“This Country Needs a Revival.” –House Speaker Sam Rayburn, 1952

The National Day of Prayer was signed into law by President Truman in 1952 after Billy Graham and his team held a five-week Crusade in Washington, D.C. Speaker of the House Sam Rayburn said, “This country needs a revival” and gave final authorization for a Congressional Act authorizing Graham to hold services on the Capitol steps on Sunday, February 4 that year. The Congressional act and the bill signed by Truman are in keeping with the tradition of the nation’s forefathers who issued numerous calls for national and regional prayer and repentance beginning in 1775.

In 1787 after weeks of struggling and little progress being made to write the Constitution eighty-one year old Ben Franklin rose and addressed the convention which was about to adjourn in confusion. Franklin said, “In the beginning of the contest with Britain, when we were sensible of danger, we had daily prayers in this room for Divine protection. Our prayers, sir, were heard and they were graciously answered. All of us who were engaged in the struggle must have observed frequent instances of a superintending Providence in our favor. And have we now forgotten this powerful Friend? Or do we imagine we no longer need His assistance?”

He spoke of the present difficulty and past wisdom gained during the founding of the nation a decade before:

We have gone back to ancient history for models of Government, and examined the different forms of those Republics which having been formed with the seeds of their own dissolution now no longer exist. And we have viewed Modern States all round Europe, but find none of their Constitutions suitable to our circumstances. In this situation of this Assembly, groping as it were in the dark to find political truth, and scarce able to distinguish it when presented to us, how has it happened, Sir, that we have not hitherto once thought of humbly applying to the Father of lights to illuminate our understandings? In the beginning of the Contest with G. Britain, when we were sensible of danger we had daily prayer in this room for the divine protection. Our prayers, Sir, were heard, and they were graciously answered. All of us who were engaged in the struggle must have observed frequent instances of a Superintending providence in our favor. To that kind providence we owe this happy opportunity of consulting in peace on the means of establishing our future national felicity. And have we now forgotten that powerful friend? or do we imagine that we no longer need his assistance? I have lived, Sir, a long time, and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth--that God governs in the affairs of men. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without his notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without his aid? We have been assured, Sir, in the sacred writings, that “except the Lord build the House they labor in vain that build it.” I firmly believe this; and I also believe that without his concurring aid we shall succeed in this political building no better than the Builders of Babel: We shall be divided by our little partial local interests; our projects will be confounded, and we ourselves shall become a reproach and bye word down to future ages. And what is worse, mankind may hereafter from this unfortunate instance, despair of establishing Governments by Human Wisdom and leave it to chance, war and conquest. I therefore beg leave to move--that henceforth prayers imploring the assistance of Heaven, and its blessings on our deliberations, be held in this Assembly every morning before we proceed to business, and that one or more of the Clergy of this City be requested to officiate in that service—.

In an unprecedented series of actions the President, perhaps naively or in hopes of gaining favor in the eyes of the rest of the world, bowed low to the Saudi King who is Keeper of the Most Holy Shrines of Islam. Then the President announced America “is not a Christian nation” while Pew Research asserts the majority of Americans identify themselves as Christian. Perhaps now more than any time since the day Benjamin Franklin called for prayers, the call to prayer is reverberating across the nation. We recall the words of the Spirit through Joel:

Let the priests, the Lord’s ministers, Weep between the porch and the altar, And let them say, “Spare Your people, O Lord, and do not make Your inheritance a reproach, a byword among the nations. Why should they among the peoples say, ‘Where is their God?’” Then the Lord will be zealous for His land and will have pity on His people. The Lord will answer and say to His people, “Behold, I am going to send you grain, new wine and oil, and you will be satisfied in full with them; and I will never again make you a reproach among the nations. “But I will remove the northern army far from you, and I will drive it into a parched and desolate land, and its vanguard into the eastern sea, and its rear guard into the western sea. And its stench will arise and its foul smell will come up, for it has done great things.

Let us arise in that Spirit and in the spirit of the founder’s who pledged and paid with their lives, fortunes, and sacred honor to hand us life, liberty and pursuit of happiness in America. Let us touch the portals of heaven that it open and send down grace that we are able to hand to our children the same blessing that has thus far come to us in America.

This is your call to prayer for our nation. Let us not relent until we see our prayers answered.

Please join us in praying for America this Friday at the Watch of the Lord™. Our live webcast starts at 8:30pm EST.