National Day of Prayer

Today is the National Day of Prayer. Evangelicals from around the nation will be gathering to pray and listen to speakers that will present in one form or another, facts for why we need to pray for our nation. The Bible is not silent on our need to pray for our leaders and those in positions of great responsibility. E. M. Bounds once wrote:

Civil and Church rulers shape the affairs of this world. And so civil and Church rulers themselves need to be shaped personally in spirit, heart and conduct, in truth and righteousness, by the prayers of God’s people. This is in direct line with Paul’s words:

“I exhort therefore,” he says, “that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men, for rulers and all that are in authority.”

It is a sad day for righteousness when church politics instead of holy praying, shapes the administration of the Kingdom and elevates men to place and power. Why pray for all men? Because God wills the salvation of all men. God’s children on earth must link their prayers to God’s will. Prayer is to carry out the will of God. God wills the salvation of all men. His heart is set on this one thing. Our prayers must be the creation and exponent of God’s will. We are to grasp humanity in our praying as God grasps humanity in His love, His interest and His plans to redeem humanity. Our sympathies, prayers, wrestling and ardent desires must run parallel with the will of God, broad, generous, world-wide and Godlike. The Christian man must in all things, first of all, be conformed to the will of God, but nowhere shall this royal devotion be more evident than in the salvation of the race of men. This high partnership with God, as His vicegerents on earth, is to have its fullest, richest, and most efficient exercise in prayer for all men.

Men are to pray for all men, are to pray especially for rulers in Church and state, “that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty.” Peace on the outside and peace on the inside. Praying calms disturbing forces, allays tormenting fears, brings conflict to an end. Prayer tends to do away with turmoil. But even if there be external conflicts, it is well to have deep peace within the citadel of the soul. “That we may lead a quiet and peaceable life.” Prayer brings the inner calm and furnishes the outward tranquility. Praying rulers and praying subjects were they world-wide would allay turbulent forces, make wars to cease, and peace to reign.

The Complete Works of E. M. Bounds .

Our brother in Christ was right on target. There is nothing more powerful to allay the forces of evil than an honest to the Lord praying child of God. We pray to our Father because we believe that it is He and He alone, that has all of life’s answers. I love the proclamation of Jesus and the answer of Peter when he was addressed in the following passage:

It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life.
But there are some of you who do not believe." For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were who did not believe, and who would betray Him.
And He said, "Therefore I have said to you that no one can come to Me unless it has been granted to him by My Father."
From that time many of His disciples went back and walked with Him no more.
Then Jesus said to the twelve, "Do you also want to go away?"
But Simon Peter answered Him, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.
Also we have come to believe and know that You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." John 6:63-69 (NKJV)

The Words of Christ were Words of the Spirit and they bring life, while the words of Peter were the words of confession that is the answer to the life Christ brought. Today, won’t you take some time to join with a fellow brother or sister in Christ to lift up our nation and our church leaders? Christ has brought to us life and through prayer to the one true Father we confess our hope and our trust that it He and He alone that has the answers to all of life’s ills. It is my confession alongside that of Peter, that Christ is the only One who has given to us the Word’s of Life. Others may pray to their gods as the priests of Baal did in the days of Elijah but all they will hear is silence. When a true child of God becomes broken in his/her spirit over the injustices of humanity and the yearning to see God change lives, then and only then, will we see a great move of God to hallow His mighty name.

Today is a day of Prayer, ask God today, through prayer, to lead you into a more fulfilling life as a citizen of His eternal kingdom.

God Bless!

Bro. Mike

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