“Give ear to my prayer, O God” - National Day of Prayer, 2017

In 1983, Ronald Reagan proclaimed, “Prayer is the mainstream of the American spirit, a fundamental tenet of our people since before the Republic was founded.  A year before the Declaration of Independence, in 1775, the Continental Congress proclaimed the first National Day of Prayer as the initial positive action of every colonist” (you can find these words in their entirety at this link:) 
https://reaganlibrary.archives.gov/archives/speeches/1983/12783h.htm

Despite all of this history, something has happened to us as Americans.  We don’t value prayer as we ought.  We don’t realize just how desperately we need God.  Today is the National Day of Prayer, and yet the vast majority of the citizens of the United States of America will go through this day without thinking of God or the inclination to say a prayer of thanksgiving to Him.

Abraham Lincoln, in the year 1863, said these haunting words:

“We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of Heaven.  We have been preserved, these many years, in peace and prosperity…But we have forgotten God.  We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace…and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own.  Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become…too proud to pray to the God who made us!  It behooves us then, to humble ourselves before the offended Power, to confess our national sins, and to pray for…forgiveness” (his words are available at this link:)

http://www.abrahamlincolnonline.org/lincoln/speeches/fast.htm 

I can't think of a better and more fitting way to conclude than with a prayer from my father, Jerry Bauer.  Dad was a man of prayer.  Not only did he pray regularly at home with his family, he also prayed numerous prayers on the air for his vocation as a Christian radio announcer.  Here is a portion of one of the prayers he gave on a National Day of Prayer:

“Dear Heavenly Father,

We come to You today in praise and adoration – for You are the Almighty God, the Creator of the Universe, and we love You so much.  Today, we pray for our nation on this National Day of Prayer.  Thank You for the opportunity we still have in our land, to pray, openly, to You – the Almighty God.  Father, You know that America has no hope without You.  And it appears that just a few want Your blessings, Your protection, Your way of living.  We pray for a spiritual awakening of the United States of America.  We pray for revival and a return to the values on which this land was founded: one nation under God.”

Kevin

“Give ear to my prayer, O God, and hide not yourself from my plea for mercy!” (Psalm 55:1)