Americans pray to give thanks for blessings, to ask for the strength to follow God’s will, to acknowledge God’s sovereignty and to offer petitions, President Bush said May 3 in a White House observance of the 56th National Day of Prayer (NDP).
"We pray as families, around the dinner table, and before we go to sleep. We pray alone in silence and solitude, withdrawing from the world to focus on the eternal, spending time in personal recollection with our Creator," Bush said at the morning event.
The observance was the seventh consecutive year Bush has spoken in the White House on the day of prayer.
He was joined in the East Room by members of his Cabinet, members of Congress and members of the military and the mayor of Blacksburg, Va., where prayer has sustained people in the midst of the Virginia Tech shootings.
An observance was held in a House of Representatives office building in the afternoon with remarks from this year’s NDP honorary chairman Charles Swindoll, noted author and pastor of Stonebriar Community Church in Frisco, Texas.
"In these unsafe days, You remain all-powerful and able to protect," Swindoll said in a time of leading members of Congress in prayer. "In these uncertain times, You remain all-knowing, leading us aright. In the unprecedented events we’re facing, You remain absolutely sovereign. Our times are in Your hands. Therefore, our dependence on You is total, not partial."
The National Day of Prayer Task Force estimated that 46,000 events across the nation would occur as part of the observance.
This year’s observance was marked with the theme America, Unite in Prayer, based on 2 Chronicles 7:14, "If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land."
Throughout the state and nation, people gathered at churches and public venues to pray corporately for the nation, government leaders, media, churches, families and schools.
Activities ranged from prayer breakfasts and Bible-reading marathons to concerts of prayer, rallies, church prayer vigils and student flagpole gatherings. (BP)
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