A call to prayer and fasting on Good Friday

My dear Chapel Hill family,

2 Chronicles 7:14 makes this promise: “If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.” Well, our land needs healing. Our entire planet needs healing. So the leaders of several denominations have invited God’s people to unite in a day of prayer and fasting.

In an unprecedented show of unity, the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA), the Anglican Church of North America (ACNA), and our own denomination, the Evangelical Presbyterian Church (EPC), have come together to declare that Good Friday will be a day of prayer and fasting as we petition God for mercy and healing. Below is the official call:

The Call: For all believers in Christ in the PCA, EPC, and ACNA to set aside Good Friday, April 10, as a day of prayer and fasting to cry out for God’s help in addition to a day of worship.

The goal is that the 550,000 members of these denominations will come together in this act of repentance, confession, and intercession. Other denominations are also asking to participate. If they do, we could have millions of Christians uniting their prayers for God’s intervention.

I call upon every member and friend of this congregation to join me in this day of consecration. Every hour on the hour from 6:00 am to 9:00 pm, I will go live on our Facebook Good Friday event page to guide you for a few minutes with a particular prayer focus for that hour. If you go to our Facebook page, like it, and (here’s the key!) mark that you are “going” to the Good Friday Day of Prayer event, you’ll get notifications every time we go live.

Here are some resources that will help you prepare for this day of prayer and fasting. In addition, we’re inviting you to sign up and pray throughout the day. You can do so here.

I can think of no more appropriate day than Good Friday to share in this experience. The shed blood of Jesus, in a way that we will never comprehend, covered all the sin, the sickness, and the death that this world dishes out. Let us entreat the Risen Christ to extend the cover of his purifying sacrifice toward this hidden enemy that has struck his world.

May the Lord hear our prayers—and “heal this land.”

Pastor Mark