Dear Heavenly Father

Thursday, May 5, is the National Day of Prayer. Let me invite you right up front here to join us for a community-wide prayer gathering at 12 noon on the west lawn of the Menard County Courthouse. This event is a non-denominational, non-political gathering of people who choose to assemble together for the purpose of prayer.

And while I want to compel you to see how urgently we need to pray, I believe the even more pressing concern is for us to see how desperately we need God.

Yes, the two are certainly related – prayer and God. But many people pray for the sake of praying without truly recognizing the One they profess to address. In other words, it’s very possible to go through the motions of prayer as part of a religious routine, saying the right words, perhaps, and yet not really be communicating with the Lord.

I say we’re in dire need of getting in touch with God.

Here is this year’s national prayer as written by Dr. Tony Evans. I encourage you to make these words your own as you call out to our Father in prayer, and I hope to see you this Thursday!

“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 to 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 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 lives, and in the lives of our churches and our 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.”