Continuously serving Kosciusko County since 1854
Thursday, May 7 will mark the 75th Annual National Day of Prayer in the United States of America.
First instituted in 1951, it has been a call to Americans each year to remember the source of our liberty comes from our creator. The event in Kosciusko County will be at noon at Rodeheaver Auditorium, 901 Park Ave., Winona Lake. The NDAP theme for this diamond jubilee is “Glorify God Among the Nations - Seeking Him in All Generations.”
1 Chronicles 16:24 (NASB) says, “Tell of His glory among the nations, His wonderful deeds among all the peoples.”
Through good times and bad God has blessed this nation like no other over almost 250 years. It is appropriate for us to humble ourselves before the author of liberty and pray for His forgiveness and guidance each day. The image used for this year's event is Gen. George Washington kneeling in the snow at Valley Forge in 1777. This was a bleak time for the Continental Army and through prayer and God’s providence America prevailed to establish our nation. One of the earliest published prayers for the Continental Army was composed by Abiel Leonard, a Connecticut chaplain close to Washington:
“O my God, in obedience to the call of thy providence, I have engaged myself, and plighted my faith, to jeopardy my life in the high places of the field in the defense of my dear country and the liberties of it … Teach, I pray thee, my hands to war, and my fingers to fight in the defense of America, and the rights and liberties of it! Impress upon my mind a true sense of my duty, and the obligation I am under to my country … Hear me, O my God, and accept of those my petitions through Jesus Christ, to whom with thee, O Father, and the Holy Spirit, one God, be glory, honor and praise, forever and ever. Amen.”
Let us make every day a National Day of Prayer in this “land of the free” but especially take time to pray on May 7. Please join us if you can at Rodeheaver Auditorium but take a moment that day to pray.
Ken Locke is the retired corps administrator of The Salvation Army in Warsaw and director of the Greater Warsaw Ministerial Association. Have ideas for this column? Go to www.gwma.info.
