"... We offer prayers of adoration and thanksgiving for the countless blessings God has bestowed upon our Nation. We acknowledge that, through Christ’s redeeming sacrifice, in the words of Holy Scripture, “Death is swallowed up in victory.” Above all, we echo with tremendous joy those sacred words that have given life, hope, and purpose to Christians for thousands of years: "He is risen.""--President Donald Trump
"The Continental-Confederation Congress, a legislative body that governed the United States from 1774 to 1789, contained an extraordinary number of deeply religious men. The amount of energy that Congress invested in encouraging the practice of religion in the new nation exceeded that expended by any subsequent American national government. Although the Articles of Confederation did not officially authorize Congress to concern itself with religion, the citizenry did not object to such activities. This lack of objection suggests that both the legislators and the public considered it appropriate for the national government to promote a nondenominational, nonpolemical Christianity.
Congress appointed chaplains for itself and the armed forces, sponsored the publication of a Bible, imposed Christian morality on the armed forces, and granted public lands to promote Christianity among the Indians. National days of thanksgiving and of "humiliation, fasting, and prayer" were proclaimed by Congress at least twice a year throughout the war. Congress was guided by "covenant theology," a Reformation doctrine especially dear to New England Puritans, which held that God bound himself in an agreement with a nation and its people. This agreement stipulated that they "should be prosperous or afflicted, according as their general Obedience or Disobedience thereto appears." Wars and revolutions were, accordingly, considered afflictions, as divine punishments for sin, from which a nation could rescue itself by repentance and reformation.
The first national government of the United States was convinced that the "public prosperity" of a society depended on the vitality of its religion. Nothing less than a "spirit of universal reformation among all ranks and degrees of our citizens," Congress declared to the American people, would "make us a holy, that so we may be a happy people.""
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| The Prayer in the First Congress, A.D. 1774. Stained glass and lead, from The Liberty Window, Christ Church, Philadelphia, after a painting by Harrison Tompkins Matteson, c. 1848. The preacher later defected to the British! |
Congressional Fast Day Proclamation, May 17, 1776
Congress proclaimed days of fasting and of thanksgiving annually throughout the Revolutionary War. This proclamation by Congress set May 17, 1776, as a "day of Humiliation, Fasting and Prayer" throughout the colonies. Congress urges its fellow citizens to "confess and bewail our manifold sins and transgressions, and by a sincere repentance and amendment of life, appease his [God's] righteous displeasure, and through the merits and mediation of Jesus Christ, obtain his pardon and forgiveness." Massachusetts ordered a "suitable Number" of these proclamations be printed so "that each of the religious Assemblies in this Colony, may be furnished with a Copy of the same" and added the motto "God Save This People" as a substitute for "God Save the King."
Trump announces May 17 event to rededicate U.S. as ‘one nation, under God’“When our founders proclaimed the immortal truths that echoed around the world and down all the way through time, they declared that all of us are made free and equal by the hand of our Creator,” the president said.
In honor of the occasion, Trump announced at the breakfast that he will hold an event, titled "Rededicate 250" on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., on May 17 “to rededicate America as one nation under God.”
President Trump announces May 17, 2026 National Mall prayer event:
“This morning, I’m pleased to announce that on May 17, 2026, that we’re inviting Americans from all across the country to come together on our National Mall, to pray, to give thanks, to rededicate America as one nation under God,” the president said.
Trump did not specify why May 17 was selected, however, shortly before the Declaration of Independence, the colonial Congress had declared May 17, 1776, a national day of fasting and prayer.
May 17 also comes a few days after multiple Christian denominations celebrate the Feast of the Ascension of Jesus Christ.
Trump also revealed that the Department of Education will be taking steps to protect prayer in public schools.
“I’m also pleased to announce that the Department of Education is officially issuing its new guidance to protect the right to prayer in our public schools,” Trump said. “That’s a big deal.”
“Now the Democrats will sue us, but we’ll win.”...
“They always like to say, ‘Trump is a dictator.’ They love that. I’m not a dictator. But they were like dictators. They were like the Gestapo,” Trump chided.
“They were arresting people for going to church, and they were arresting people and treating people horribly,” he went on. “I made a lot of amends to those people.”" .......
“… The psalm Jesus chose to pray as His final public theological statement is a psalm that begins with God’s knowledge of a person and God’s claim on a person from before birth. Both the psalm and the Gospels are making the same claim: that life, dignity, and the image of God are not present after birth but from the very moment life begins. That is where personhood starts. That is where God already knows us.
One of his final acts before the cross was to anchor our beginning in the womb, connected to a God who foreknew us, and then look ahead past the cross to what only the resurrection can make possible.
The psalm that opened with God’s knowledge of a person before birth closes with its gaze on the future: Posterity shall serve him; it shall be told of the Lord to the coming generation; they shall come and proclaim his righteousness to a people yet unborn (Psalm 22:30-31). The psalm begins and ends with the unborn. That is a beautiful picture, and it is the picture Christ chose to leave the watching world as His final public act.” …….
One of his final acts before the cross was to anchor our beginning in the womb, connected to a God who foreknew us, and then look ahead past the cross to what only the resurrection can make possible.
The psalm that opened with God’s knowledge of a person before birth closes with its gaze on the future: Posterity shall serve him; it shall be told of the Lord to the coming generation; they shall come and proclaim his righteousness to a people yet unborn (Psalm 22:30-31). The psalm begins and ends with the unborn. That is a beautiful picture, and it is the picture Christ chose to leave the watching world as His final public act.” …….
Powerful!
Psalm 144
5 Lord, tear open the sky and come down.Thank You, Good Father!
Touch the mountains so they will smoke.
6 Send the lightning and scatter my enemies.
Shoot your arrows and force them away.
7 Reach down from above.
Pull me out of this sea of enemies.
Rescue me from these foreigners.
8 They are liars.
They are dishonest.
9 God, I will sing a new song to you.
I will play to you on the ten-stringed harp.
10 You give victory to kings.
You save your servant David from cruel swords.
11 Save me, rescue me from these foreigners.
They are liars.
They are dishonest.
12 Let our sons in their youth
grow like strong trees.
Let our daughters be
like the decorated stones in the Temple.
13 Let our barns be filled
with crops of all kinds.
Let our sheep in the fields have
thousands and thousands of lambs.
14 Let our cattle be strong.
Let no one break in.
Let there be no war.
Let there be no screams in our streets.
15 Happy are those who are like this.
Happy are the people whose God is the Lord!
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