Today marks the 70th annual National Day of Prayer. As people across the country set aside time to intercede for our nation, Joni and Friends is leading this special time of prayer under the theme “Lord Pour Out Your Love, Life, and Liberty.” On this episode of the podcast, we invite you to pray along with Joni Eareckson Tada, Pastor Shawn Thornton, Steve Bundy, and other special guests as we lift up our country’s centers of influence, along with those most vulnerable. Download our prayer points to pray along!
"Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom." – 2 Corinthians 3:17
Today marks the 70th annual National Day of Prayer. As people across the country set aside time to intercede for our nation, Joni and Friends is leading this special time of prayer under the theme “Lord Pour Out Your Love, Life, and Liberty.”
On this episode of the podcast, we invite you to pray along with Joni Eareckson Tada, Pastor Shawn Thornton, Steve Bundy, and other special guests as we lift up our country’s centers of influence, along with those most vulnerable. Download our prayer points to pray along!
Read "Looking to God on National Day of Prayer" by Joni Eareckson Tada
Do you have a prayer request? Email Crystal at podcast@joniandfriends.org
Support Joni and Friends to help make this podcast possible.
*Joni and Friends envisions a world where every person with a disability finds hope, dignity, and their place in the body of Christ. Join us in answering the call in Luke 14:21-23... until his house is full!
Founded by author and international disability advocate Joni Eareckson Tada, the ministry provides Christ-centered care that serves needs and transforms hearts through Joni's House, Wheels for the World, and Retreats and Getaways. Joni and Friends also equips individuals and churches with disability ministry training and provides higher education courses and internships through the Christian Institute on Disability. Find more encouragement through Joni's radio podcast, daily devotional, or by following us on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube.
Crystal Keating:
I'm Crystal Keating, and this is the Joni and Friends Ministry Podcast. Each week we're bringing you real conversations about disability and finding hope through hardship and sharing practical ways that you can include people living with disability in your church and community. Be sure to subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts or find us at joniandfriends.org/podcast. Today marks the 70th annual National Day of Prayer. As people across the country set aside time to intercede for our nation, Joni and Friends is leading this special time of prayer. I encourage you to download our prayer points in the show notes and pray along for our country's leaders and other centers of influence.
Joni Eareckson Tada:
Welcome everyone to our National Day of Prayer observance here at Joni and Friends. I am so glad you are joining us because you are right at home, right here. Prayer is such a big part of our ministry culture. Before a meeting here at our headquarters, we always seek first the Lord. So consider yourself as part of our prayer team for the next 30 minutes as we lift up our nation and bring before the Lord Jesus the needs of vulnerable Americans, special needs families, elderly persons, and of course pre-born children, especially those with disabilities. I am so glad that you have a heart for these people because the lame and the vulnerable fit largely into God's idea of revival. The way we treat those with disabilities, the young and the old, the way we treat these families tells God everything about the condition of our hearts.
When it comes to the heart, listen to the theme verse for this year's National Day of Prayer. 2 Corinthians 3:17, "Now the Lord is the Spirit and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom." You see, revival in our families or communities, and our culture and government, it only happens when the Spirit of the Lord works in our hearts. That means revival starts with us. The Bible says, if we cherish inequity in our hearts, the Lord will not hear us. So before we begin offering up our prayer requests over the next 30 minutes, join me, would you, in a brief heart exam? Admit whatever wrongdoing, any grudges, a little bit of complaining, perhaps an unforgiving spirit, laziness toward things of the Lord, whatever. Bring it before the throne of God, even now, so that the Lord will hear us.
We can say, "Oh God, we want revival in our land," but it starts inside of us right here in our hearts. Help us be clean today before we bring our request to you. What a great prayer, and what a great God we serve. So now, you will be led by our leaders here at Joni and Friends. Who will all invite you to pray for those vulnerable groups I spoke about moments ago, special needs families and the incredible stress they face as our nation still deals with COVID.
We'll pray for our wounded warriors, remembering their ongoing battles with hidden disabilities. We'll pray for the church. We want the church to embrace these families. Finally, we're going to ask God to give this nation a new respect for the sacredness of life. How about that? So let's invite God to grant us a spirit of worship, would you? Please join me. Let's be, all of us, be expectant. Let me introduce our first leader, my good friend and coworker, Steve Bundy, Senior Vice President of the Christian Institute on Disability, here at Joni and Friends. Steve is a special needs dad. I tell you what, this man prays with great empathy. So let's start our National Day of Prayer observance with a few words from Steve. Then, I'm looking forward to joining you in our nation's Pledge of Allegiance. Steve, thanks for leading us.
