Christians Across the U.S. Gather to Pray for Nation

by Courtney Zane

Every year, all across the United States, people meet together on the first Thursday of May in their cities and towns to observe the National Day of Prayer. The day allows Christians to unite as one and pray for their city, police and fire department, the nation’s youth, the homeless, broken homes, the president, and overall, the world. President George Bush once remarked about a former National Day of Prayer saying, “God’s signs are not always the ones we look for.  We learn in tragedy that His purposes are not always our own.  Yet the prayers of private suffering, whether in our homes or in this great cathedral, are known and heard, and understood. There are prayers that help us last through the day, or endure the night.  There are prayers of friends and strangers that give us strength for the journey.  And there are prayers that yield our will to a will greater than our own.”          

            This year’s National Day of Prayer occurred on Thursday, May 4, where San Jose and neighboring towns met at the brand new City Hall in downtown San Jose. A worship leader led the participants in music, worship and praise. A candidate for mayor, Chuck Reed, also an attorney for Valley Christian, spoke about his candidacy and about the National Day of Prayer. Speeches given by other speakers were very moving and uplifting. The crowd attending the event then broke into groups to pray for problems in the world.

The National Day of Prayer is a very important event, especially to Christians. It is not often that so many people can get together to pray as one. The Bible says in Matthew 18:20 that when “two or three come together in my name, there I am with them.” The National Day of Prayer allows the nation’s most serious concerns to be lifted up to God so that the world can be in His hands.

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