[Editor’s note: on April 30, 2020, as we finished our 30 Days of Prayer and Fasting in the Midst of Covid-19, Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Washington) sent out this inspiring prayer call that we knew you must see. It is a powerful reminder of who we are as Americans. Enjoy!]
(Just this week, I came across two prayers from April 30, 1863 and April 30, 1974 – see below. These prayers are as powerful and relevant to our current situation as they were many years ago.)
On April 30, 1863, during the very depths of the Civil War, three months after President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation and three months before the Battle of Gettysburg, Lincoln proclaimed a Proclamation for Humiliation, Fasting, and Prayer:
“Whereas it is the duty of nations as well as of men to own their dependence upon the overruling power of God, to confess their sins and transgressions in humble sorrow, yet with assured hope that genuine repentance will lead to mercy and pardon, and to recognize the sublime truth, announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history, that those nations only are blessed whose God is the Lord . . .
We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of Heaven; we have been preserved these many years in peace and prosperity; we have grown in numbers, wealth, and power as no other nation has ever grown. But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us, and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us.
It behooves us, then, to humble ourselves before the offended Power, to confess our national sins, and to pray for clemency and forgiveness. Amen.”
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Senate Joint Resolution 183, proclaimed April 30, 1974 as a National Day of Humiliation, Fasting and Prayer.
“Whereas, we have made such an idol out of our pursuit of ‘national security’ that we have forgotten that only God can by the ultimate guardian of our true livelihood and safety; and
Whereas, we have failed to respond, personally and collectively, with sacrifice and uncompromised commitment to the unmet needs of our fellow man, both at home and abroad; as a people, we have become so absorbed with the selfish pursuits of pleasure and profit that we have blinded ourselves to God’s standard of justice and righteousness for this society; and
Whereas, it therefore behooves us to humble ourselves before Almighty God, to confess our national sins, and to pray for clemency and forgiveness: Now, therefore be it resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress Assembled, that the Congress hereby proclaims that April 30, 1974, be a National Day of Humiliation, Fasting and Prayer; and calls upon the people of our nation to humble ourselves as we see fit, before our Creator to acknowledge our final dependence upon Him and to repent of our national sins.
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On March 23, 2020 Israel’s Chief Rabbi David Lau called on the public to fast. In his letter, he wrote that difficult days are affecting all of Israel and the entire world . . . it is on us to do some soul-searching. He called for everyone to better their ways concerning commandments which determine behavior between each person and their fellow and concerning commandments between man and God. He encouraged prayers for FORGIVENESS.
Chief Rabbi of Safed Shmuel Eliyahu posted: “In our days, man thinks he is God, that he is the master and can decide what is good and bad, something which is called moral relativism or postmodernism. If this is the case, that mankind is proud, mankind knows everything, understands everything, let him fight the smallest of God’s creations. This creation is called corona, a crown,” he continued.
Coronavirus is so named because of the crown-like arrangement of proteins on the virus when viewed under a microscope. “In man’s heart he must restore the crown to God.” he concluded.
“If my people who are called by my name
will humble themselves and pray and seek my face
and turn from their wicked ways,
I, the Lord God, will hear from heaven and will
forgive their sins and heal their land.”
II Chronicles 7:14
If my people who are called by my name — if we as Christians humble ourselves and pray and seek forgiveness from a living, loving God then God will heal our land – may it begin with me. Don’t harden our hearts – may we in humility confess our sins. We live in a time filled with moral confusion, spiritual chaos, and political divisions — Lord God, heal our bodies, our minds, and our souls. May God reveal His ways in this new day and may we embrace God’s wisdom and move with Him in obedience to His Word.
On May 24, 2017, Becky Tirabassi as guest chaplain for the U.S. House of Representatives prayed:
“Father, I pray for the immediate outpouring of Your Holy Spirit on our Nation and leaders.
I pray that not one of us will miss hearing Your voice today.
I pray that we would not neglect to ask for Your wisdom.
I pray that we would not make decisions without asking Your guidance.
Will You go before and behind us?
Will You give us our marching orders?
In this hour of our great need, begin again to help us, as You have in years gone by.
Father, You are the God who does immeasurably more than all we could ask or imagine.
Today, give us the humility to ask for Your help, and the grand moral courage to be agents of change for the good of others and the honor of Your name.
In Your powerful name we ask these things. Amen.
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Our Father, FORGIVE us our sins as we forgive those who trespass against us!
We pray for FORGIVENESS.
We ask for God’s FORGIVENESS and confess our national sins so our country can regain its national purpose and unity.
We pray to FORGIVE each other, stop tearing each other down, stop the finger pointing and blame game.
We pray to FORGIVE ourselves and embrace our uniqueness and potential.
We pray for Godly strategies to bring FORGIVENESS and healing in our land.
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Many have quoted Benjamin Franklin at the Constitutional Convention when they had come to the end of themselves and couldn’t reach an agreement on the wording of our Constitution. The outcome of the convention looked grim, and that’s when Benjamin Franklin called on the delegates to pray. After weeks of negotiation at the 1787 Constitutional Convention delegates began returning home. Here’s what Benjamin Franklin said:
“I have lived, Sir, a long time, and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth—that God Governs in the affairs of men. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without his notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without his aid?”
“We have been assured, sir, in the Sacred Writings, that ‘except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it.’ I firmly believe this; and I also believe that without His concurring aid we shall succeed in this political building no better than the builders of Babel . . . I therefore beg leave to move that henceforth prayers imploring the assistance of Heaven, and its blessings on our deliberations, be held in this Assembly every morning before we proceed to business.”
Benjamin Franklin July 28, 1787 When they returned, America was birthed — out of fervent prayer.
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President John Adams said:
“Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”
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Pray for the humiliation to restore the crown in our lives to God. Join me for a day of fasting and prayer and humiliation. Ask God to speak to you. I’d love to hear from you after April 30. May God be as original with us as He has been with others!
“Your road led through the sea,
Your pathway through the mighty waters —
a pathway no one knew was there.” Psalm 77:19
Warmly,
Cathy