Steve Bundy:
Thank you, Joni. What an honor it is to pray alongside so many brothers and sisters in Christ from across the nation. Together, we are lifting up one voice to the throne room of grace, where God promises in Hebrews 4:16, that he hears and responds to our prayers. In fact, he says in that verse that we will receive mercy and grace in our time of need. Oh, are we in a time of need in all the areas Joni just mentioned. Before we pray for our great nation, please join us in the Pledge of Allegiance, paying respect for our national flag and all that it represents to us as Americans.
Bryden Jones:
I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
Steve Bundy:
We'd like to begin by praying for the very fabric of our society, the family. In particular, we want to lift up all families across our country who are living with disability. Leading us in prayer is Denise, and her daughter Jaisha.
Denise:
Hi, I'm Denise, and this is my daughter, Jaisha. Jaisha is 22 years old with multiple disabilities. I am a school nurse and a single mom. As a family affected by disabilities, we face many challenges such as isolation, lack of inclusion, depending on others for the care of our loved one, and in my case, sometimes feeling like a burden to our extended family. Then, came the pandemic. The pandemic made things worse. It magnified the issue of isolation because everything stopped. The schools closed. The supports had stopped. Caregivers were no longer coming home to assist with her personal care. The church building closed. We had no social interactions. As a single mom and working from home, it was overwhelming and exhausting to do everything for her. I was working from home, but at the same time, being her teacher, being her one-on-one, her caregiver, her playmate, ensuring all her needs were met, while at the same time, trying to balance my self-care.
Yep. Although it was difficult and challenging, through it all, we were able to see this hand of the Lord sustain us. In moments where our faith was shaking and I felt like hope slipping away, I was able to rely on his word and on his promises that he will never leave us or forsake us. We believed in the power of prayer in our worship time. We do morning devotionals while Jaisha participates using her iPad. She enjoys worshiping the Lord, listening to gospel music, she watches our church services online. Her smile and laughter are her unique praise to the Lord. At this time, I want to invite you to join us in prayer for families. Are you ready, Jaisha? Are you ready? You going to say ready?
Jaisha:
Time for morning devotionals.
Denise:
Amen. Let's pray. heavenly father, we come before your presence and we thank you. Thank you for your goodness and your mercy. Thank you for sustaining us in our time of need. We ask you Father, Lord for every family that you reach them where they're at. You know their needs. You know what they're going through. We ask you Lord that they may experience your love and your grace with each other, and that their relationships will grow in you. That marriages and families will thrive in midst of disability. Give them the strength and the endurance that they need each and every day. Embrace them and comfort them. Teach us to rely on you and to trust you in every season of our life. Lord Jesus, I ask you for the church, for our extended family members, for the community, that they may be supportive and encouraging to special need families.
Bless them with a serving heart full of compassion, empathy, and kindness for our special needs families. Those with disabilities that are physical and even those unseen disabilities. Father, I ask you that your love, peace, and hope surround us at this time. That you will draw us closer to you. In Jesus name we pray. We say amen. Do we say amen, Jaisha?
Jaisha:
I'm ready.
Denise:
I'm ready. And we say?
Jaisha:
Amen.
Denise:
Amen.
Steve Bundy:
Thank you, Denise and Jaisha. Now, retired Staff Sergeant Bob Hern, of the U.S. Marine Corps, will lead us in prayer for our armed forces, those who are active, those who are veterans, and those who are living with the wounds of war.
Sergeant Bob Hern:
Hello, I'm Bob Hern. Lay chaplain at Camp Allen, Texas site for Joni and Friends Family Camps and Warrior Getaways. I am blessed to be a part of the National Day of Prayer team, inviting your prayers for members of the Air Force, Army, Coast Guard, Marine Corps, National Guard, and Navy. As they offer their love and lives for our liberty, may they and their families be surrounded by our love and support, both now, and when they leave the service. At the Warrior Getaways, Joni and Friends provides a respite for the veterans and their families filled with the love of the Holy Spirit. St. Paul writes to the Corinthians, "Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is there is liberty." Let us pray for the members of our armed forces and for our veterans.
Almighty God, we commend into your gracious care and keeping all the men and women of our armed forces, at home and abroad. Defend them day by day with your heavenly grace. Strengthen them in their trials and temptations. Give them courage to face the perils which beset them, and grant them the sense of your abiding presence wherever they may be, through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen. Heavenly Father, in every age you call certain persons to defend the human family from oppression, tyranny, and evil. We pray for all our veterans, those who rest in honored glory, those who still suffer from the wounds of war, and those who, with us, enjoy the blessing of living in the land of the free and the home of the brave.
God, we thank you for the selfless sacrifice of these veterans and of their families. Help us to remember them, to pray for them, and care for them. Please, bring all our departed veterans into your kingdom and console their families with your unfailing love. Please, heal our wounded veterans through the power of your Holy Spirit, and give to all our veterans the satisfaction of having served you even as they have served us. Thank you for your gift of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. May we continue to keep these rights available to all, in your most holy name, Lord, we pray. Amen.
