Senator Lankford Speaks on the Senate Floor to Recognize National Day of Prayer

WASHINGTON, DC – Senator James Lankford (R-OK) today delivered a speech on the floor of the Senate in recognition of the National Day of Prayer. The National Day of Prayer is an annual observance held on the first Thursday of May, inviting people of all faiths to pray for the nation. It was created in 1952 by a joint resolution of the United States Congress, and signed into law by President Harry S. Truman. In 1988, the law was amended and signed by President Reagan to designate the National Day of Prayer as the first Thursday in May. Lankford serves as chairman of the Congressional Prayer Caucus.
 
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Today is a unique day for America as well. It’s one day a year that we as a nation have called something called the National Day of Prayer. It started in 1988 with an official day, this day, the first Thursday of May. But in the 1950’s, Harry Truman started this process of a National Day of Prayer. And it far precedes that. The nation has a rich and beautiful history in prayer. Members of the House and Senate as you know open the day every day with a prayer. It’s been that way from the very beginning. Even the first Continental Congress on September 7, 1774, opened in prayer.
 
Now, I don’t think I could find very many Americans that would say we’re running out of things to pray for. Debt, anger in the nation, conversation about hard, difficult issues that we face, terrorism, threats of violence from around the world. We’re not out of things to prayer for, far from it. But people of faith believe that regardless of the obstacles that we face, there is a God that we can call out to who hears us and who cares about our daily lives. He’s not a God that just created and walked away. He is a God who we can know and we feel confident knows and loves us.
 
I encourage Americans to pray for the President, for the Vice President, for their cabinet, for the Supreme Court, members of the Senate and of the House, the staff that serve around us and with us that serve people around this country, for our military, first responders, the list could go on and on, of people that set aside their time and their life to be able to serve. It’s not an unreasonable request to be able to say pray for them. Ask God to continue to protect them. It’s amazing to me how many Christians I bump into of my own faith who found it easier to complain about government than it is to pray for those in government. I think that’s an issue we need to fix. And today’s a good day to begin that, this National Day of Prayer.
 
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