A Month of Prayer and Fasting
“Yet even now,” declares the Lord,
“return to me with all your heart,
with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning;
and rend your hearts and not your garments.”
Return to the Lord your God,
for he is gracious and merciful,
slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love;
and he relents over disaster.” (Joel 2:12-13)
In a recent sermon, I made the point that our problems as a society are fundamentally worship problems.
In light of this, I was encouraged to see that our TN State Legislature passed a resolution to call churches to make July a month of prayer and fasting!
Our problems as a society, as a nation, and as a state, aren’t merely political or cultural problems. They’re spiritual problems. Worship problems. Sin problems.
Which means they can’t be solved through elections and legislation. We need prayer, because we need God to show mercy!
As a church, I want us to set aside each Monday in July as a day of prayer and fasting for our city, state, and nation. This is totally voluntary, so if you can’t fast, that’s okay. But if you can, I’d encourage you to do a 24 hour fast, from dinner on Sunday to dinner on Monday. It’s so encouraging for our church to lock arms with the larger church in our region to seek God’s face together!
We’ll have two opportunities for corporate prayer each Monday. We’ll meet for prayer from 6:00-6:45am at Clover Hill (713 William Blount Dr.), and then again from 12:00-12:45pm at River Oaks (1220 Brown School Rd.). If you can make it to one of those prayer meetings, that would be great!
The prayer guide for each week’s prayer meeting is below, so even if you can’t join us in person, we can all pray together in unity.
Also, throughout the month there are official prayer meetings happening at every county courthouse in all 95 counties in Tennessee. In Blount County, this is set to take place on Saturday July 20th at noon.
Here’s the resolution in it’s entirety:
HOUSE JOINT RESOLUTION 803
A RESOLUTION to seek God's hand of mercy healing on Tennessee.
WHEREAS, our State and Nation suffer from violence committed upon our citizens by our citizens; and
WHEREAS, our State and Nation suffer from violence committed upon our citizens by non-citizens; and
WHEREAS, acts of violent crime in our schools are unacceptable; and
WHEREAS, human trafficking is an unacceptable and violent evil in our State, enslaving lives and violating the core values of our Creator-endowed rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; and
WHEREAS, drug addiction overwhelms our families, our government finances, our workforce productivity, as well as our healthcare and our law enforcement resources; and
WHEREAS, deadly fentanyl flows uncontrollably across our southern U.S. border resulting in the deaths of Tennesseans; and
WHEREAS, Driving Under the Influence, drunk driving, results in great pain and injury for Tennessee families; and
WHEREAS, we have approximately 9,000 children in need of foster care, indicating a brokenness in many Tennessee homes; and
WHEREAS, evidence of corruption in our federal government stands to impact every Tennessean; and
WHEREAS, our National and State Founders trusted in the omnipotent hand of Providence to guide and bless our land; and
WHEREAS, over decades, these leaders called our people to seek out the Creator's favor by issuing proclamations like the one from John Adams on April 15, 1799: [This day] be observed throughout the United States of America as a day of solemn humiliation, fasting, and prayer; that the citizens on that day abstain, as far as may be, from their secular occupation, and devote the time to the sacred duties of religion, in public and in private; that they call to mind our numerous offenses against the most high God, confess them before Him with the sincerest penitence, implore his pardoning mercy, through the Great Mediator and Redeemer, for our past transgressions, and that through the grace of His Holy Spirit, we may be disposed and enabled to yield a more suitable obedience to his righteous requisitions in time to come; that He would interpose to arrest the progress of that impiety and licentiousness in principle and practice so offensive to Himself and so ruinous to mankind; that He would make us deeply sensible that "righteousness exalteth a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people." [Proverbs 14:34]; and
WHEREAS, we hold that our Founders correctly acknowledged Truth in their words; and
WHEREAS, we hold that "Except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain." (Psalm 127:1);
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now, therefore, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE ONE HUNDRED THIRTEENTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF TENNESSEE, THE SENATE CONCURRING, that the period of July 1, 2024, through July 31, 2024, be recognized as a time of prayer and fasting in Tennessee. BE IT FURTHER
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RESOLVED, that we recognize that God, as Creator and King of all Glory, has both the authority to judge and to bless nations or states. BE IT FURTHER
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RESOLVED, that we, as public servants in the Tennessee General Assembly, seek God's Mercy upon our land and beseech Him to not withdraw His Hand of blessing from us. BE IT FURTHER
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RESOLVED, that we recognize our sins and shortcomings before Him and humbly ask His Forgiveness. BE IT FURTHER
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RESOLVED, that we ask the Lord Jesus to heal our land and remove the violence, human-trafficking, addiction, and corruption. BE IT FURTHER
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RESOLVED, that we ask that the Holy Spirit fill our halls of government, our classrooms, our places of business, our churches, and our homes with peace, love, and joy. BE IT FURTHER
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RESOLVED, that we call upon all those who are physically able and spiritually inclined to do so to join in a thirty-day season of prayer and intermittent fasting as we begin a new fiscal year as a means of seeking God's blessing and humbling ourselves to receive His Grace and Mercy, transforming ourselves, our communities, our State, and our Nation.
Church, let’s pray!
“Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people.” (Proverbs 14:34)