I am typically very hesitant about anything that smells like religious grandstanding. Jesus told too many parables about the Pharisees and their loud praying and prancing before the crowds. Nothing was sincere about that kind of behavior. And for years, it kept me from feeling comfortable at an event called “National Day of Prayer.” It wasn’t that I didn’t want people to pray; I simply didn’t want to focus on a public DISPLAY of what was hardly praying.

But the National Day of Prayer can be far bigger than that if we let it if we make it something more. On Thursday, on courthouse steps and commemorative parks across the country, men and women will gather to unite their hearts by praying together for our nation. We will pray for the leadership in a variety of positions, fulfilling Paul’s urging in the scripture we know as Romans. We will pray for repentance, fulfilling the Chronicler’s cry for the people of Israel to turn from their wicked ways and TO the Lord. And we will pray for each other, for we all need the fresh touch of the Holy Spirit to convict us, encourage us, guide us, heal us.

Will YOU pray this Thursday with us? At noon in your cubicle, your home, your classroom, your neighborhood, your car, or even on a city square like ours near city hall, will you turn your heart to the Lord for a few minutes and seek HIS heart, HIS leadership, HIS encouragement, and HIS action in our land?

Many of us will meet at the Larkin Cabin downtown to join our hearts in seeking the Lord’s heart together. Will you join us wherever you are?