Steve Bundy:
Next, we want to pray for the Church of America. God loves his bride, the church. Now, more than ever, our nation needs to see the Church of Christ rise up and demonstration of his love, through word and deed. Leading us in prayer today is Pastor Shawn Thornton, Senior Pastor of Calvary Community Church.
Pastor Shawn Thornton:
I have the privilege of praying for the churches all across America. Local congregations are vital to the work of Christ in our world today. There's been a lot that we've gone through. I know a number of my pastor friends have gotten heavy-hearted over the course of the last year with some of the tensions over the lockdowns and race relations and politics. I want to pray that there'll be a fresh movement of God through local assemblies, want to pray for the pastors and leaders, pray for the special needs, special abilities ministries and various churches, pray for the local witness and outreach, and for churches as they regather more and more on their campuses for a sense of unity and purpose, and that Jesus would be lifted up. Let's pray.
Father, thank you for this opportunity, on this day of prayer, to lift up the churches in our land. We pray for the pastors and leaders. Some have been discouraged by just not being able to be with the folks who are part of their flock as often, as frequently in person. We thank you for the technology. We've been able to use zoom and social media and other ways to communicate as congregations. I know that many of those, who that you've called to shepherd flocks across this nation, have been really struggling to shepherd well. May they find your reassurance and your strength. I pray that you would gather our churches back more and more, and bring unity. May there be a focus in our churches to share the good news of Jesus Christ and to make disciples of Jesus so that others can come to Jesus, too. We pray for the special needs, special abilities ministries in various local congregations. May that be a way in which they reach into their community with the light of Christ.
We pray that you'd bring unity in our churches, even in how we reach out to the community. May we, Lord, double down in our efforts to live and love like Jesus. Not just when we're gathered together as churches, but as we scatter into the community. May people see the life, the love, the hope, the freedom that's found, the liberty that's found in Jesus Christ. Bless pastors across our land. Bless the leaders, bless the churches. Bring us a fresh sense of your Spirit's movement in and through our churches and across our land. We pray these things in Jesus name. Amen. May God bless you on this day of prayer and may God bless the pastors and churches of America.
Steve Bundy:
Finally, I'd like to welcome back Joni. As she gives us her thoughts and prayers on our last, and so very important topics, the sanctity of life in our need for revival.
Joni Eareckson Tada:
Now let's turn our focus to the preciousness of all life. Just a few weeks ago, New Mexico became the next state to legalize assisted suicide for people with terminal conditions. Even now, under the current us administration, pro-life initiatives are being stifled at every turn. The news is filled with heartbreaking stories. People massacring other people, showing utter disrespect for life. Suicide rates among young people on the rise and oh how our nation needs to wake up. It is going to take the mercy of God to open hearts of stone. When it comes to the sanctity of life, we need the mercy of God in a big way. Let me just give you a quick example. As you know, California is in dire need of rain. A while back, I spent time with a few farmers and orchard growers who live in the central valley.
As I was driving up interstate 5, I kept seeing fruit trees on the sides of the road. The ground was brittle, hard. The trees were bare. I asked these farmers how I could pray. Without blinking an eye, they said, "Pray for God's mercy. We need rain, but rain will not come unless God shows mercy. So yes, please pray for rain, but plead the mercy of God." Wow. So when it comes to sanctity of life, join me in praying for God's merciful favor. Right now, join your heart with mine. Oh, Father in heaven, precious Jesus, bless it, Holy Spirit. You, the great triune God, who rules over all, we thank you that you're sovereign over this country even with all its many faults. Oh, Lord Jesus, we harken to the prayers of our forefathers and foremothers. They lifted those prayers up to you when this nation was founded.
They envisioned a country filled with peace and prosperity because they saw it as a land that would honor you word. Oh God, we are so far from that vision. We, as a people, have erred and strayed from your ways like lost sheep. No one is suffering more from this than the most vulnerable in America, the fiscally dependent, children with disabilities, especially children in the wombs of their mothers. Oh, Lord God, have mercy on them. You are a great... and you are a compassionate, compassionate God. So, please rescue the elderly. Keep them from despair, protect them, safeguard them. May nursing homes across this land preserve and protect the people in their charge. Have mercy, God. Give your children a passion to fight for those who are too weak to fight for themselves. Have mercy on those who have no voice, and help them, for the sake of Jesus, we pray these things. Amen.
