[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 160 (2014), Part 5]
[House]
[Pages 6330-6331]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                       THE NATIONAL DAY OF PRAYER

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Oklahoma (Mr. Lankford) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. LANKFORD. Mr. Speaker, last week as I traveled my State, over and 
over again people encouraged me with a simple statement, ``I pray for 
you.'' Those powerful words pack a tremendous amount of compassion and 
theology. It is the belief of millions of Americans that there is a God 
who created us, He cares for us, and He is interested in our lives. It 
is the belief that if we pray, a loving God hears our prayer and He 
responds to our needs and the needs of others.
  This is the week of the National Day of Prayer. This is a time for us 
to be able to reflect on prayer and to remember and recognize the 
Americans who value prayer. I share the belief with many others that 
people are separated from God because of our choices to walk away from 
God and God's path for our lives, so people live their lives alone, 
even in a crowd. The Bible says, in Romans 6:23:

       The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal 
     life through Christ Jesus, our Lord.

  Simply put, what we earn for what we do wrong is separation from 
life, real life. God gives us the opportunity to have eternal life, 
life with God forever, by accepting the gift of Jesus Christ through 
his death and his resurrection.
  It was my first real prayer. When I was 8 years old, I realized for 
the first time that there is a God and I did not know Him. I was 
separated from Him. At my home, I prayed for Jesus to forgive my sin 
and come into my life and take control. It is that same simple prayer 
that millions of others have prayed to begin a walk with God.
  The Bible teaches us--and I believe--that God hears our prayer, not 
because of our good behavior, but because God opened the line of 
communication when Jesus paid for our sin on the cross, and I accepted 
His offer of forgiveness and a relationship.

[[Page 6331]]

  It begs the question still: Does it matter if we pray and pray for 
each other? Yes is the simple answer. Prayer puts our hearts and 
thoughts back in line with God's design. Prayer allows us an 
opportunity to spread out our most painful problems before a loving 
God. Prayer also provides an opportunity for the God who can do 
anything to demonstrate His care and power in a world that thinks they 
do not need God.
  This attitude is not new. President Lincoln in his proclamation for a 
National Day of Prayer on March 30, 1863, wrote this:

       We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of 
     Heaven. We have been preserved, these many years, in peace 
     and prosperity. We have grown in numbers, wealth, and power 
     as no other nation has ever grown. But we have forgotten God. 
     We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in 
     peace, and multiplied and enriched us and strengthened us; 
     and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our 
     hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some 
     superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with 
     unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel 
     the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to 
     pray to the God that made us. It behooves us then to humble 
     ourselves before the offended Power, to confess our national 
     sins, and to pray for clemency and forgiveness.

  The National Day of Prayer is not a mandate to pray. It is not a 
congressional establishment of religion. It is two things: a 
congressional acknowledgment that millions of people in our Nation 
believe in God, and they believe that God hears our prayers and 
responds when we pray; and a request that those who believe in prayer 
should pray, and pray for our Nation and pray for our Nation's leaders.
  If you are considering calling my office to complain that I mentioned 
prayer and God on the House floor, you are always welcome to call, but 
you are not going to change my mind, and you are not going to change 
our Nation. Each day we begin with prayer in the House of 
Representatives. The words of our national motto, ``In God We Trust,'' 
are emblazoned on the wall right over my right shoulder. There is a 
prayer chapel in the Capitol set aside for Members of Congress to stop 
and pray before votes. We have always had prayer as a nation. That is 
the free exercise of religion that is protected by the Constitution.
  I am well aware that some people want people of faith to be silent 
and never speak about God in public. They condemn my insensitivity for 
their lack of belief by trying to require a fellow free American to 
live life more like them. But I would remind them that they are not 
required to believe in God because they are an American, and I am not 
required to stop believing in God just because I represent Americans. 
We are both free. You can choose not to pray, and I can choose to pray 
for you.
  For those in our Nation that pray, I humbly request that you set 
aside this National Day of Prayer to renew your commitment to pray for 
our Nation. We need God's help in our Nation right now. We are in 
obvious trouble and conflict. Even many Christians that I meet would 
rather complain than pray.
  For everyone who says to me we are too far gone in debt, our culture 
is past the tipping point, we have lost our way forever, I tell them 
that I believe there is still a God in Heaven who hears our prayer, who 
cares about our lives. I will work, but I will also pray, and I ask you 
to join me.
  Let's pray.

                          ____________________