us high above all the nations on the earth. You have made us the head and not the tail. We have led the free world. The whole world has known that we are identified with You, and they have respected us.

Again and again, You have given us victory over our enemies. You have blessed us when we have gone out and when we have come in. You have blessed us in our bustling cities and in our beautiful countryside. You have blessed our “fruited plain” so that we have had an abundance for ourselves and for others. You have opened up the storehouse of Your bounty, and have blessed the work of our hands. You have given us unprecedented prosperity so that in the past we have lent to many nations but been debtor to none.[1]

We now turn to You as the God of Our Fathers. You alone are our Hope for the future. If we as a nation do not get right with You, no one in Washington or in our state capitols can reverse the downward moral and spiritual spiral that has become a free fall and is provoking Your judgment. We approach You now with fear and trembling, as we confess our national sins:

We confess national addiction to sex. To money. To pleasure. To entertainment. To pornography. To technology. To drugs. To alcohol. To food. To television. To popularity. To ourselves.

We confess we no longer fear You, and thus we have not even the beginning of wisdom with which to handle the vast knowledge we possess.

We confess our foolishness of denying You as the one, true, living God, our Creator to whom we are accountable, living as though our lives are a cosmic accident with no eternal significance, purpose or meaning.

We confess our greed that has run up trillions of dollars of national debt.

We confess our arrogance and pride that has led us to think we are sufficient in ourselves.

We confess to believing that the prosperity of our nation has been great because we are great while refusing to acknowledge that all blessings come from Your hand.

We confess that we depend upon our military might and our weapons systems to protect us from harm and danger, while denying, defying, and ignoring You.

We confess that we have allowed the material blessings You have given us to deceive us into thinking we don’t need You.

We confess that we live as though material wealth and prosperity will bring happiness.

We confess that we have marginalized truth and mainstreamed lies.

We confess choices that reveal we would rather live in bitterness, resentment, and anger, rather than forgive those who have hurt us or acknowledge our own wrongdoing.

We confess that we have become one nation under many gods, divided and polarized, with license to sin and justice that no longer follows the rule of law.[2]

Therefore, we turn to You with tears of shame and a heart of fear for the judgment we are provoking. We repent of our sin. Please, God of Our Fathers, do not back away from us. Do not remove Your hand of blessing on us. As we return to You with humility…With sincerity…Out of necessity…With a desperate sense of urgency. Please! Return to us! Hear our prayer. Forgive our sin. Heal our land.
For the Glory of Your Great Name…JESUS.

Amen

Anne Graham Lotz

[1] This paragraph is drawn from Deuteronomy 28:1-14

[2] Some of these confessions have been taken with permission from The Daniel Prayer, Anne Graham Lotz, Zondervan Publishing, Grand Rapids, MI, 2016

Here are some prayers we can pray about: