We were a people of prayer even before we became a nation. In the Presidential Proclamation for a National Day of Prayer in 1983, President Reagan says,
“Prayer is the mainspring of the American spirit, a fundamental tenet of our people since before the Republic was founded. A year before the Declaration of Independence, in 1775, the Continental Congress proclaimed the first National Day of Prayer as the initial positive action they asked of every colonist.
Two hundred years ago in 1783, the Treaty of Paris officially ended the long, weary Revolutionary War during which a National Day of Prayer had been proclaimed every spring for eight years. When peace came the National Day of Prayer was forgotten. For almost half a century, as the Nation grew in power and wealth, we put aside this deepest expression of American belief -- our national dependence on the Providence of God.
It took the tragedy of the Civil War to restore a National Day of Prayer. As Abraham Lincoln said, ‘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.’
Revived as an annual observance by Congress in 1952, the National Day of Prayer has become a great unifying force for our citizens who come from all the great religions of the world. Prayer unites people. This common expression of reverence heals and brings us together as a Nation and we pray it may one day bring renewed respect for God to all the peoples of the world.
From General Washington's struggle at Valley Forge to the present, this Nation has fervently sought and received divine guidance as it pursued the course of history. This occasion provides our Nation with an opportunity to further recognize the source of our blessings, and to seek (God’s) help for the challenges we face today and in the future.
I call upon every citizen of this great Nation to gather together in homes and places of worship to pray, each after his or her own manner, for unity of the hearts of all mankind.”
The Fannin County Ministerial Alliance encourages you to pray for our nation, our state, our community, our neighbors. Our nation is in need of prayer by the people, “in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity.”
