Why Do They Want to Prohibit Prayer?

Prayer is a very intimate, private action, yet one we know has very public results. When I heard on the news that a federal judge in Wisconsin found the National Day of Prayer to be unconstitutional, saying it violates the First Amendment prohibition laws respecting an establishment of religion, it was once again brought to the light how afraid some people in this country are afraid of Christians and how determined they are to attempt to stop the work of God. Although President Obama said this year’s National Day of Prayer festivities (which include prayer in the nation’s captial0 will not be affected by this effort by the 15,000-member Freedom From Religion Foundation, it should be noted that last year President Obama did not involve the White House in the activities of the National Day of Prayer Committee which has celebrated this day since 1952!

It’s hard to believe that people who don’t claim to believe in a God who answers prayer, would care whether anyone wanted to pray. Here lies the deception – those who say they don’t believe in God, seem to believe more than those who say they do – because they are working so hard to eradicate from the public square all semblances of God! If we think about this, this is perhaps the strongest reason why we must continue to press for our right to be able to pray publicly. Today is Sunday, most of us who are reading this post will soon be or have gone to a church house, where we freely and without regard to law, raise up our hearts and hands in praise and adoration to God. What if this public display of worship (albeit in the walls of the church) was against the law – as it is in many nations of this world? What if you were given a ticket or a fine for attending your church? What if you were imprisoned for your faith?

I hear so many Christians say, “well these are the last days and the Bible says these things will happen.” When I hear that I think of all the martyrs who died in the early church to pave the way for the message of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ to be proclaimed to the then known world, with such an impact that it reached down almost two thousand years to find a lost, confused, and very frightened young woman living in Chicago, who at the age of 21 had begun to lose hope in life and living! And that same message has kept me over forty years through all of the ups and downs of life and because I found it to be a true message, I have delivered it unto my children, who are now delivering it unto their children. I heard this message from a friend outside of church, but I found the public display of its’ authenticity in a church!

I’m reminded of a scripture in 1 Timothy 2:7-9 (MSG)

4-7He wants not only us but everyone saved, you know, everyone to get to know the truth we’ve learned: that there’s one God and only one, and one Priest-Mediator between God and us—Jesus, who offered himself in exchange for everyone held captive by sin, to set them all free. Eventually the news is going to get out. This and this only has been my appointed work: getting this news to those who have never heard of God, and explaining how it works by simple faith and plain truth.

8-10Since prayer is at the bottom of all this, what I want mostly is for men to pray—not shaking angry fists at enemies but raising holy hands to God. And I want women to get in there with the men in humility before God, not primping before a mirror or chasing the latest fashions but doing something beautiful for God and becoming beautiful doing it.

Selah,

Maria