Day of Prayer observance is time for uniting

To the editor:

Many should join the broad spectrum of the Christian community at the National Day of Prayer Evening With the Mayors of Jackson and Cape Girardeau next Wednesday at the Osage Centre. This is our once-a-year opportunity to go before the God of creation with a unified voice.

Public cross-denominational prayer carries great power. The National Day of Prayer perpetuates a place where American religion leaves the church and changes the culture.

In 1775 the Continental Congress called on colonials to pray for God's direction. The result? A ragtag, erratic army brought the world's premier military dynamo to its knees. In 1863 Lincoln's declaration of "a day of humiliation, fasting, and prayer" marked the Civil War's turning point. Ronald Reagan declared the first Thursday in May a permanent National Day of Prayer.

In Cape Girardeau we have the opportunity to stand as citizens in the public arena and say, "You are not just Lord of our lives, families and churches. We declare with one voice that you are Lord of our entire culture. Act as you will in the affairs of this city." I propose that if we desire to be united, we must pray together. I propose that we go so far as to sacrifice even our own church activities for the sake of this biblical mandate of Jesus. As he said, when we do so, a lost and dying world around us will know that he truly is the Son of God.

MIKE WOELK

Livingway Foursquare Church

Cape Girardeau