Thursday, May 7, 2009 is the 58th Annual National Day of Prayer here in the United States. This year’s theme is “Prayer … America’s Hope.” One might ask, however, when looking at the state of this country, what all those years of this prayer campaign have accomplished. In many ways we are much worse than we were 58 years ago.
Two thoughts come to my mind about this:
- Our real hope is in the God to whom we pray and not the prayers themselves. Prayer is merely the means by which we access the throne of grace. God uses prayer but ultimately it needs to be about HIM and not us.
- We need more than a day of prayer. The early church was devoted to prayer (Acts 2:42). Are we as individuals and churches engaged in a lifestyle of prayer … constantly being aware of the presence of God in our lives and ready to communicate with Him at all times?
The benefit of such a day seems to me to be that it does draw the focus of people onto praying, those who may not regularly be praying for our country, maybe hardly praying at all. How can we capture this focus and sustain it?
Ministry Tools Resource Center provides a section on maintaining a prayer ministry as well as a page filled with prayer resources. The National Day of Prayer will come and go but perhaps this training and the additional resources can help you take it beyond.
Hi,
Many, many people have a strong basis in spirituality. Although there are many different religious faiths, and many different forms of spirituality, the belief in some type of higher power unites the vast majority of people around the world, and brings solace to many in times of stress and crisis.