The National Day of Prayer – A Day of Humiliation, Repentance, and Fasting

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Our Nation has a long history of calling upon God in the time of need. Our Pilgrim and Puritan forefathers as well as our nation’s founding father all called for days of prayer and humiliation in times of local and national need. One such call came during the constitutional convention from Benjamin Franklin in 1787. At the time, the constitutional delegates could not agree on the terms of a constitution. With failure as the only other option, Franklin called our founding fathers to remember God’s providential hand in the founding of America and call upon him even as our nations existence hung in the balance:

In this situation of this Assembly, groping as it were in the dark to find political truth, and scarce able to distinguish it when presented to us, how has it happened, Sir, that we have not hitherto once thought of humbly applying to the Father of lights to illuminate our understandings? In the beginning of the Contest with G. Britain, when we were sensible of danger we had daily prayer in this room for the divine protection. ”Our prayers, Sir, were heard, and they were graciously answered. All of us who were engaged in the struggle must have observed frequent instances of a Superintending providence in our favor. To that kind providence we owe this happy opportunity of consulting in peace on the means of establishing our future national felicity. And have we now forgotten that powerful friend? I have lived, Sir, a long time, and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth- that God governs in the affairs of men. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without his notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without his aid? We have been assured, Sir, in the sacred writings, that “except the Lord build the House they labour in vain that build it.” I firmly believe this; and I also believe that without his concurring aid we shall succeed in this political building no better than the Builders of Babel: We shall be divided by our little partial local interests; our projects will be confounded, and we ourselves shall become a reproach and bye word down to future ages. And what is worse, mankind may hereafter from this unfortunate instance, despair of establishing Governments be Human Wisdom and leave it to chance, war and conquest.

I therefore beg leave to move, that henceforth prayers imploring the assistance of Heaven, and its blessings on our deliberations, be held in this Assembly every morning before we proceed to business, and that one or more of the Clergy of the City be requested to officiate in that service.^1.

Our nation today hangs in the balance. As a nation, we have rejected God, His commandments, and His word. We’ve taught our children that their parents were monkeys who swung in a tree. We’ve removed the Bible, prayer, and the Ten Commandments from schools. We’ve forsaken the sanctity of the marriage bed for unbridled pleasure, and consequently, have turned to condoms and then abortion to silence the preborn witness to our sin. Indeed, we have slain over 52,000,000 pre-born children in our land. Even as the blood of Abel, their blood now cries from the ground for vengeance, and God will avenge! We need to turn back to God like never before in our nation. It is time for Americans to cry out to God in prayer and fasting on behalf of our nation. Join me May 7 for the National Day of Prayer as we humble ourselves, pray, seek God’s face, and turn from our wicked ways.

2 Chronicles 7:13 14 – “When I shut up heaven and there is no rain, or command the locusts to devour the land, or send pestilence among My people, 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.” (NKJV)

1. Franklin’s Appeal for Prayer at the Constitutional Convention, 1787. http://www.wallbuilders.com/LIBissuesArticles.asp?id=98