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Friday, May 4, 2007 1:16 AM CDT
Clergy View -- Do you know your Father's voice?
By PASTOR LOU BUTLER
Central Community Church in Mattoon
Yesterday, May 3rd, was the National Day of Prayer, a day designated by the United States Congress as a day when all Americans regardless of faith are asked to come together and pray in their own way.
On April 17, 1952, President Truman signed a bill proclaiming the National Day of Prayer into law. It was in 1972 that the National Prayer Committee was formed.
It went on to create the National Day of Prayer Task Force, with the intended purpose of coordinating events for the National Day of Prayer.
In 1988, President Reagan signed a bill into law decreeing that the National Day of Prayer should be held on the first Thursday of May.
I can’t help but wonder if the same legislation would pass in today’s congressional arena.
Matt Daugherty, a deacon in our church, shared this writing with me regarding a National Day of Prayer:
The silence continues
Once upon a time there was a man who had a child. Even though the child was perfectly normal he never said a word.
The child made absolutely no attempt to communicate with the father. No written or spoken words or hand gestures were expressed.
The father repeatedly tried to get the child to talk with him. As the child grew the father grieved over the lack of fellowship he had with his son.
Years turned into decades and the father was saddened greatly because of the absence of quality time the two shared. The father lived his whole life with one wish that was never to be.
His wish was one good conversation with his child.
Sadly this scenario plays out day after day, year after year all over the world.
Our Heavenly Father pleads with us to talk with Him. The silence is heartbreaking. He has made repeated attempts to communicate with us, such as in John 16:23-24.
Jesus said, “And in that day you will ask me nothing. Most assuredly I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in My name He will give you. Until now you have asked nothing in My name. Ask and you will receive, that your joy may be full.”
Here we are told to “ask” three times in two sentences. In James 5:13-18 we are told about praying seven times. In 1 Thessalonians 5:17 we are told to “pray without ceasing.”
In heaven the silence continues. We have become a society that has to have a National Day of Prayer to get people to remember to pray once a year.
Would one conversation a year with your child be enough?
Almighty God sits on His throne begging and pleading with us to talk with Him.
God has more in common with the man in the beginning of our story than just a child who won’t speak. He also shares the wish. God can create anything but fellowship with His children.
He has given us all we need to have a one-on-one relationship with Him. He promises us joy and peace, healing and problems lifted. He’s sitting on the edge of His throne waiting to open the storehouses of heaven.
Sadly and to some of us unbelievably, the silence continues. Is it any wonder the world is in the shape it is?
It is time to share this wonderful opportunity He has given us with others. It is time not only to speak up to God but also with those around us.
Blessings and changed lives hang in the balance of the silence. It is time to have a National Decade of Prayer.
God has used Matt with this simple parable to provide a message.
I am convinced that God truly wants us to pray continually: In the KJV 1 Thessalonians 5: 17 indicates we are to “pray without ceasing,” and the NIV asks us to “pray continually.”
Do you know your Father’s voice?
The power of prayer is multiplied when two or more are gathered together and ask in His name (Matthew 18:19).
Let us try to remember each other in these next 364 days as we await the next National Day of Prayer.
As in 2 Timothy 1:3, “I thank God, whom I serve with a pure conscience, as my forefathers did, as without ceasing I remember you in my prayers night and day” (NIV).
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Hmph wrote on May 7, 2007 8:17 PM: