Community Comes Together For National Day of Prayer

Citizens of Cookeville and Putnam County came together at the Putnam County Courthouse Thursday for National Day of Prayer.

Colonial View Baptist Church Pastor Marc Burnett directed the ceremony and said the celebration allows people to reflect on the issues they face every day.

“It means everything to me. I believe in the power of prayer,” Burnett said. “Our nation needs prayer, our city needs prayer, our state needs prayer…  We’ve got a lot of issues [and] God can solve them for us. We’ve just got to take them to Him. We get so full of ourselves sometimes, we forget there’s one greater than us who can do everything we need, who can bring us through whatever we’re going through.”

Pastors and community leaders offered words of encouragement and praise towards the country, state, community, and even the national economy.

“It’s really gratifying to see people who are of prayer, people of faith that come together, different faiths of different denominations,” Burnett said, “That’s what we’re expecting in Heaven, so why can’t we do it down here.”

The National Day of Prayer dates back to 1775 during the American Revolution before Congress declared an official annual celebration in 1952.