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“Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.”

– 2 Corinthians 3:17, this year’s National Day of Prayer theme

About 50 people gathered in front of the Clark County Courthouse Thursday at noon to pray for the nation, state and community.

The annual gathering organized by Pastor Pat Finley and Grace Baptist Church is part of the National Day of Prayer, which is going into its 70th year.

Several pastors and elected officials led the local people in prayer.

“Prayer is the most important thing we can do as Christians,” said state Rep. Ryan Dotson, R-Winchester, who is pastor of Lighthouse World Outreach Center. “Without prayer, nothing will ever change.”

Dotson mentioned two occasions in Scripture in which Jesus broke bread and blessed it, once in which he fed a multitude and again in in the upper room where he ate with his disciples before he was betrayed.

“We as a nation, we as a people, are blessed. But oftentimes, even being blessed, we are broken. There are many things in life that will break you,” he said, but told his listeners that “you are never closer to God than when you are broken.”

“Our nation today is broken,” he said and needs “a revival that can only come from heaven.”

He blamed the news media for trying “to divide us,” and prayed that God would heal the hurts.

The Rev. Garvin Floyd of Redeeming Grace Church of God, said the nation was “spiraling out of control” because of COVID and other diseases and drug and alcohol abuse.

“Our hope is not in this word, but in you, Jesus,” he said.

Winchester Mayor Ed Burtner and Pastor Jimmy Clay prayed for revival.

Pastor Todd Rader of Ephesus Baptist Church said he was asked to pray for the nation’s leaders, and said he didn’t know whether he should feel “flattered” or “concerned.”

“Father we pray that we would have Christ-like leaders,” he said, and added that “if they will not be … you will raise up a generation … who will testify for Jesus with their lips and with their lives.”

He later explained that “any Christian placed by God in a position of influence” should make that evident by how he or she leads and lives.

The National Day of Prayer has been observed every year on the first Thursday in May since 1952, when Congress designated it by a joint resolution and President Harry Truman signed it into law.

President Joe Biden continued the tradition last week by declaring Thursday a National Day of Prayer.

“We celebrate our incredible good fortune that, as Americans, we can exercise our convictions freely — no matter our faith or beliefs.  Let us find in our prayers, however they are delivered, the determination to overcome adversity, rise above our differences, and come together as one nation to meet this moment in history,” the president said.