NATIONAL DAY OF  PRAYER FOSTERS NATIONAL UNITY;
SATAN AND HIS AGENTS DREAD PRAYER AND UNITY 

By Sunday Chilufya Chanda

The nation will on Thursday 18th October commemorate the annual National Day of Prayer and Fasting, repentance and reconciliation.

Zambia is a nation that has been declared to be under the Lordship of our Lord Jesus Christ. 
Unity and reconciliation is the central theme of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Our Lord Jesus Christ’s Prayer for Unity

In the Gospel of John, our Lord Jesus Christ offers a passionate prayer for the disciples who were with him as he walked the earth, and those who were to follow through the ages- including those in Zambia at the present moment:

“I am not praying just for these followers. I am also praying for everyone else who will have faith because of what my followers will say about me. 
I want all of them to be one with each other, just as I am one with you and you are one with me. I also want them to be one with us. 
Then the people of this world will believe that you sent me. 
I have honoured my followers in the same way that you honoured me, in order that they may be one with each other, just as we are one. 
I am one with them, and you are one with me, so that they may become completely one. 
Then this world's people will know that you sent me. 
They will know that you love my followers as much as you love me."
(John 17:20-23 CEV Translation)

Why did our Lord Jesus Christ pray for unity?
Because among other things :  the people of this world would believe that Christ was truly sent by Jehovah ….  and people would know that Jehovah loved  Christ's followers as much as He loves Christ through the harmony of His people”.

The major objective of the National Day of Prayer is to Glorify God. When we all get together, the Lordship of Jesus Christ over this nation will be affirmed, and through our corporate prayers of faith Jehovah God will bless us and the world will see and say “surely God watches over Zambia”

It is also a time of thanksgiving. In spite of any challenges we may have, we have a lot to be thankful as a nation. We are a haven of peace and a model not only in Africa but the entire world.

Our nationhood has been the Lord’s doing and we must not take for granted the Peace that has been marvelous not only in our eyes but in  the  eyes of the whole world.

On Page 91 of her book entitled “Prayer" Ellen G White observes that Prayer: “Unites us with each other and with God—Prayer brings Jesus to our side, and gives to the fainting, perplexed soul new strength to overcome the world, the flesh, and the devil. Prayer turns aside the attacks of Satan”.—(Christ’s Object Lessons, 250.)

There is no better way to unite than through Prayer. Are we individually or collectively weary? Are we individually or collectively fainting and perplexed?

There’s no other way to be refreshed individually and collectively  than through prayer.

The day of fasting and Prayer is a national event. It is not an event observed for any particular political grouping; but for Zambia to be on God’s side.  When Jehovah God looks at Zambia as a nation, he does not see the colour of any political party. He sees us as a nation on his side. Like Billy Graham once said: 
“We should not pray for God to be on our side, but pray that we may be on God's side”. 

To Shun Prayer is to unrepentantly shun unity and Reconciliation

For us to move forward as a nation, we need to identify more with what unites us rather than what divides us. Only then will we be a “land of work and joy in unity”.

As Pope Francis admonished in one of his homilies headed “Prayer Unites Us”:
 “Dear friends, one of the most effective ways we have to help is that of prayer. Prayer unites us; it makes us brothers and sisters … and reminds us of a beautiful truth which we sometimes forget. In prayer, we all learn to say 'Father', 'Dad'. We learn to see one another as brothers and sisters. In prayer, there are no rich and poor people; there are sons and daughters, sisters and brothers. In prayer, there is no first or second class, there is brotherhood. It is in prayer that our hearts find the strength not to be cold and insensitive in the face of injustice. In prayer, God keeps calling us, opening our hearts to charity.”

Let us not take our freedom of worship for granted. We have a lot to be thankful for.

There are many countries across the world that do not enjoy the kind of religious freedoms that some here in Zambia take for granted. 
There are even some prominent western nations that have banned prayer in public schools and other public places. It is illegal in these big western nations to carry a Bible to School or even recite the Lord’s Prayer on a sports field.

 In other countries, people are tortured and put to death just because they are Christians.

Christians in these places pray and yearn to have the kind of freedom of worship we have here in Zambia.  So it is very strange that instead of appreciating and valuing what God has given us, some political leaders who ironically profess to be Christians and elders, shun national gatherings and discourage others from participating. What a crying shame!

Granted, prayer is a personal choice. We respect that. However, to whom much is given, much is expected.Much is expected from leaders; leaders are expected to influence those they lead towards the positive- not the negative. 

Since the National Prayers are a national, not a political event; it is unfortunate that for political reasons, a few opposition political leaders have chosen to shun the assemblage of citizens for the sole purpose of Prayer and Thanksgiving.

It is bad enough to shun national celebrations such as Independence Day. It is a whole new level of low to shun prayer in a country that has  been proclaimed a Christian Nation. To shun National prayer is to shun National unity. To shun National unity is to reject the Lordship of Jesus Christ over Zambia.

The intransigence of some opposition political party leaders who belittle others that gather to pray and  their mocking of  the Day   of National Prayer, does little to dispel assertions that these same leaders, despite their claim to be Christian,are involved in the esoteric dark arts of the satanic world - the occult. 

Clearly they would rubbish the declaration of Zambia as a Christian nation and do away with the day of National Prayer at the drop of a hat, if they were given a one in a zillion chance to lead this nation.

Zambians across the country and across the political divide must look out for such leaders that lead them away from prayer.
They have already identified themselves by their fruit. These wolves in sheep skin have made it a habit of  splitting hairs and avoiding national prayer and discouraging others to gather to pray. 

As Ellen G White aptly explains in Chapter 9 of her book on Prayer: 
“Satan Dreads to Have Us Pray—There is a mighty power in prayer. Our great adversary is constantly seeking to keep the troubled soul away from God. An appeal to Heaven by the humblest saint is more to be dreaded by Satan than the decrees of cabinets or the mandates of kings…”

Finally, let us all heed the scriptures and : “Not neglect to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encourage one another, and all the more as we see the Day drawing near. (Hebrews 10:25)

Amen.