The events of 9/11 were catastrophic and ushered in an urgent sense of our need for divine intervention. However, with a few years between us and that tragic day, our need for and dependence upon God appears to be slipping further and further away.

A growing number of churches, pastors, prayer leaders, and prayer ministries are keenly sensing a crisis facing our nation and are joining together to call God's people everywhere, but especially in the United States, to forty days of corporate and individual prayer and fasting. The time for this prayer focus is September 24–November 2, 2004.

During this time, we hope that several things will happen:

• That this strategic prayer focus will begin with an all-night prayer effort on September 24.

• That congregations will join together (preferably on October 10) for a nationwide solemn assembly. This gathering would include times of worship, as well as opportunities for personal, community, state, and national repentance.

• That prayer for local, state, and national governments will occur and that all will call on God for worldwide revival.

• That the closing days will end with fasts of various kinds as we cry out to God for God-fearing persons to be elected and for safe passage through perilous times.

We have faced enormously nation-threatening times in the past; we have sought God's assistance in the past. As Abraham Lincoln said, "It is the duty of nations as well as of men to own their dependence upon the overruling power of God and to confess their sins and transgressions in humble sorrow, yet with assured hope that genuine repentance will lead to mercy and pardon, and to recognize the sublime truth, announced in the Holy Scripture, and proven by all history, that those nations only are blessed whose God is the Lord."

Hezekiah sent word to those of God's people then, "For the LORD your God is gracious and compassionate, and will not turn His face away from you if you return to Him." (2 Chronicles 30:9b, nasb). Let us, now, seek God's face and pray for God's mercy.

For more information about the 40 Days of Corporate Prayer and Fasting for National Repentance, visit http://www.40daysusa.org/.