People from Schuylkill County and beyond will gather in front of the county courthouse in Pottsville at noon Thursday to pray for America and ask for God’s blessings.
The local prayer event will be held on the 65th anniversary of the National Day of Prayer, which is an annual nationwide observance on the first Thursday of May. The local organizers are Harold Alexander, pastor of The Church of Broken Pieces, Minersville, and William “Bill” Orf, pastor of The Lighthouse Church, Orwigsburg.
“This year’s national theme ‘Wake Up America’ calls for all America to repent and return to God’s calling that we be ‘One Nation under God,’ ” Orf said. “Join us at the front of the courthouse as we worship and pray together for the Lord’s blessings over 15 aspects of American life.”
According to the NDP website, www.nationaldayofprayer.org, the event invites people of all faiths to pray for the nation. It was created in 1952 by a joint resolution of the U.S. Congress, and signed into law by President Harry S. Truman and was declared each year by the president. In 1988, President Ronald W. Reagan set the National Day of Prayer to be officially observed on the first Thursday of May.
The NDP Task Force is a privately funded organization whose purpose is to encourage participation on the National Day of Prayer. It exists to communicate with every individual the need for personal repentance and prayer, to create appropriate materials, and to mobilize the Christian community to intercede for America’s leaders and its families. The task force represents a Judeo-Christian expression of the national observance, based on an understanding that the country was birthed in prayer and in reverence for the God of the Bible.
“I’m not sure how many, but we’ve been doing this for years,” Orf said. “Harold Alexander of the Church of Broken Pieces and I have done it at least five years. It’s to be part of a nationally recognized day of prayer. Actually, in 1775, the Continental Congress called for a day of prayer, and in 1952 made it a day of prayer, and in 1988, Reagan made a statement that the first Thursday in May would be the National Day of Prayer every year.”
Tony Evans, senior pastor of Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship in Dallas, Texas, is the honorary chairman, and he composed this year’s prayer to be read at noon across the country. It will be publicly prayed in front of the courthouse, and for those who cannot attend, it can be prayed at wherever they are as individuals or in groups.
“It is that there would be a unified calling from America for the help and the blessings of God,” Orf said. “One person’s prayer amounts to certain amount for his own self, but for a nation, obviously, God wonders what does the nation think. The national prayer is by Tony Evans, and the task force picked him as the honorary chairman for this year. His prayer is pretty convicting, let’s call it. When you read it, it says basically that we have really departed from God’s ways, both the church people and others. There is some conviction for us all in that prayer, and the truth is, I’m afraid, that his (Evans) convictions are right.”
Orf said that as the word gets out about the prayer event beforehand that people will discuss the topic and the prayer itself.
“That will be my topic for this Sunday’s sermon,” Orf said. “I’m going to give the history of it (NDP) and some of the scriptures on it. They (task force) chose Isaiah 58 as their theme scripture, and that starts off that my (God’s) people need to change. When you read Isaiah, it says that the people of God need to be the people of God again.”
Orf said today’s sermon will include passages from Isaiah 58 and Romans 13 that relates to the NDP.
“I’m going to use Isaiah 58 and Romans 13 because they say we need to support government, but obviously we also have the ability with our vote and our lives to influence government in the right direction,” Orf said.
The program will begin with opening remarks by Alexander and include pastors and members from many different Christian denominations throughout the county and representatives of other groups.
The NDP website states there have been 1,419 state and federal calls for national prayer on record since 1775. This year’s NDP also commemorates the 25th anniversary of Shirley Dobson as the NDP chairperson.
“We have lost many of our freedoms in America because we have been asleep,” Dobson said. “I feel if we do not become involved and support the annual National Day of Prayer, we could end up forfeiting this freedom, too.”
National Day of Prayer
(to be prayed at noon Thursday or other convenient time that day)
“Dear Heavenly Father, we come to You today as a humble people desperate for Your supernatural intervention on behalf of our beloved nation. First, we thank You for all the blessings You have bestowed on our land, blessings that have allowed us to bring so much good and benefit to not only our own citizens but also to the rest of the world. The very ideals upon which this country was founded were based on biblical truths, no matter how some try to rewrite history too deny that very fact today.
“This is why our hearts are so broken over how You continue to be marginalized and dismissed by both our people and our institutions. We are also saddened by the fact that Your people have contributed greatly to the spiritual apathy that now engulfs us. Our satisfaction in remaining religious without being fully committed to living out the truths of Your Word has caused us to become co-conspirators with the forces of evil that are destroying us as a society.
“It is for this reason that we personally and collectively repent of our carnality and recommit ourselves to becoming visible and verbal disciples of Jesus Christ. Enable us, by Your Holy Spirit, to no longer be secret agent Christians but rather to publicly declare and live out Your truth in a spirit of love so that You feel welcome in our Country once again.
“Thank you for Your promise to hear our prayers when we call to You with hearts of repentance and obedience, which is how we are appealing to You today, Father. On behalf of Your church, we affirm afresh the priority You are to us that You would fill every dimension of our lives as we seek to bring You glory through the advancement of Your kingdom in our personal lives, our family’s lives, and in the lives of our churches and government leaders. We confidently invite heaven’s intervention into all the affairs of our Nation and we praise You in advance for Your answer.
“In Jesus name we pray. Amen.”