The National Day of Prayer on Thursday, May 3, 2018, will focus on prayer for unity in America, announced Dr. Ronnie Floyd, the organization's president.
In a leadership summit with regional coordinators and leaders of the prayer movement, Dr. Floyd announced the theme for next year's National Day of Prayer: "Pray for America—Unity." The theme is anchored around Ephesians 4:3, which says, "Be eager to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace."
"The mass shootings that have rocked Las Vegas and recently Sutherland Springs, Texas; the terrorist attack that killed eight people in Manhattan; the natural disasters that have swept from the East to the West Coasts; the escalating racial tensions and confrontations in our cities and the political division and polarization that has divided the nation beyond anything any of us has ever seen all tell us that America is yearning for peace and unity," said Dr. Floyd.
"The spirit of the age appears to be ruling in this hour. America needs God now more than any time in our history," Dr. Floyd said. "And there's no higher calling for the church in America than to be the unifying force our fractured society so desperately needs."
Leading up to the National Day of Prayer, Dr. Floyd, who was appointed as the organization's president in August, is calling Christians of all stripes to pray for the next Great Awakening in America.
"The National Day of Prayer must become a multi-church, multi-denominational, multi-ministry, multi-generational, multi-ethnic and multi-lingual movement of prayer for America," said Dr. Floyd. "I believe deeply that as the church goes, so goes America. And as America goes, so goes the rest of the world. If the church does not see revival, the country will never see it either."
"In our generation, there has never been a time more than today when the National Day of Prayer has been needed more," Dr. Floyd added.
This past September, when President Trump declared a National Day of Prayer for the victims of Hurricane Harvey in Texas and the Southeast, Dr. Floyd prayed on national television. Dr. Floyd's prayer was watched live on TV and online by millions of people in America. Recently, Dr. Floyd also traveled to Washington, D.C., where he met and prayed with Congressional leaders, including Speaker Paul Ryan.
Under Dr. Floyd's leadership, the National Day of Prayer is growing into a prayer movement that mobilizes millions of Americans to unified public prayer for the United States.
"Government cannot fix us. Politics will not heal us. The hope for America is to experience the next Great Spiritual Awakening," Dr. Floyd said. "Only God can heal America and mend our fault lines, and the church must lead with fervent and faithful prayer."
The National Day of Prayer was created in 1952 by a joint resolution of Congress, and signed into law by President Harry S. Truman. In 1988, the law was unanimously amended by both the House and the Senate and signed into law by President Ronald Reagan on Thursday, May 5, 1988, designating the first Thursday of May as a day of national prayer. Every president since 1952 has signed a National Day of Prayer proclamation.
Next year's National Day of Prayer, May 3, 2018, will mark the 30th anniversary of President Reagan signing the amended law into effect.
In 2017, an estimated 2 million Americans observed the National Day of Prayer in over 30,000 events, organized by 40,000 volunteers in all 50 states. Additionally, the National Day of Prayer was also observed in some way in over 80 countries.
A graphic for the 2018 National Day of Prayer theme and photographs of Dr. Floyd are available here.
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