From its beginnings, America was a praying nation. On June 7, 1775, for instance, the Continental Congress issued a proclamation put together by John Adams, William Hooper, and Robert Paine that set aside a day of “humiliation, fasting, and prayer” in hopes “that a speedy end may be put to the civil discord between Great Britain and the American colonies, without farther effusion of blood….”

In the spring of 1863, Abraham Lincoln issued “Proclamation 97—Appointing a Day of National Humiliation, Fasting, and Prayer.” Unlike the 1775 Proclamation, Lincoln’s message hits much closer to home for those of us living today:

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.

In the 1950s, evangelical Christians called for a formal National Day of Prayer to be added to the American calendar. In response, Congress passed a joint resolution in 1952 to that effect, and President Truman issued a proclamation making July 4 the date for that year’s event. President Ronald Reagan’s administration later shifted the Day of Prayer to the first Thursday in May, where it stands today.

On this day, many communities and people of faith gather for worship, hold vigils, or pray in solitude. Odds are, however, that if you ask your family and friends for specifics regarding the National Day of Prayer, many will give a shrug or a blank look in response. Some may have no idea what you’re talking about.

At least three reasons account for this relative obscurity compared to holidays like Memorial Day, Independence Day, and Labor Day. For one, the National Day of Prayer doesn’t come with a long weekend and a day off from work. It also lacks the universal appeal of other holidays in that less than half of all Americans pray on a daily basis.

Finally, the National Day of Prayer is missing the glitter and packaging – fireworks, bands, speeches, parades, and the like – of these other occasions. On those holidays, most of us are bystanders rather than participants, but a day of prayer isn’t a spectator event. It insists that we join the parade, bow our heads, and lift up our minds and hearts to God.

And here’s the thing. Just as Veterans Day is a reminder to honor the men and women who have served our country, just as the Fourth of July acts likes a sticky note on the calendar calling us to celebrate the Declaration of Independence throughout the year, so too we should regard the National Day of Prayer not as a one-time event, but as a nudge to the memory to pray daily for our leaders, for our communities, and for our country.

Honest, heart-felt prayer helps us to clarify who and what we are and what we are seeking. It also entails a humbling of pride, what the founders and Lincoln referred to as humiliation. When we pray for our country, this humility, this modesty of the spirit, should nourish a sense of gratitude, allowing us to step away from the push-and-shove of politics and culture, and appreciate the liberties, opportunities, and cornucopia of material goods that surround us. That gratitude in turn will deepen our love of country.

As we enter the 250th year of America’s founding, let’s make every day a National Day of Prayer. Depending on our individual preferences and habits, our prayers can be short, as in “God bless America and give our people wisdom and virtue,” or they can be much longer and more specific invocations.

If enough of us do that, we’ll not only be praying for America, we’ll be praying with America.

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The republication of this article is made possible by The Fred & Rheta Skelton Center for Cultural Renewal. 

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