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Speaker Mike Johnson and Housing and Urban Development Secretary Scott Turner opened the 75th National Day of Prayer Thursday morning in the U.S. Capitol, celebrating 250 years of America and all that God has blessed her with.
“Our founders did their best to set up our nation in accordance with his guidelines and principles. And my friends, that is why God has blessed America for 250 years,” Johnson told the crowd gathered in Statuary Hall. “He is the one that has endowed us with our inalienable rights, among those of the rights of life, liberty and pursuit of happiness.”
The theme of this year’s National Day of Prayer comes from 1 Chronicles 16:24, “Declare His glory among the nations, His marvelous works among all the peoples.”
“The theme of this year’s National Day of Prayer is not rhetorical,” Johnson continued. “God calls us to be faithful and to proclaim his good deeds and on this anniversary, particularly, we have a great opportunity.”
“We should use the entire year as a teachable moment to pass along to the next generation of Americans, who we are, what we’re about, and why we are in this great country,” Johnson suggested.
The speaker offered a prayer over the crowd: “Let’s also pray that we may have the strength, just as our founders did, to hand the faith and freedom on to the next generation that follows us, a generation that cherishes liberty and proclaims proudly what is right and good and true.”
HUD Secretary Scott Turner
Turner, a former NFL player, also served as an associate pastor at Prestonwood Baptist Church in Plano, Texas. He shared the glory of God through his own personal testimony.
“I still remember being a little boy sitting and feeling and sensing the presence of God Almighty. Jeremiah 29:11 says, ‘He knows the plans that He has for us, plans to prosper us and not to harm us, plans to give us hope and a future.’”
“I know that that same Providence has washed over the United States of America for the past 250 years,” the secretary said.
“Look at how many storms God has led us over the last two and a half centuries,” he continued. “We survived and thrived despite all these trials, because of the grace of our sovereign God and the same sovereign God that our founding fathers believed in.”
“No people can be bound to acknowledge and adore the invisible hand which conducts the affairs of men more than the people of the United States,” he said, referencing George Washington’s inaugural address. “Every step by which they have advanced to the character of an independent nation seems to have been distinguished by some token of providential agents.”
75 Years of a National Day of Prayer
The event celebrated 75 years of a National Day of Prayer; however, it was not signed into law until 1988 by President Ronald Reagan. The bill, introduced by Sen. Strom Thurmond, R-S.C., sets aside the first Thursday in May as the date the National Day of Prayer is celebrated.
This year, the day was brought together by the National Day of Prayer Task Force, with 19,000 coordinators organizing multiple events across the country glorifying God.
English (US)