Pleas for revival and religious freedom were heard repeatedly at the National Day of Prayer (NDP)service May 7 in Washington, including the keynote address by Southern Baptist pastor Jack Graham and a letter he read from imprisoned pastor Saeed Abedini.
Graham — pastor of Prestonwood Baptist Church, Plano, Texas, and former Southern Baptist Convention president — served as honorary chairperson of the NDP Task Force.
“We are facing a crisis in America. These are desperate days,” Graham said to the hundreds gathered at the Canon House Office Building. “This is a crying time in America. It’s a time for tears.”
Graham called for extraordinary prayer, emphasizing the event’s theme “Lord, Hear Our Cry,” taken from 1 Kings 8:38.
‘Extraordinary prayer’
“There’s a time for ordinary prayer,” Graham said. “But there is a time for what Jonathan Edwards, the great revivalist, called extraordinary prayer. Uncommon times call for uncommon prayer, and so we cry out to God. We cry out to God.”
Graham prayed for Abedini, imprisoned for nearly three years for his faith in Iran, where officials have threatened to extend his current eight-year sentence to life imprisonment unless he renounces Christianity and embraces Islam.
“We should always remember to pray for suffering Christians, the persecuted church, martyred believers around the world,” Graham said. “We must never forget them.”
Abedini issued an open letter from prison to Christians for NDP, which Graham read.
Abedini urged Americans to make the most of religious freedom. “Change starts with us. Revival starts with us,” he wrote. “The first step to revival is praying together in unity as a nation.”
President Barack Obama hailed religious liberty in his official NDP proclamation, issued May 6.
“Millions of individuals worldwide are subjected to discrimination, abuse and sanctioned violence simply for exercising their religion or choosing not to claim a faith. Communities are threatened with genocide and driven from their homelands because of who they are or how they pray,” Obama wrote. “The United States will continue to stand against these reprehensible attacks, work to end them and protect religious freedom throughout the world. And we remember those who are prisoners of conscience — who are held unjustly because of their faiths or beliefs — and we will take every action within our power to secure their release.”
The observance was among numerous prayer events held throughout the U.S. including events across Alabama.
(BP, TAB)
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A look at National Day of Prayer’s history
While the tradition of national leaders issuing calls for prayer dates back to the founding of the United States, the practice wasn’t formalized until 1952 during the Korean War.
Evangelist Billy Graham was invited by House Speaker Sam Rayburn to deliver a speech on the steps of the U.S. Capitol, in which he issued a call for a day of national prayer.
“What a thrilling, glorious thing it would be to see the leaders of our country today kneeling before Almighty God in prayer,” Graham said. “What a thrill would sweep this country. What renewed hope and courage would grip the Americans at this hour of peril.”
A proclamation
The next day Rep. Percy Priest, a Southern Baptist deacon, introduced a bill in the House to establish a National Day of Prayer (NDP). Sen. A. Willis Robertson introduced the Senate version. President Harry S. Truman signed the joint resolution approved April 17, 1952, and became the first president to declare a NDP. Every president since has done the same.
In 1983, Campus Crusade for Christ (now Cru) co-founder Vonette Bright formed the NDP Task Force to promote evangelical Christian prayer events across the country. In 1988 she backed legislation to establish a specific day for the observance on the first Thursday of May.
Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush each held one NDP event. President George W. Bush held one in the White House each year he was in office. President Bill Clinton held informal meetings but did not participate in NDP events. Neither has President Barack Obama.
(BNG)
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