2010 National Day of Prayer Proclamations and Prayers

(will be posted as they are received)

President Barack Obama - 2010 National Day of Prayer Proclamation
The Presidential Proclamation is typically not received until after May 1.



Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's 2009 "Day of Prayer" Proclamation can be downloaded here. (671.33 Kb PDF)

Other proclamations included as available.


Throughout our Nation’s history, Americans have come together in moments of great challenge and uncertainty to humble themselves in prayer. In 1775, as the Continental Congress began the task of forging a new Nation, colonists were asked to observe a day of quiet humiliation and prayer. Almost a century later, as the flames of the Civil War burned from north to south, President Lincoln and the Congress once again asked the American people to pray as the fate of their Nation hung in the balance.

It is in that spirit of unity and reflection that we once again designate the first Thursday in May as the National Day of Prayer. Let us remember those who came before us, and let us each give thanks for the courage and compassion shown by so many in this country and around the world.

On this day of unity and prayer, let us also honor the service and sacrifice of the men and women of the United States Armed Forces. We celebrate their commitment to uphold our highest ideals, and we recognize that it is because of them that we continue to live in a Nation where people of all faiths can worship or not worship according to the dictates of their conscience.

Let us also use this day to come together in a moment of peace and goodwill. Our world grows smaller by the day, and our varied beliefs can bring us together to feed the hungry and comfort the afflicted; to make peace where there is strife; and to lift up those who have fallen on hard times. As we observe this day of prayer, we remember the one law that binds all great religions together: the Golden Rule, and its call to love one another; to understand one another; and to treat with dignity and respect those with whom we share a brief moment on this Earth.

The Congress, by Public Law 100-307, as amended, has called on the President to issue each year a proclamation designating the first Thursday in May as a “National Day of Prayer.”

NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States of America, do hereby proclaim May 7, 2009, as a National Day of Prayer. I call upon Americans to pray in thanksgiving for our freedoms and blessings and to ask for God’s continued guidance, grace, and protection for this land that we love.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this seventh day of May, in the year of our Lord two thousand nine, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and thirty-third.

BARACK OBAMA




Lord,

We are thankful for the abundant blessings You have bestowed on America. Our forefathers looked to You as Protector, Provider, and the Promise of hope. But we have wandered far from that firm foundation. May we repent for turning our backs on Your faithfulness.

We pray that this great nation will be restored by Your forgiveness.

From bondage, You grant freedom.

Through Your own sacrifice, You offer salvation.

From the state of despair, You offer peace.

From the bounties of Heaven, You have blessed – not because of our goodness – but by Your grace.

You have given us freedom to worship You in spirit and in truth as Your holy Word instructs. May our lives honor You in word and deed. May our nation acknowledge that all good things come from the Father above.

President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed that our nation should set apart a day for national prayer to confess our sins and transgressions in sorrow, “yet with assured hope that genuine repentance will lead to mercy and pardon… announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history, that those nations only are blessed whose God is the Lord.”

“We have vainly imagined in the deceitfulness of our own hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own… we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God who made us! It behooves us then… to confess our national sins and to pray for clemency and forgiveness.”

Help us to pray earnestly for our president and leaders who govern, that they will humble themselves and seek Your guidance so that everything we do will shine the light of Your glory in a darkened world.

May our prayers as a people and a nation be heard and blessed for such a time as this. We make this plea in faith, believing in the mighty name of Jesus our Lord.

Amen

Señor:

Estamos agradecidos por las bendiciones abundantes que tú le has dado a los Estados Unidos. Nuestros antepasados sabían que tú eras el protector, el proveedor y la promesa de su esperanza. Pero nosotros nos hemos alejado de ese fundamento sólido. Queremos arrepentirnos por darle la espalda a tu fidelidad.

Oramos para que esta gran nación sea restaurada con tu perdón.
Tú nos liberas de la esclavitud
Por medio de tu propio sacrificio, nos ofreces salvación.
Cuando estamos desesperados, nos ofreces tu paz.
Nos has bendecido con toda clase de bendiciones celestiales, no por nuestra bondad, sino por tu gracia.

Nos has dado al libertad de adorarte en espíritu y en verdad tal como lo indica tu santa palabra. Que nuestras vidas te honren en palabras y hechos. Que nuestra nación reconozca que todo lo bueno proviene del Padre de lo alto.

El presidente Abraham Lincoln proclamó que nuestra nación debía separar un día de oración a nivel nacional donde juntos confesáramos nuestros pecados y transgresiones “para que con una esperanza segura de saber que el arrepentimiento genuino traerá la misericordia y el perdón...y que tal como lo anuncian las Escrituras y la historia lo ha comprobado, Dios bendice solamente a a aquellas naciones cuyo Dios es el Señor”.

“Nosotros vanamente nos hemos engañados pensando que esas bendiciones fueron causadas por nuestra propia sabiduría y virtud... nos hemos vuelto tan autosuficientes que ya no sentimos la necesidad de redimir y preservar la gracia, nos hemos vuelto tan arrogantes que ya no oramos al Dios que nos creó. Lo único que nos queda es confesar nuestros pecados de manera colectiva y orar para que Dios nos perdone y sea clemente con nosotros”.

Ayúdenos a orar por nuestro presidente y por los líderes que nos gobiernan, que se humillen y busquen su guía para que todo lo que hagamos refleje la luz de su gloria a un mundo en tinieblas.

Que nuestra oración como pueblo y como nación sean escuchadas y bendecidas en un momento como este. Oramos con fe en el nombre de Jesús nuestro Señor.
Amén

Franklin Graham
Presidente y director ejecutivo de Samaritan's Purse y Billy Graham Evangelistic Association.