When I was asked to serve as honorary chairman for the National Day of Prayer, I never dreamed of the controversy that would surround this day of corporate prayer for our country.

Only a few days before the observance, a federal judge in Wisconsin ruled that the National Day of Prayer was unconstitutional. Then the Pentagon withdrew an invitation for me to pray there, due to objections within the Defense Department to my past remarks on the religion of Islam. We were still able to hold the national prayer service at the Cannon House Office Building.

None of this stopped me or other believers from across this great nation from calling on Almighty God, in repentance and humility, asking for spiritual renewal and awakening. No judge or dissenter can thwart the sovereign purposes of a God who hears and answers the pleas of His people.

Believers in Jesus Christ can come “boldly to the throne of grace” (Hebrews 4:16), now that His sacrificial death, burial and resurrection has atoned for sins and opened the way into His presence through faith in Him.

And while I am grateful for the privilege of celebrating a national day of prayer, the Bible tells us to “pray without ceasing” (1 Thessalonians 5:17). This means that we are to be in an ongoing lifestyle of lifting up our thanks and praise to the Lord Jesus Christ.

In most of his letters, the Apostle Paul asked those to whom he wrote to pray for him, so that he would have the strength and boldness he needed to continue to preach Christ and Him crucified. Paul understood and treasured the power of prayerful intercession on his behalf.

I would like to ask you to cover the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association with your prayers in the days to come. We need God’s people lifting up our work of evangelism and discipleship on a regular, consistent basis. I’ve often heard my father speak of how important it was to him to know that believers were interceding for him as he preached.

Every day, around the world, we are working for the sake of the Gospel. That means there is always much opposition from the adversary, the devil, who continually strives to blind the minds and hearts of men and women to God’s saving truth. That kind of enemy can only be overcome through prevailing, earnest prayer.

This summer, we’ll be traveling across western Canada with Rock the River to reach young people for Christ. We need your prayers. Later, we’ll be in Japan and Latvia for Crusades and Malawi for My Hope. I ask you to uphold us in prayer.

I want to thank you personally for your support and prayers on my behalf. I felt them especially as I went on numerous network talk shows to defend the National Day of Prayer. God gave me strength, and I know that came through the prayers of His people.