What's Needed: National Day of Prayer and Fasting

The Civil War was raging. The hitherto "United" States was now at war with each other. Casualties for this war, that would reach close to 700,000 people, was second only to World War ll.

The nation was in jeopardy of survival and in grave danger of ever being restored to fulfill its God-ordained destiny. Thank God there was a president at the time who know where he could go at a time of national emergency. And, being the right president at the right time, he was able to sign a proclamation that the nation as a whole appealed to the God of heaven for His mercy to bring healing and restoration to the land.

It was a time similar, in some ways, to what is presently taking place in the United States. The state of Arizona has decreed that open borders is no longer sustainable due to increased drug trafficking, crime and potential terrorism, and has enacted legislation to put a stop to illegal border crossing.

Barack Obama, President of the United States, is openly opposed to the state's legislation, which is eerily similar in tone to unenforced Federal border regulations that are already on the books.

Various cities across the nation have also opposed Arizona's legitimate call for the enforcement of border laws and have imposed boycotts against Arizona, punishing the state by millions of dollars. The nation is divided over what should be an open and shut case of the government enforcing its own laws and protecting its own borders & citizens.

To target Arizona in a publicity stunt, Obama has also invited Mexican President Felipe Calderon to the United States to chide Americans over Arizona's new ruling. Ironically, Congressmen, elected by citizens of the United States, applauded a foreign leader as he jeered one of our own state's new border laws during a special session of congress.

Never mind that Mexican border laws are so much more extreme and politically incorrect than Arizona's laws.

Unfortunately, those politicians who are openly decrying Arizona's stand are courting the illegals as a voting block. Never mind, that it totally undermines the constitution and this nation's sovereignty. For illegitimate votes, these politicians would sever this nation, in a way not seen since the Civil War.

Across the spectrum of today's headlines we find we are perilously close to never getting out of our various daunting national problems: whether it's the ticking time bomb of our exploding $13 trillion national debt; the out-of-control environmental disaster from BP's offshore gas pipeline leak; the growing dissatisfaction of the electorate and the growing alienation of our politicians who are not seeking the best interests of this nation; the chipping away of America's greatness and exceptionalism by our elected leaders, as they go around the world apologizing for the United States' very existence.

The picture is unsettling. One president did his all to preserve the union; another does all he can to divide it.

We are at a time when we as a nation should humble ourselves once again, submitting ourselves to a greater Power, who is fully capable of turning this nation right-side-up. It is time we had another national day of prayer and fasting.

Here is the full text of Abraham Lincoln's Proclamation for a National Day of Prayer and Fasting:




Washington, D.C.
March 30, 1863

By the President of the United States of America.

A Proclamation.

Whereas, the Senate of the United States, devoutly recognizing the Supreme Authority and just Government of Almighty God, in all the affairs of men and of nations, has, by a resolution, requested the President to designate and set apart a day for National prayer and humiliation.

And whereas it is the duty of nations as well as of men, to own their dependence upon the overruling power of God, to confess their sins and transgressions, in humble sorrow, yet with assured hope that genuine repentance will lead to mercy and pardon; and to recognize the sublime truth, announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history, that those nations only are blessed whose God is the Lord.

And, insomuch as we know that, by His divine law, nations like individuals are subjected to punishments and chastisements in this world, may we not justly fear that the awful calamity of civil war, which now desolates the land, may be but a punishment, inflicted upon us, for our presumptuous sins, to the needful end of our national reformation as a whole People? 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.

Now, therefore, in compliance with the request, and fully concurring in the views of the Senate, I do, by this my proclamation, designate and set apart Thursday, the 30th. day of April, 1863, as a day of national humiliation, fasting and prayer. And I do hereby request all the People to abstain, on that day, from their ordinary secular pursuits, and to unite, at their several places of public worship and their respective homes, in keeping the day holy to the Lord, and devoted to the humble discharge of the religious duties proper to that solemn occasion.

All this being done, in sincerity and truth, let us then rest humbly in the hope authorized by the Divine teachings, that the united cry of the Nation will be heard on high, and answered with blessings, no less than the pardon of our national sins, and the restoration of our now divided and suffering Country, to its former happy condition of unity and peace.

In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.

Done at the City of Washington, this thirtieth day of March, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the Independence of the United States the eighty seventh.

By the President: Abraham Lincoln
William H. Seward, Secretary of State.