NDOP 2019“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. John 13:34 NIV

I was preparing to move our family to Tuscaloosa to start a new church in the fall of 2002. As preparation, someone suggested that it would be good for me to meet William Scroggins a former Pastor who was now leading a city wide movement called the Tuscaloosa Prayer Network. It is easy to remember the first day we met, because it was at the National Day of Prayer event held at First Wesleyan that year. What a joy to begin a new work in a city in which so many churches were seeking God together. Praying with and for one another is an expression of loving one another.

  • 1952: On April 17 a bill initiated by Mr. Conrad Hilton of Hilton Hotels and Senator Frank Carlson of Kansas was passed (Public Law 82-324) that the President of the United States was to set aside an appropriate day each year, other than Sunday, as a National Day of Prayer.
  • 1988: Thursday, May 8 – Ronald Reagan signs into law Public Law 100-307 the designation of the first Thursday in May as the annual observance for the National Day of Prayer
  • 1998: Bill Clinton signs into law – Pub. L. 105-225, August 12, 1998, 112 Stat. 1258: The President shall issue each year a proclamation designating the first Thursday in May as a National Day of Prayer on which the people of the United States may turn to God in prayer and meditation at churches, in groups, and as individuals.

The theme for this year’s NDOP is “Love One Another”. Why is that so difficult to do?

Will you take time today to seek the Lord and cry out for Christians to begin to express true love to one another, to all people?

Pray for Pam and I as we host a citywide NDOP at Vineyard Community Church today from 12 – 1. We must allow God to move our hearts in prayer and repentance, if we want to move God’s heart over our concerns.

Please find some time to pray for our Nation today, we are in desperate need of prayer with our extreme polarization, division and lack of ongoing love. Besides – “it is the law”!

Blessings Love y’all