Thursday is the 36th annual National Day of Prayer where people across the nation will gather for a day of prayer for the United States of America. The theme this year is “Love One Another,” taken from the words of Jesus in John 13:34, “Love one another. Just as I have loved you.”
On Thursday evening, Dr. Ronnie Floyd will lead the National Observance, which will be held at 7:30 p.m. ET in the National Statuary Hall of the U.S. Capitol. The National Observance will bring together a multiethnic, cross-denominational coalition of participants including some members of Congress as well as hundreds of faith leaders. Rev. Samuel Rodriguez, president of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference, Rev. Anthony B. Thompson, whose wife was murdered in the 2015 shooting at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina, and Julio Arriola, a church planter and missionary to Mexico, will help lead the prayer event. Pastor Andrew Brunson, who was released last year after spending two years in a Turkish jail, will also participate.
The National Day of Prayer was created in 1952 by a joint resolution of Congress and signed into law by President Harry S. Truman. In 1988, the law was unanimously amended by both the House and the Senate and signed into law by President Ronald Reagan on Thursday, May 5, 1988, designating the first Thursday of May as a day of national prayer. Every president since 1952 has signed a National Day of Prayer proclamation.
This year’s U.S. Capitol Bible Reading Marathon has brought hundreds of believers to the front of the Capitol building to publicly read aloud the entire Word of God, in multiple languages and without commentary, for over ninety continuous hours. Mat Staver, Founder and Chairman of Liberty Counsel, will participate in the closing ceremony of the Bible Reading Marathon tomorrow.
Liberty Counsel and Faith & Liberty staff kicked off the Capitol Bible Reading Marathon with prayer on Sunday and coordinated the Roof Top Prayer on Monday. Staff members read from the Bible and will continue to participate throughout the entire week of events.
“Our nation is in crisis and unifying Christians to pray for America is the most important thing we can do right now. It is a privilege we have to pray and we should not take it lightly. The Bible says, ‘The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective, and we can make a powerful difference in history when we humble ourselves, come together, and seek God’s mercy and guidance,” said Staver.