Well, thank you for that. Thank you for praying friends. Now, let's just take a minute, would you? Pray that our leaders and our government will be compassionate toward the vulnerable? Right now, join me in prayer about that, would you? Oh, God, with all that's going on, with COVID regulations, that we've seen in the last year or so. It has alarmed us how the very people we should be protecting, our nation is abandoning. It broke our hearts to see our senior Americans dying in nursing homes with no chance to be with their loved ones. We still see people with disabilities denied access to good medical care, with no treatment, with social progressivism dictating policy. Father God, government services for the vulnerable are slow. They're unresponsive. Often in many places, they're not even there. Cutbacks in services have left the elderly and children with autism without support.
The stress on families is so huge. Please, God, have mercy. Would you have mercy? Have mercy on us and help us get our moral bearings when it comes to honoring our elderly and serving the disability community and preserving life. Help us bring back the precepts of the Bible into the mainstream of life. Would you, Jesus? Make our churches effective, Father God. Give the gospel success as we share Christ's love with our neighbors. Breakthrough, Holy Spirit, bring conviction of sin, would you? Bring help, bring hope, and bring just a fresh biblical compassion in the hearts of our leaders. Father, God win them to your side. Lord Jesus, for your namesake, we pray all these things. Amen.
Now, before we close, please, let's take a minute to pray for revival. I mean really with all of us praying together, let's go before the father's throne. That our generation may see a great awakening across our land and so pray with me now, would you? What could we say, Jesus? Oh, Father God, this nation is helpless and hopeless without you.
Our families, our neighbors, our communities, our churches, are utterly without hope. Without you, we simply cannot do it. Where the Spirit of the Lord is, Lord Jesus, there is freedom. Please, Holy Spirit, strike the match of revival, would you in the hearts of every American? Let that revival begin with us, Lord Jesus. Help us to examine our hearts. Help us to turn from worldly idols to serve you and you alone. For when you, Lord Jesus, truly sit on the throne of our hearts, we know that the fires of revival are going to sweep across this great land. Oh God, have mercy on our country. Have mercy on us. Bring revival, would you? Let it begin right here, right here with us. We pray in your name. Amen.
Well, time flies when we pray, doesn't it? From all of us at Joni and Friends, oh my goodness, thank you for joining us for our National Day of Prayer observance. Now, we intend to keep praying here at the ministry. I expect you to do the same throughout the day and beyond. Of course, should you have special prayer requests, or if you have a comment, tell us about it right here at joniandfriends.org. Let us know how we can pray for you and those that you may know who have disabilities or those who need salvation in Jesus Christ. Remember, change and transformation, renewal and revival, always begins with me, with you, your family, your neighbors and friends. God bless you and keep on praying.
John Nugent:
Amen, Joni. Thank you for your beautiful prayer and encouraging remarks. Thank you, Steve, for guiding us through our time together today. I also want to thank all our wonderful guests who led us in prayer and for all those behind the scenes that helped produce today's event. I also want to thank all of you for attending our nation's National Day of Prayer observance. What a blessed time we've had, lifting up the vulnerable, local and national government leaders, our nations warriors, and God's church. We pray with great confidence, don't we? We pray with great confidence knowing that God hears our prayers. For if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. I encourage you to continue to pray for our nation throughout the day. You even might to use the National Day of Prayer guide as a model. Just click on the link below. So, with that, let me close us in prayer.
Dear Lord, today we, along with millions of Americans, come to your throne of grace to ask your blessings and favor upon this great nation. As Joni said, it all starts with us. May we live honorable and holy lives amongst people who don't know you. May we demonstrate the love of Jesus Christ in our conversation and behavior as we share the gospel to a lost and dying world. It is in Christ alone that we have the promise of forgiveness of sin, liberty from guilt, shame and judgment, and the hope of eternal life. Dear Lord, encourage... encourage our hearts to stand up for the weak and vulnerable in our society, the elderly, people living with disability, and the unborn. May we embrace and share God's biblical view of life to a world which cares little for the sanctity of life. For you are the creator of life. We are made in your image and likeness. For you created our inmost being.
You knitted us together in our mother's womb. Whether able or disabled, young or old, unborn or just born, we are all fearfully and wonderfully made. Dear Heavenly Father, may your bountiful grace fall upon the people of this great nation. Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord. May our government leaders embrace and protect the godly principles on which this nation was founded. One nation, under God, with inalienable rights, liberties, and justice, for all. Bless our government leaders with humility, with wisdom, and courage to do your will. Lord, we put our trust in you. Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord. The Lord is my light and my salvation, whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life. Of whom shall I be afraid? As the hymnist wrote, our hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest frame, but wholly lean on Jesus' name. Amen. May God bless you. Goodbye, everyone.
Crystal Keating:
Thank you for listening today. If you've been inspired, please send me a message or leave a five-star review on your favorite app. That's a great way to help other people find encouragement from these conversations and to get our next episode automatically, subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts. I'm Crystal Keating, and thank you for listening to the Joni and friends Ministry Podcast.
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