Tennessee lawmakers declared 31 days of prayer and fasting
Daily News Article — Posted on September 16, 2024
(by Benjamin Gill, CBN News) – …People across Tennessee [held] 31 days of prayer and fasting after state officials approved a resolution to “seek God’s hand of mercy and healing” throughout the month of July.
After state lawmakers passed House Joint Resolution 803, Governor Bill Lee signed the resolution which calls on citizens of the Volunteer State to pray and fast as they are able.
“We recognize that God, as Creator and King of all Glory, has both the authority to judge and to bless nations or states,” the resolution declares.
State Representative Monty Fritts (R-Kingston) was the author of the measure. He told CBN News in a statement, “Tennessee and our Nation are facing many grave issues that threaten our liberties, our peace, and our quality of life. We cannot legislate ourselves out of these problems. We cannot spend our way to solutions. A merciful, sovereign move of God to heal our land is the only way these issues can truly be addressed.”
“HJR803 is a call to those who are physically able and spiritually inclined to do so to humble themselves, repent of their sin, fast, and pray for God’s Mercy, Grace, and Blessing on our State and on our Nation,” Rep. Fritts continued. “This is not about the government telling the Church what to do. It is a call for the Church to re-take her place of authority in our society; for the People of God to repent of our complacency and for the fact that we have largely retreated from the world. ‘If My People, who are called by my Name, humble themselves, and pray, and seek My Face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and forgive their sin and will heal their land.’ (2 Chronicles 7:14)”
The resolution points to the need for prayer by highlighting crises plaguing the state and nation including violent crime, human trafficking, drug addiction, the fentanyl crisis, children in foster care, and government corruption.
Christians across the state have been praying over the past two weeks, while pastors and even public officials are leading believers to seek God together. WBBJ reports about one event in which Madison County Mayor AJ Masey, Rep. Chris Todd, several county commissioners, city council members, law enforcement, and school board members publicly gathered to pray together.
Pastor Garry Martin of Jackson First Assembly was among them, stating, “Everything that we’re doing in our country is not changing anything. And they (lawmakers) realize that the one element that’s missing is the presence of God in our relationships, in our meetings, and across America.”
The resolution has even prompted calls for prayer and fasting in other states too.
California Pastor Jack Hibbs of Calvary Chapel Chino Hills called upon “every pastor” and “every Christian church” in the nation to join with Tennessee and intercede for America and all the states. “Let’s all be Tennesseans this month of July and pray and fast as the Lord leads,” stated Pastor Hibbs.
The Tennessee resolution declares in part:
“…we, as public servants in the Tennessee General Assembly, seek God’s Mercy upon our land and beseech Him to not withdraw His Hand of blessing from us.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that we recognize our sins and shortcomings before Him and humbly ask His Forgiveness.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that we ask the Lord Jesus to heal our land and remove the violence, human-trafficking, addiction, and corruption.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that we ask that the Holy Spirit fill our halls of government, our classrooms, our places of business, our churches, and our homes with peace, love, and joy.”
The TN resolution also refers to proclamations by America’s Founding Fathers, specifically citing one from John Adams on April 15, 1799, which states the following:
“(This day) be observed throughout the United States of America as a day of solemn humiliation, fasting, and prayer; that the citizens on that day abstain, as far as may be, from their secular occupation, and devote the time to the sacred duties of religion, in public and in private; that they call to mind our numerous offenses against the most high God, confess them before Him with the sincerest penitence, implore his pardoning mercy, through the Great Mediator and Redeemer, for our past transgressions, and that through the grace of His Holy Spirit, we may be disposed and enabled to yield a more suitable obedience to his righteous requisitions in time to come; that He would interpose to arrest the progress of that impiety and licentiousness in principle and practice so offensive to Himself and so ruinous to mankind; that He would make us deeply sensible that ‘righteousness exalteth a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people’.” (Proverbs 14:34)
Published at CBN News on July 10, 2024. Reprinted here for educational purposes only. May not be reproduced on other websites without permission.
Background
Throughout America’s history, our elected officials have called for days of prayer:
This is an excerpt of President Obama’s 2011 Memorial Day Proclamation:
I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States of America, do hereby proclaim Memorial Day, May 30, 2011, as a day of prayer for permanent peace, and I designate the hour beginning in each locality at 11:00 a.m. of that day as a time to unite in prayer."
The Continental Congress issued a day of prayer in 1775 to designate “a time for prayer in forming a new nation.”
This is text excerpted from a national fast declared by the Continental Congress on March 16, 1776:[We the Congress] do earnestly recommend, that Friday, the Seventeenth day of May next, be observed by the said colonies as a day of humiliation, fasting, and prayer; that we may, with united hearts, confess and bewail our manifold sins and transgressions, and, by a sincere repentance and amendment of life, appease his righteous displeasure, and, through the merits and mediation of Jesus Christ, obtain his pardon and forgiveness; humbly imploring his assistance to frustrate the cruel purposes of our unnatural enemies;
. . . that it may please the Lord of Hosts, the God of Armies, to animate our officers and soldiers with invincible fortitude, to guard and protect them in the day of battle, and to crown the continental arms, by sea and land, with victory and success… (from wallbuilders .com)
From the prayer President Franklin D. Roosevelt gave on the evening of June 6, 1944 [D-Day] while addressing the nation by radio:
…Many people have urged that I call the nation into a single day of special prayer. But because the road is long and the desire is great, I ask that our people devote themselves in a continuance of prayer. As we rise to each new day, and again when each day is spent, let words of prayer be on our lips, invoking Thy help to our efforts…(from studentnewsdaily.com)
From President Abraham Lincoln’s 1863, National Day of Humiliation, Fasting and Prayer Proclamation (during the Civil War):
We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of Heaven. We have been preserved, these many years, in peace and prosperity. We have grown in numbers, wealth and power, as no other nation has ever grown. But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace, and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us; 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 self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us!
It behooves us then, to humble ourselves before the offended Power, to confess our national sins, and to pray for clemency and forgiveness.
(from presidency.ucsb.edu)
In 2007, Alabama was experiencing a severe drought. Governor Bob Riley proclaimed the dates from June 30 to July 7 as "Days of Prayer for Rain."
In 2011, Texas Gov. Rick Perry declared a day of prayer and fasting:
“Given the trials that beset our nation and world, from the global economic downturn to natural disasters, the lingering danger of terrorism and continued debasement of our culture, I believe it is time to convene the leaders from each of our United States in a day of prayer and fasting, like that described in the book of Joel,” Perry said in a statement.
In a letter inviting the nation’s governors to join him by also proclaiming Aug. 6 a day to pray for “unity and righteousness.”
“We simply want to humbly ask our creator to intervene on behalf of our people and nation, and ask for His blessing and healing power to transform our lives,” Perry wrote.
In September 2017, Texas Governor Greg Abbott Declared a Day of Prayer and President Trump signed a proclamation declaring the coming Sunday a “National Day of Prayer” for the state of Texas in the wake of Hurricane Harvey.
National Day of Prayer: The National Day of Prayer is an annual day of observance designated by the United States Congress and held on the first Thursday of May, when people are asked "to turn to God in prayer and meditation". The president is required by law to sign a proclamation each year, encouraging all Americans to pray on this day. It was created in 1952 by a joint resolution of the United States Congress and signed into law by President Harry S. Truman.