Outlawed National Day of Prayer--So What?

As the National Day of Prayer (the first Thursday in May) draws near a buzz has been generated by the ruling of a federal judge declaring the day unconstitutional. But even if that ruling is upheld, what difference does it make? Should it stop the church from praying? Can it stop the church from praying? Not only can believers legally gather for prayer, even the most severe of government strictures cannot silence believers in their communion with God and petitioning of him on behalf of the nation.

Actually, when it comes down to restricting prayer, the church is doing a pretty good job all on its own. Often we don't pray, don't feel the need to pray, and the prayer we do engage in seems pretty anemic. In fact, this prayerlessness is one of the things for which we need to repent and bear the fruit of repentance in taking up the mantle of prayer given us by our Lord. In the service I prepared for my congregation for the National Day of Prayer, I include these confessions of our prayerlessness:

we your people, called by your name, do not humble ourselves and pray but instead go about our business in prideful self-sufficiency and willful neglect of your commandments and decrees, unconcerned for the name of Jesus Christ that we bear and inattentive to his design for us as his disciples;

we do not seek your face nor turn from our loveless indifference and worldly preoccupations, actually tolerating and even enjoying the corruptions of this world to the dishonor of you who has called us to be holy as you are holy;

we are not salt and light to our nation, nor do we desire to be, content to dabble in “Christian” practice and use you for our ends;

(I will post the whole prayer of confession after the May 6 service)

The buzz created by the judicial questioning of a national day of prayer and the ripples of rumor surrounding it should strengthen our resolve to pray, and not just on a designated day. But my guess is that it won't. Being up in arms will not translate to being on our knees. And that is to our shame.

Being an Answer to Prayer

I must admit in my unbelief I did not have high hopes that anyone in my neighborhood would respond to the invitations I gave out letting them know of a Christianity Explored study in my home. Christianity Explored is a 10-week study in the Gospel of Mark that addresses three basic questions: who Jesus is, what He did, and what that means to them. At first I didn’t hear anything. Then after a couple of weeks, I received one email telling me they’d like to attend, then another, then another asking if they could bring a friend. We started with six neighbors plus my wife and myself. As people got into it, they asked if they could invite others. We built from 6 to 8 to 9 and leveled off at ten. For some, they had never been part of a Bible study before.

Several weeks into the study, I received an email from the brother of one of the participants. He commented on how his sister was enjoying the time and then he said this: “I have been a Christian for 20 years now and have been praying for my family that whole time to give their lives to Christ and this seems to be a big answer.”

He thanked me “for being there and for [my] obedience to following God’s lead.” While his words were very meaningful to me and a wonderful encouragement from God, they were just trickle added to the river of blessing I was receiving by God in getting to know these neighbors and being a conduit for Christ in their lives.

How humbling it is to think of our being an answer to others’ prayers! Yet should that surprise us? After all, it is not angels that God uses to reach our neighbors with the gospel of life in Christ. How urgent it is that we prove faithful to our call. Just as we might pray for unbelieving family and friends, asking God to raise up influences for Christ in their lives, so we might find ourselves that answer to the same prayer by others.