Word for Today, Thu, 01 May 2003: The National Day of Prayer
Posted by: masinick <masinick@...>
Today I'd like to share with you another message that introduces
and explains about the National Day of Prayer. Each year, on
the first Thursday of May, an organization entitled The National
Day of Prayer helps orchestrate a nationwide event in which
people from all over the country take some time out of their
schedules to pray together corporately and nationally.
I'd like to share with you excerpts from a message I shared back
on May 4, 2000. In that year, the National Day of Prayer was
Thursday, May 4. This year the first Thursday in May is on the
first day of the month. I've kept the original message intact
other than formatting changes.
Dear Lord,
We don't need an event to remember to pray. Even so, sometimes I
find it useful to gather together with other people to talk about
You, lift our corporate concerns before You, and of course,
worship You and remember the wonderful things You've already
done, and marvel at who You are.
Today our nation gathers in this manner. Lord, I know there are
many things we need to confess before You, both as individuals
and as a nation. I can only confess my own private sins before
You as an individual, but on behalf of our nation, I ask that You
forgive us for our many failings, that You renew Your Spirit
within us, that You purge us of evil intent, and that You restore
us as a people to You.
I have to be honest, Lord, I have real concerns about the
spiritual state of our nation. There are some who seek You, but
many others who merely utter words about God. Sometimes I even
wonder if they're talking with You, at You, or if it's even You
at all. If there's any hint of such things in me, Lord, please
reveal them to me and help me rid my life of them completely, so
that I may give my full heart to You, always, continually.
Pour out Your Spirit upon our nation. May there yet be
opportunity to turn away from the ways of Sodom and Gomorrah and
remember you again, just as the people of Nehemiah's day did.
Help us also to remember the words and the actions of Joshua
24:15, and choose You as the One we will serve.
Your Brother in Christ,
Brian
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When I check around http://www.gospelcom.net/, I am continually
finding new resources. Every once in a while, I want to read or
share from a different source. Today is one of those days. I
found some writings from Elisabeth Elliot, an incredible woman
of faith and patience.
This week, Elisabeth has a couple of messages concerning prayer.
I want to alert those of you who are interested in prayer that
tomorrow is another special day. While it is good to pray every
day, sometimes it is good to focus attention toward the needs of
certain things.
On Thursday, May 4, in the U.S. there will be a National Day of
Prayer. Any of you who listen to Christian Radio could hardly
miss hearing about it. For the past several years now, Shirley
Dobson, who also happens to be the wife of Focus on the Family
founder and president, James Dobson, has been the chair and
coordinator of this prayer effort.
"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 will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin
and will heal their land" (2 Chronicles 7:14).
This has been the theme verse of the National Day of Prayer
movement. It is my prayer that each of us will indeed humble
ourselves before God, admit that we have wronged God and one
another, turn away from these ways, ask God to first forgive us,
then to cleanse us, and finally to lead us to the way He
intended for us in the first place. This is my personal earnest
prayer.
You can find Elisabeth Elliot's messages at the location shown
below.
Brother Brian
http://www.gospelcom.net/bttb/devotions/authors_attic/elliot.htm
Devotions.org > Authors' Attic > Elisabeth Elliot > May 03
Title: Why Bother to Pray?
Author: Elisabeth Elliot
Source: A Lamp For My Feet
Elisabeth Elliot
If God is sovereign, and things will be as they are going to be
anyway, why bother to pray? There are several reasons. The first
is really all we need to know: God has told us to pray. It is a
commandment, and if we love Him we obey his commands.
Second, Jesus prayed. People sometimes say that the only reason
for prayer is that we need to be changed. Certainly we do, but
that is not the only reason to pray. Jesus was not being made
more holy by prayer. He was communing with his Father. He was
asking for things. He thanked God. In his Gethsemane prayer He
was beseeching the Father to prevent what was about to take
place. He was also laying down his own will.
Third, prayer is a law of the universe. As God ordained that
certain physical laws should govern the operation of this
universe, so He has ordained the spiritual law. Books simply
will not stay put on the table without the operation of
gravity-- although God could cause them, by divine fiat, to
stay. Certain things simply will not happen without the
operation of prayer, although God could cause them, by divine
fiat, to happen.
The Bible is full of examples of people doing what they could do
and asking God to do what they couldn't do. In other words, the
pattern given to us is both to work and pray. Nehemiah and the
people of Israel worked hard to build the wall of Jerusalem but
were strenuously opposed by Sanballat and Tobiah, who banded
together with Arabs, Ammonites, and Ashdodites to attack. "So we
prayed to our God," wrote Nehemiah, "and posted a guard day and
night against them" {Neh 4:9 NEB).
Copyright 1985, used with permission
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Read Scripture: Nehemiah 4:9
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Brian Masinick, mailto:masinick@yahoo.com
Home page: http://www.geocities.com/masinick/
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