April 25, 2024
ATLANTA – Georgians will gather in person and online in communities across the state on Thursday for National Day of Prayer events.
Mike Griffin, the Georgia Baptist Mission Board’s public affairs representative, said the prayer gatherings are crucial because, “for the most part, every problem our country and our state faces is at its root a spiritual problem.”
Gov. Brian Kemp will lead a service on the south steps in the state Capitol in Atlanta at 11 a.m. That will be followed at noon with a separate time of prayer in the Senate chamber hosted by Georgia’s National Day of Prayer affiliate.
Hundreds of other services are planned across the U.S., many of them in Georgia.
Griffin urged Georgia Baptists to pray that people would be awakened to the nation’s urgent need for God.
“The same principles that founded our nation – virtue, freedom and faith – are the same principles that are going to be needed to preserve our nation,” Griffin said.
The late evangelist Billy Graham, preaching from the steps of the U.S. Capitol in 1952 during the height of the Korean War, called for a renewed National Day of Prayer.
"What a thrilling, glorious thing it would be to see the leaders of our country today kneeling before Almighty God in prayer,” Graham said at the time. “What a thrill would sweep this country. What renewed hope and courage would grip the Americans at this hour of peril.”
In response, Truman signed a bill requiring a National Day of Prayer to be declared by every subsequent president at an appropriate date of his choice. In 1988, President Ronald Reagan approved an amendment from Congress that set aside the first Thursday in May as an annual National Day of Prayer.
Organizers of the National Day of Prayer said the need for prayer is indeed urgent.”
“This year, perhaps more than ever, our country stands in need of prayer as we witness more and more evidence that the number of Christ-followers in America appears to be diminishing and more people identify as culture followers,” they said.
People who want to participate online in the governor’s 11 a.m. prayer service can do so at https://m.facebook.com/GovKemp/.
Georgia’s official National Day of Prayer service can be viewed at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zg98cCr9wTU.
