Yet give attention to your servant’s prayer and his plea for mercy, Lord my God. Hear the cry and the prayer that your servant is praying in your presence this day. -1 Kings 8:28 (NIV)
This past Thursday (May 7, 2015) was the 64th annual National Day of Prayer here in the United States.
Every day should be a National Day of Prayer, but if it takes a national event to rally people to pray, so be it. Prayer channels God’s power from up above down to us here on earth. It is an unrecognized power and privilege we have to effect change through prayer, one that unbelievers cannot understand.
We live in a fallen world. Suffering and pain is all around us. The world is filled with despair, sickness, and death. But God carries us through it all, and speaks to us through it.
In The Problem of Pain, C.S. Lewis says:
We can ignore even pleasure. But pain insists upon being attended to. God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: it is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world.
From the official National Day of Prayer website FAQ: The 2015 Theme is LORD, HEAR OUR CRY which is based on I KINGS 8:28: “Hear the cry and the prayer that your servant is praying in your presence this day.”
Prayer
Father God,
Always, we come before you with thanks, praise, and adoration.
We and the world around us are pained and burdened heavily with sin. That pain is a longstanding reminder to return to you. How long will we stray and struggle? We confess and repent of the sins we selfishly carry, and ask for your forgiveness.
Your Word says and shows that you work through governments and people, and we ask, in Jesus’ name, to hear your sobering voice in our pain, and glorify and consider you in every thought, word, and deed. Thank you, Lord, for separating us from our sin, so we may take up your yoke once more. Please continue reminding us to hear, see, and focus on you as we serve you through all circumstances.
It is a joy and peace beyond understanding that only you can give us, Lord, and we thank you for your son’s finished work on the cross.
In Jesus’ holy and powerful name we pray.
Amen.
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