40/40 Prayer Vigil calls Christians to prayer
- Aug 19, 2008 - comment
The great 19th century evangelist D.L. Moody once said, “Every great movement of God can be traced to a kneeling figure.” E.M. Bounds, a contemporary of Moody who also sounded the clarion call to prayer, added, “A revival of real praying would produce a spiritual revolution.”
The timeless words of Moody and Bounds are powerful reminders that the spiritual direction of a Christian, a church, a community, and a culture hinge upon the fervency—or absence—of prayer among God’s people, individually and collectively.
Few Christians would argue that we are in desperate need of a great movement of God among His people and across the farthest stretches of our land, including the corridors of Washington, D.C.
In an effort to meet that need, the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission has partnered with the North American Mission Board to offer Christians a unique opportunity to join other believers across the nation in a focused time of prayer beginning in just a few weeks. Entitled the 40/40 Prayer Vigil for Spiritual Revival and National Renewal, the Vigil consists of 40 days of prayer from Sept. 24 to Nov. 2, culminating in 40 hours of around-the-clock intercession during the last three days. The 40 days of prayer are divided in seven parts. The Vigil focuses first on prayer for personal revival, then covers an expanding circle of prayer beginning with prayer for the church and moving outward to prayer for the nation.
Participants can engage in one of three ways:
- Pray for 40 days, Sept. 24 through Nov. 2.
- Organize a group to pray for 40 unbroken hours, Oct. 31 at 4 p.m. to Nov. 2 at 8 a.m.
- Combine the two and pray daily during the first 37 days and then organize a group to pray for 40 unbroken hours during the last 3 days, for a total of 40 days of prayer.
Everything that is needed to take part in this Vigil can be found at iLiveValues.com/prayer. Here, we encourage you to sign up to register your commitment for the Vigil. Then we hope you will encourage your friends and every member of your church to do the same. Also, perhaps a prayer coordinator in your church can organize a prayer effort within your congregation. There is no cost to participate, and no one will ask you for anything.
The mainstay of the Vigil is a fully indexed Prayer Guide with selected prayer points and corresponding Scriptures directed toward a particular theme for each day. The 40 Day Prayer Guide is online now. The 40 Hour Prayer Guide and Spanish versions will soon follow.
The Vigil is also intended to be interactive. It features a regularly updated blog that enables participants to share testimonies of how God is working in them or in their churches through the Vigil. The blog also offers encouragement through quotes from prayer warriors of yesteryear who revolutionized their spheres of influence.
We are praying that God will use the 40/40 Prayer Vigil as one component to revive His people—a revival that will ignite a reformation throughout the nation.
God outlines His conditions for true revival in 2 Chronicles 7:13-14:
“If…My people who are called by My name humble themselves, pray and seek My face, and turn from their evil ways, then I will hear from heaven, forgive their sin, and heal their land.”
“I do believe that when enough Christians in our country fulfill God’s conditions enumerated in 2 Chronicles 7:14, God will send revival and pour out His blessings on America once again,” said ERLC President Richard Land. “That is a promise we can stand on.”
God desires to do something great in and through the lives of His people. But the question remains: Will Christians commit to meet Him in prayer in such a time as this? The 40/40 Prayer Vigil offers guiderails for this potentially life-changing pursuit. We hope you will join with thousands of other Christians for this powerful time of prayer.
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