WASHINGTON (BP) – Offer focused prayers for the seven pillars of influence in America with the aid of the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee’s prayer guide for 2022 National Day of Prayer May 5.
The unique needs of the government, military, media arts, business, the educational system, the church and the family, from a biblical worldview, are succinctly stated in the guide.
“We are contending with issues that are causing the very foundation of our country to crumble,” said Willie McLaurin, SBC Executive Committee interim president and CEO. “Our moral and spiritual roots are eroding, the economy is unpredictable, family life is disintegrating, and political forces are at unprecedented odds.
“The National Day of Prayer provides us with a unified intentional focus on prioritizing prayer. It is my desire that the 2022 National Day of Prayer will ignite hope in the hopeless and joy in the joyless,” McLaurin said. “Our praying together is the foundation for spreading the Gospel to the Nations and the neighborhoods.”
Accessible here, the guide recommends praying that leaders lead according to Psalm 78:72, that military leaders exhibit the love of God nationally and globally, and that those in media and the arts find innovative ways to share the Gospel.
Pray, the guide recommends, for Christ-like humility among business leaders, safe educational atmospheres conducive for learning, fresh waves of energy among faithful but fatigued pastors, and mutual honor and respect between husbands and wives.
New to the 2022 national event is Pray.com’s release of a non-fungible token (NFT) to anyone who watches the National Day of Prayer broadcast, available on 12 television and radio outlets May 5 at 8 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time. The NFT is offered through Pray Team, Pray.com’s new and informative online community for Christians in crypto, Pray.com announced.
“This is a unique opportunity for the Christian community to be at the forefront of technology and help shape it for good,” said Ryan Beck, technology officer and co-founder of Pray.com, a daily prayer and Bible-based audio app with more than 10 million users. “Crypto, Web3, NFTs and the metaverse are reshaping the future of technology, and Pray.com is leading the charge for Christians around the world to be a part of it by building the first global community for Christians to learn about crypto, and by creating new technologies for faith-based content.”
Pray.com, in cooperation with the National Day of Prayer Task Force, Open3.com, POAP.xyz and Polygon.technology, will release the NFT on the Polygon network as a commemorative, unique proof of attendance for the event, using the Proof of Attendance Protocol (POAP).
Several Southern Baptists are participating in the broadcast, including Prestonwood Baptist Church Senior Pastor Jack Graham, Second Baptist Church of Houston Senior Pastor Ed Young, and former SBC Executive Committee CEO Ronnie Floyd.
In advance of the broadcast, tens of thousands of local prayer events are scheduled at churches, businesses and in the public square, many of them listed on the National Day of Prayer database.
The National Day of Prayer Task Force, led by Christian author and educator Kathy Branzell, offers many online and video resources at NationalDayOfPrayer.org to help churches and others host National Day of Prayer events in advance of the global broadcast. “Exalt the Lord Who Has Established Us,” is the 2022 theme, based on Colossians 2:6-7.
Among other participants in the global broadcast are AnGel Ministries Founder and President Anne Graham Lotz, Joni and Friends Founder Joni Eareckson-Tada, National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference President Samuel Rodriguez, and Grammy-winning artists Chris Tomlin, Lecrae and Matthew West.
The global broadcast, which promoters say will be accessible by as many as 300 million households, will be carried on DayStar Television, GovTV, CBN, CTN, NRB-TV, Revelation TV, Bott Radio, Faith Radio, Salem Radio, Mars Hill Network, American Family Radio and K-Love Radio.
National Day of Pray is a government-recognized observance held annually on the first Thursday in May.
