USA (MNN) — The 56th Annual National Day of Prayer is tomorrow, May 3, in the United States. Organized events will be held in thousands of public venues where intercession will be made for the nation, government leaders, media, schools, churches, and families.
As Christians gather Thursday, World Vision's Vice President of Church Relations Steve Haas is asking believers not to forget about the rest of the world. "Jesus said that He loved the world. And so when we think of church, education, family, government and media (which are the five centers of power that people will be praying about), we can be praying about the global church, global education, the global family, and the plight that they're in internationally (government, media, and so on)."
Desperate situations exist all over the world. People face HIV/AIDS, human trafficking, religious persecution, famine, wars, and the list goes on and on.
While national, state, and local units of government are the focus of many, Haas hopes people won't forget to pray for the media. "So many of the issues that we see at World Vision often go unnoticed by the media. And yet, when media does it right — when they talk about these little-known areas — people react. The American people are compassionate people."
Haas says that as people pray, they align themselves with God and His ways. God answers in ways above and beyond what anyone could ever comprehend.
However, Haas doesn't want people to forget to pray that God would draw people to Himself. "We know that wholeness begins in a relationship with Christ. This is always part of our prayer. But we also realize that they have real live human bodies and human issues as well, and so we ask God to also step into those areas."
