“Wake up America” is the theme of the 2016 National Day of Prayer planned for May 5. This annual event, held on the first Thursday in May, will emphasize the need for individuals, corporately and individually, to return to God in reverence for His Holy Name.

Millions of people will gather to pray at thousands of events organized by people in communities across America. You can find out where events are planned in your city by going to the website www.nationaldayofprayer.org.

The National Day of Prayer Task Force believes May 5 “will have profound significance for our country.” To highlight the theme, “Wake Up America,” the Scripture chosen for this year comes from Isaiah 58:1a, “Shout it aloud, do not hold back. Raise your voice like a trumpet.”

The honorary chairman of the 2016 National Day of Prayer is Dr. Tony Evans, pastor and author, who has written a prayer that organizers ask people to pray simultaneously across America at noon on May 5. We would do well to speak Evans’ prayer along with our own prayers for our country.

“Dear heavenly Father, we come to You today as a humble people desperate for Your supernatural intervention on behalf of our beloved nation. First, we thank You for all the blessings You have bestowed on our land, blessings that have allowed us to bring so much good and benefit to not only our own citizens but also to the rest of the world. The very ideals upon which this country was founded were based on biblical truths, no matter how some try to rewrite history to deny that very fact today.

“This is why our hearts are so broken over how You continue to be marginalized and dismissed by both our people and our institutions. We are also saddened by the fact that Your people have contributed greatly to the spiritual apathy that now engulfs us. Our satisfaction in remaining religious without being fully committed to living out the truths of Your Word has caused us to become co-conspirators with the forces of evil that are destroying us as a society.

“It is for this reason that we personally and collectively repent of our carnality and recommit ourselves to becoming visible and verbal disciples of Jesus Christ. Enable us, by Your Spirit, to no longer be secret agent Christians but rather to publicly declare and live out Your truth in a spirit of love so that You feel welcome in our country once again.

“Thank You for Your promise to hear our prayers when we call to You with hearts of repentance and obedience, which is how we are appealing to You today, Father. On behalf of Your church, we affirm afresh the priority You are to us that You would fill every dimension of our lives as we seek to bring You glory through the advancement of Your kingdom in our personal lives, our family lives, and in the lives of our churches and our government leaders.

“We confidently invite heaven’s intervention into all the affairs of our nation and we praise You in advance for Your answer. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.”

 

-Jan White is an award-winning columnist.