Community Invited to Pray for Our Nation
Let’s Pray Together… The Holden community is invited to gather at the Downtown Memorial Park to observe the National Day of Prayer on Thursday, May 5, at 5 p.m. Local pastors and the Holden Area Ministerial Association (HAMA) are hosting the public prayer event and all are welcome. This nation was founded on a belief in Almighty God and His Son, Jesus Christ. We are carrying on the heritage of our founding fathers when we acknowledge and recognize that this land needs the favor of God to heal it. Please join your neighbors for this annual event and ask for blessings for our country, our leaders and our hometown. Pictured at the event a few years ago is Don Henson leading the crowd in a heartfelt prayer. Photo by Dana Raker
When we gather as a community on Thursday, May 5 for the National Day of Prayer observation, we are carrying on the legacy of our forefathers, who recognized the need for our nation to be blessed by the hand of Almighty God.
Holden’s National Day of Prayer observance will be held Thursday, May 5, at 5 p.m. at the Downtown Memorial Park. Sponsored by the Holden Area Ministerial Association (HAMA), the event enables community members to join together in praying for our nation.
This year’s theme is “Exalt the Lord, Who Has Established Us!” Colossians 2:6-7 At Holden’s celebration, area pastors will offer music, fellowship and prayer as part of the observance.
The National Day of Prayer is a vital part of our heritage.
Since the first call to prayer in 1775, when the Continental Congress asked the colonies to pray for wisdom in forming a nation, the call to pray has continued throughout our country’s history.
President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed a day of “humiliation, fasting and prayer” in 1863.
In 1952, a joint resolution by Congress, signed by President Truman, declared an annual national day of prayer.
The National Day of Prayer has great significance for us as a nation.
It enables us to recall and to pass on how our founding fathers sought the wisdom of God when faced with critical decisions.
We can do the same. It stands as a call for us to humbly come before God, seeking His guidance for our leaders and His grace upon us, as a people.
Prayer is as important to our nation today as it was in the beginning.
Because of the faith of many of our founding fathers, public prayer and national days of prayer have a long-standing and significant history steeped in American tradition.
This Day of Prayer allows every American the time for personal repentance and public prayer, and to help mobilize the Christian community to intercede for America’s leaders and her families.
The prayer event represents a Christian expression of a public national observance, based on our understanding that this country was birthed in prayer and in reverence for the God of the Bible.
Going back to our nation’s humble Christian beginnings, in his role as Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army, General George Washington acknowledged a day of “fasting, humiliation and prayer” proclaimed by the Continental Congress to be held on Thursday, May 6, 1779.
In his 1983 declaration, President Ronald Reagan said, “From General Washington’s struggle at Valley Forge to the present, this nation has fervently sought and received divine guidance as it pursued the course of history.”
For many Americans, prayer is an integral part of daily life.
Prayer offers a rich connection to our spiritual lives, nurturing our relationships and faith.
It also provides comfort and peace in times of crisis or need.
Prayer is an exercise in faith and enables believers of Jesus Christ to draw nearer to the Creator and ask for favor in our land and in all of our endeavors. “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 As citizens and residents of the United States and as followers of Christ Jesus, we not only have a spiritual responsibility to pray, but a civic duty, as we heed our President’s call to stand in the gap for our nation.
Who, but God’s people have the ability to enter into the very throne room of Heaven with prayers and petitions?
Holy Scripture tells us time and again that our fervent prayer is effective.
It also tells us that our loving God responds to His children’s earnest pleas in mighty ways that avail much, and ultimately determine the course of history.
The power of the Lord will graciously anoint our efforts, empowering them to touch and change many hearts and lives.
We look forward to seeing His hand move across our land in exciting ways each May in response to our petitions!
Don’t miss this opportunity to join your neighbors in a public show of faith, as we gather together to stand united, regardless of our differences, to ask God’s favor and blessing – for our nation, our leaders, and our hometown.
All are welcome and invited to come join Holden’s clergy and the public to lift up our needs and challenges to Almighty God next Thursday, May 5. In the case of inclement weather, Holden’s National Day of Prayer celebration will be moved to the Hallar Building.
