When the Guideposts staff gathers on Monday, November 25, for the annual Thanksgiving Day of Prayer, we will pray for prayer requests from around the country. (Submit your prayer requests here.) It’s a time of fellowship, worship and prayer that began decades ago and was inspired by Guideposts readers.
Guideposts Executive Editor Rick Hamlin remembers the origins of Thanksgiving Day of Prayer. “It was in the mid-80s and at that time, we’d get letters requesting prayer and sometimes people would send photos of their family. We found it was so much easier to connect with them and pray for them this way.”
The first the annual event was called Family Day of Prayer; it switched to its current name in 1991. “We put out a call for prayer requests. The first few years we got hundreds of photos and then we started getting thousands. We’d post all these photos and prayer requests and the whole staff would pray over them; it was lovely.”
The event’s appeal is clear. “We think about the verse ‘Whenever two or three of you are gathered in his name’ (Matthew 18:20), but when 10 or 20 or more of us are gathered together in his name to pray, wow, it’s so powerful,” says Hamlin.
With Psalm 95:2 in mind—“Let us come before him with thanksgiving and extol Him with music and song”—the hour-long service, which is held at Guideposts’ Danbury, Connecticut, headquarters, incorporates several pieces of music and song in addition to prayer.
It’s a very special gathering and a reminder of the importance of prayer, according to Pablo Diaz, Vice President of Ministries for Guideposts Outreach Division
“The power of Thanksgiving Day of Prayer is the coming together of friends and strangers united by faith, hope and prayer for one another,” he says. “When we pause to be thankful, our best day becomes better and difficult ones become hopeful.”
Remember to submit your prayer requests for Thanksgiving Day of Prayer.
When you join us in prayer on Monday, consider taking time to pray for some of the prayer requests that have been submitted for this special day of prayer.
