Let Us Pray, Let Us Pray, Let Us Pray

“Let’s pray…” I can’t count how many times I have used that phrase in my 14 years of ministry. Between meetings, counseling with families, and worship opportunities, it’s a pretty familiar phrase around here. It’s a simple way to ask others to join me in prayer. It’s easy to wonder how many lost opportunities there would be if leaders did not offer that phrase. Would people think to pray or just get to work in meetings? Would people think to ask God for guidance, or just start sharing their family problems? And would people come to worship to sing and hear a good message, while forgetting to bow their heads and share their hearts with the One who quiets all of heaven just to hear their voices? As a nation, we have been inviting others to join us in prayer since our inception as a baby. Our leaders’ first call to prayer occured in 1775. The Continental Congress asked the colonies to pray for wisdom in forming a nation. Lord knows we need continued wisdom and guidance as a nation today! Thank goodness for opportunities to do just that. “Fasting and prayer are religious exercises; the enjoining them an act of discipline. Every religious society has a right to determine for itself the time for these exercises, and the objects proper for them, according to their own particular tenets; and right can never be safer than in their hands, where the Constitution has deposited it.” Thomas Jefferson, 1808 I am always amazed when people begin spouting about separation of church and state. It seems some believe that phrase means our constitution prohibits any religious expression in public and it should be kept hidden in our private homes, churches, mosques, and synagogues. A clear reading of this historic document states that every citizen of this great land has the freedom to choose and express their own religion without the government interfering. How easy it is to forget our heritage, birthed out of a nation that declared as law how religion must be lived out in our lives. It’s true, that does not give us the right as individuals, to press our beliefs on others. But it does not mean that we cannot express our own beliefs for our own sake. Because of the faith of many of our founding fathers, public prayer and national days of prayer have a long-standing and significant history in American tradition. The Supreme Court affirmed the right of state legislatures to open their sessions with prayer in 1983. I bring all this up this week because the National Day of Prayer is fast approaching. Thursday, May 3 will be set aside by an entire nation to gather together, Christians, Muslims, Jews, and more… to pray for a nation in deep need of just that. Face it, things aren’t going so good. We have more people in poverty today than any other time in recent history. We have a wider gap between the ultra-rich and the uber-poor that doesn’t seem to be stopping any time soon. We have one politician after another getting caught up in lies, adultery, blackmail, coercion, personal financial gain, and improper sexual liasons, just to name a few. Not a surprise when you look at the greater public… caught up in lies, adultery, blackmail, coercion, personal financial gain, and improper sexual liasons. A nation does not land far from its citizens. So let’s pray. Let’s pray for our leaders, our nation, and ourselves as citizens, to do our part… and God will certainly do his. “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 I will forgive their sin and will heal their land” (2 Chronicles 7:14).