Published: April 16, 2008 03:06 pm            

Prayer: Millions will gather

By JARROD SPENCER

Hamilton County Ministerial Alliance

Each year for the past several years, the Hamilton County Ministerial Alliance has hosted a time of prayer in observance with the National Day of Prayer.

This year, National Day of Prayer is Thursday, May 1, and the theme is "Prayer! America's Strength and Shield," reflecting on the words from Psalm 28:7, which read: "The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in Him, and I am helped."

Prayer is a free resource that cannot be overused. However, it can be underused.

Most of us would be in the category of the latter.

Maybe it is because we don't believe in God, or maybe it is because we don't take enough time to pray as much as we should.

Either way, prayer is a very powerful and free resource which we all should be using more.

On May 1, 2008, millions of people across the land will gather together to pray. We will be praying for seven different areas: our government, military, media, businesses, education, churches and families.

These seven areas, selected by the National Day of Prayer Task Force, cover most of the areas that, nationally, need to be prayed about. We will also be praying for these areas locally.

Prayer also has a way of drawing people of a community closer together. Each one of us is affected by at least one of the seven different areas listed previously.

With 2008 being an election year, prayer is needed to help us choose a leader for our country.

As many are involved in the war, prayer is needed to help bring peace to that land and allow our troops to come home.

With the way the media has such an impact on its audience, prayer is needed to help the messages be positive and clean.

With the economy slowing and prices rising, prayer is needed to help boost the economy and ask that prices on necessary products like gasoline be lowered.

Since all kids must go through a certain amount of education, prayer is needed for administrators, teachers and other staff as they help mold the young minds of children to be the leaders of tomorrow.

As society becomes more tolerant of people's opinions and less tolerant of the unchanging principles of the Bible, prayer is needed to help churches humbly speak out with boldness the good-news message of Jesus Christ.

As families are becoming spread thin because of the work hours of the parent(s) or the busyness of the family schedule, prayer is needed to help families get back some of the core values it has since lost.

I hope you will eagerly consider coming together with us as we cover these different areas in prayer.

The Hamilton County Ministerial Alliance invites anyone who feels that praying for our nation and our community is important to come and observe this day with other community members and the local ministerial alliance.

We will be meeting from noon until 1 p.m. May 1 on the Hamilton County Court House lawn for prayer during the first half of the time, followed by a free lunch, which will be served at the Veterans of Foreign Wars post on the south side of the downtown square. In case of rain, all activities will take place in the VFW.

• Jarrod Spencer is the minister of the Church of Christ in McLeansboro.

        

• Click to discuss this story with other readers on our forums.