Join Me in Praying for Our Nation and the Ark

By and large, this country was birthed in prayer and with a reverence for the God of the Bible. This is very different from the nation—Australia—I come from. There is no real history of Christian values or reverence for God there. But there is a strong history of that here in America.

Here are just a few examples: in the Declaration of Independence of July 4, 1776, we read, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” On July 30, 1956, a Joint Resolution, that was passed by the 84th Congress and approved by President Dwight Eisenhower, declared that IN GOD WE TRUST must appear on US currency. In 1952, the idea of holding an annual National Day of Prayer was unanimously passed by both houses of Congress, and in 1988 it was fixed as the first Thursday of May each year.

In Psalm 33:12 we read, “Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord.” Today, I will be praying to the Creator God, the God of the Bible, the one true God.

I’m the president of the Ark Encounter. Not far from here, we’ve built a wooden ship—a massive ship. Yes, the life-size Noah’s Ark will bring millions of people to this county. Yes, it will bring millions of dollars to the state. And yes, it is the biggest timber-frame structure in the world. But far more important than all of this, the Ark stands as a reminder to this nation.

First, the Ark is a reminder that there IS a God and that He is our Creator. It’s a reminder that God is a God of salvation—Noah put one door in the side of the Ark. Our Creator, Jesus Christ, said in John 10:9, “I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved.” The Ark will stand as a life-sized, massive testimony to the mercy of our Creator and Savior.

The Ark is also a reminder of the First Amendment of the Constitution of the United States, where we read, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech.” The life-size Noah’s Ark here in Williamstown actually stands as a reminder of the religious freedoms we have in this nation, for which we need to be thankful to God.

But why do we need these reminders? Well, in Genesis 26:18 we read, “And Isaac dug again the wells of water which they had dug in the days of Abraham his father, for the Philistines had stopped them up after the death of Abraham.”

In the Bible, water often represents the Word of God. In the past, the Bible was spread freely in the United States. In a sense, we could say the fathers of this nation “dug wells” so that the water of the Word could spread freely. But in many ways the Word of God is not spreading as freely as it once did. Crosses, Nativity scenes, and the Ten Commandments displays are being removed from public places. Christ is being taken out of Christmas.

Yes, the wells of water are being stopped up, and we need to pray that we can again dig these wells that were first dug by the fathers of this nation, and see the water of the Word flow as it did in the past.

As I pray, then, on this National Day of Prayer, I’m going to acknowledge God as Creator and Savior, thank Him for who He is and what He’s done for us. And to thank Him for the freedoms we have in this nation, petition God to burden the nation to repent of stopping up the wells, and ask for God to bless and to allow the water of the Word to flow freely.

God’s Word instructs us to pray for our leaders, so we do need to pray for them all over this nation. Let’s pray earnestly for these crucial things on this National Day of Prayer.

I encourage believers across America and the world to set aside some time today to pray. Please join us in praying for our nation and for the Ark Encounter that is opening on July 7. Please pray that the hundreds of thousands of unbelievers who will come through the Ark each year will be impacted with the gospel and will put their trust in Christ.

Thanks for stopping by and thanks for praying,
Ken

This item was written with the assistance of AiG’s research team.