Nation Day of Prayer Event Recap
"If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, pray, seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.” 2 Chronicles 7:14
Bethlehem United Methodist church hosted the National Day of Prayer Time via zoom last Thursday, May 4. Before I give an update about our prayer event, I express my sincere thanks to those of you who participated in the prayer time - whether you led the pledge of allegiance, shared a song, read a Scripture passage, offered a prayer, or helped with the technology, you were a witness to the Lord by doing an awesome job for the glory of God. There were six churches that joined us and in the last few days I have been receiving awesome comments about the National Day of Prayer Time and how people have been immensely blessed by joining and participating in the event. People were simply amazed in hearing a lot of powerful Scripture verses and at the many ways of praying from different parts of our nation that they felt the amazing presence of God. Following are a few of the comments that I received about the National Day of Prayer event:
“I loved being able to experience the different styles of praying. It felt Nation-wide.
“It was a powerful hour of prayers, Scripture readings and songs.”
“I pray that we will continue to have the freedom to pray our hearts out to Almighty Father God.”
“This was like a Pentecostal experience to pray for 1 hour and 15 minutes.”
“You held your own online revival.”
“What a wonderful opportunity to come together to pray virtually in a diverse manner.”
If you had read Pastor Craig’s weekly greeting last week, he started with a question, and I quote: “Have you ever prayed for someone or something for a long time?” He shared about Bertha of Kent, a Frankish princess who was a devout Christian, married Ethelbert who was a pagan King of the English kingdom. The story goes that Bertha prayed for her husband’s conversion and after 18 long years of praying patiently and continually, a transformation took place in the life of the King, who turned to Christianity and more than 10,000 people followed the King’s example and became Christians. Bertha’s prayer had such a great impact on the people of England that she’s known for her faithfulness in prayer.
As a nation, we are blessed and privileged to observe the first Thursday in May as the Day of Prayer. How is our prayer commitment the rest of the 364 days? I give thanks to God again for this wonderful opportunity that we could come together virtually, raise our voices in praise and thanksgiving.
My dear friends, we live in a world that is filled with brokenness, violence, hatred, bitterness, poverty, disease and what not. In the midst of hopelessness, I believe there is hope for all only because of what Christ has accomplished for us on the cross of Calvary. It is my sincere prayer that we will be great advocates for prayer, and like Bertha of Kent, stand strong, be faithful in prayer and as the apostle Paul has said, may we believe in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let our requests be made known to God and may the peace of God which surpasses all understanding guard our hearts and our minds in Christ Jesus!
May the Lord bless Bethlehem church for making the National Day of Prayer Time a priority and may the Lord’s name be glorified in all that we do.