Hear the cry and the prayer that your servant is praying in your presence this day (1 Kings 8:28)
The 64th annual National Day of Prayer is May 7. With it, comes the opportunity to lift our voices in unison and pray for our nation. It’s a day I always look forward to, but this year I feel a special affinity with the focus and especially with the chosen verse of Scripture. This passage from I Kings 8:28 speaks directly to me as the mother of a once active duty, frontline infantry Marine.
It’s the echoing cry heard through the centuries as the ones left at home battle on their knees for the safety of those away at war.
These were also my words, as so many times during those long deployments I cried out, begging God to hear my prayers for my son’s safety. It’s also the prayer I begged our friends and family to pray on our son’s behalf.
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While my son was deployed, I wanted more than anything to be able to protect him. But that wasn’t within my power. He was half a world away, far from everything familiar, facing an enemy whose single goal was to kill him and those serving with him. So I did the one thing I could do. It became my course of last resort because I was at the end of my own strength.
I prayed.
And I prayed.
And I prayed some more.
I learned to take my overwhelming fear to the only One who could protect him. And I left my son in God’s hands. And my course of last resort became my strength, and the first place I turned. Instead of praying in desperation, I began to pray in confidence. I learned to lean into God, instead of turning in on myself.
On this national day of prayer, we have the privilege and responsibility to come together in prayer. Together, we have the ability to amplify that heart’s cry asking God to keep those men and women in our military safe.
The power of our prayers is strengthened even more by the fact that so many of us are praying the same thing for those in our armed services. We can take encouragement from being a part of a great choir of voices, praying for our soldiers. When we each give voice to these prayers, we become a mighty concert, directed by the power of the amazing God we serve.
The National Day of Prayer is May 7. Join us in prayer and send your prayer request for America.
