By: Clare Bruce
There’s many ways to join the National Day of Prayer and Fasting this Saturday, March 2.
You could be attending a major combined-church event in a capital city, gathering with a small group in your church hall, praying in your living room with friends and family, or even sitting at the beach with phone in hand, watching the live stream from Canberra.
The annual event calls for people of faith around the nation to join in prayer and worship in any way they can, between 10am and 4pm, asking God to bring healing and transformation to Australians.
The main event will be held outside Parliament House in Canberra, with hundreds of other meetings taking place simultaneously around the country.
A live web stream will be broadcast from the Canberra gathering, with live crosses to major capital city meetings, uniting believers in prayer around the nation.
Some groups will even be celebrating the National Day with “Bible reading marathons”.
The day of prayer will follow a schedule as follows:
10am – A time of worship and thanksgiving, including prayer for indigenous Australians and persecuted Christians.
11am – A time of repentance for areas where both the church and the nation are off track. Repentance is considered a key to revival and transformation.
12pm – Prayer for restoration of family and marriages
1pm – Prayer for leaders of church, community and government
2pm – Celebration of the Father’s love – an hour of prayer including communication
3pm – Declaration of the Father’s love, and prayer for many to find salvation in Jesus.
The day is founded on the example that Jesus set when he spent 40 days in prayer and fasting, and “returned in the power of the Spirit”. Prayer and fasting is used as a key to spiritual breakthrough and change both personally and in the community. Chairman of the Day of Prayer, Salvation Army Commissioner James Condon, said the day’s overarching theme is to seek God for a “national awakening…revival and transformation for our nation and for great multitudes to find Christ.”
“We urgently need to see a move of God,” James said. “Our foundation scripture is 2 Chronicles 7:14, ‘If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.’ We are also praying, in particular, for a new generation of young prayer warriors and young evangelists to arise.”
Many major cities and regional centres across the nation will be hosting combined church meetings. For a list of these see National Day of Prayer website – Locations. There are also many smaller gatherings that don’t appear on that list. Check at your local church to find out if they are getting involved, or head to the website to access live streaming on the day.
In the week following the Day of Prayer, on Wednesday, March 6, many prayer groups will continue for a ’40 Days of Prayer’ initiative. Already more than 800 groups are registered for this. For more information head to 40DaysofPrayer.org.au.
Watch: Highlights of the 2018 National Day of Prayer
Article supplied with thanks to Hope Media.
About the Author: Clare is a digital journalist for the Broadcast Industry.