NRB Chronicals - Kathy Branzelle National Day Of Prayer

What a tremendous honor we have So, wow, what an opportunity we have every year to come together as a nation, right, and enjoy 2nd Chronicles. Yes, by law.

A lot of people don't know the National Day of Prayer is a law. Right. Right. And so, Cathy, maybe first of all, kind of share your vision of, as you came to the National Religious Broadcasters Convention this year, you know, what are you hoping that people would catch fire for for this year's Day of Prayer?

Oh, wow. I came here because I know there's a lot of good news out there and I just wanted to run around to people like you and say thank you. Thank you for sharing good news and then thank you for giving people action steps. And so, for this next National Day of Prayer, because we're really mobilizing prayer every single day of the year. The first Thursday of May is our celebration culmination. Right.

It's really my hope that we will help our nation to turn our eyes back forward. fully on Jesus. We've gotten kind of distracted, if you hadn't noticed. Yeah.

A little divided, if you haven't noticed. There's lots of sad statistics out there about how people are feeling and acting. And Jesus is the answer. And we can communicate with our Creator through prayer. Praise is a great healer. Being thankful is a great healer.

And so it's really my hope over this next year that we can help people through prayer and loving them back on track and that we would mobilize united prayer for America throughout the year. I'm a Christian back then. Right. But we do. We belong to Him. We're children of God. And so isn't it a beautiful thing that all we have to do really is turn our faces right like straight and go to that place where the source of healing really is? That's right. Ian Bounds said our prayers move the hands that move the universe. If that is not powerful, if that's not good news, I don't know what it is. Right. So as we have an opportunity to see things in the culture and whatever this year that I'm sure are going to scare us, you know, the only place we really can turn for solutions is like, wow, our government gave us a law. That's right.

In order to be able to do this. And so to get involved in the National Day of Prayer, but obviously, the regular day of prayer. But one of the things I understand from your organization that you had an opportunity to witness, or actually you were involved in, was for Native Americans. And I know most of our listeners, I hadn't heard of this. So I'm guessing a lot of our listeners hadn't heard about what happened And so I'll let you tell the story. So this year for the National Day of Prayer, one of the things that God really put on my heart was saying, I'm sorry. And America is not real good at that.

And so for over 20 years, I have been friends with Native American leaders across the country. And Sam Brownback, who was once senator, governor, then ambassador, had written in 2009, an apology to the Native American people. He tried to get through Congress tied to get it through Congress. Finally, it was tucked into a defense bill.

It was passed by Congress and signed by the President, President Obama, and stuck in a drawer. It was never spoken. And for you listeners out there, I want you to know that the most important part of an apology is saying it, not just thinking it, not just intending to say it, but to actually say, I'm sorry, will you please forgive me? And so we had been trying to get a president to say, I'm sorry, we still hope one will.

But for us, spiritual kingdom trumps nationalism in a nation. And so we went to the many, many of the tribal nation leaders and said, if we say we're sorry, out loud, would that mean anything to you? And they said, yes, of course.

So at the Congressional Cemetery in Washington, DC, a lot of people don't even know it exists. We went there with several Native American leaders, and we read the apology that is a law of our land. And we apologized and said, will you please forgive us? And we received their forgiveness. And we prayed in solidarity for God, because he says in Second Chronicles, just like you were saying. I'll forgive their sins and I'll heal your land. So we're now watching to see what he does to heal our land. But then it happened in almost every other state across the nation with our coordinators and with Native American leaders there as well. So we are so grateful to have participated in that. Wow.

And what a picture, really, of what God would have us see in the way we treat everyone. Right? That's right. To speak the apology, I love the power of the way that that happened. It's almost like God allowed it so that the Native Americans could get more of a stage of, you know, here's really in this time, in these times. Right. These people are sincerely seeking God's forgiveness, not only, right? This was a prayer.

Right. It absolutely was. And I could almost feel that God had his forgiveness and healing in his hand. And the minute we said, we're sorry, will you please forgive us? It was almost like God said, I thought you'd never ask, and opened his hand for that forgiveness and that healing to come. And then also for it to be a model for everything that's going on in our nation today. I don't know about you, but over the last couple of years, I think I've probably done and said things that I, it was not acting in Christ loving way towards another person.

You think maybe a few people in the nation, that might be the case. And we wanted to model that you can take personal responsibility and say, I'm sorry, will you please forgive me? And it's never too late to say you're sorry, but it's also never too soon to say you're sorry. But also we took corporate responsibility for the sins of our nation, you know, before we ever lived. But we took that corporate responsibility just like they had biblically, Daniel, Nehemiah, so many others.

And we said, we're sorry, please forgive us. For me, as I sit back and think about, wow, God, look what you organized, right? Because the National Day of Prayer has been a burden for a lot of folks that we're on the shoulders of many fathers, right? And mothers that have headed this up. And so, you know, share a few of the wonderful people that God's had in your role over the years.

Oh, wow. So Miss Bonette Bright, you know, her husband Bill Bright, you know, founded Campus Crusade for Christ, CREW, now that we call. And then so she headed it for many years and then she handed the mantle over to Miss Shirley Dobson, who headed us up for 25 years. Both of them, I'm blessed to say, was a mentor in my life and in ministry. I worked with them and I was on the board of directors and did special projects for them. And then Miss Anne Graham Lots was an interim for us for a year as Miss Dobson retired.

Of course, Mr. Ronnie Floyd for a couple of years before he went back to Southern Baptist Convention. And then they tapped me on the shoulder and I've been with NDP for 21 years. Love it deeply. I have so many deep relationships, but I just love to mobilize prayer. So I'm grateful for this opportunity. Right. But you had this passion for Native Americans. And so God, you know, you can kind of see where he was.

His heart was in this. And so as people look forward to the event, of course, how would you tell people to get involved, to get organized? What are the steps that are practical that they could do between now and next May? Yes, because we have 19,000 coordinators.

So we need more. Let me just start with that, because we want a coordinator in every zip code in every county and we're mobilizing prayer all year long. And so you can go on our website, NationalDayOfPrayer.org and find out how to be a coordinator.

You can apply for that. You can be praying along with us. We're on Facebook and Instagram. I do a blog every Friday. You can pray with us. You can sign up for our newsletter. We're sending out teaching people how to pray and uniting prayer together throughout the year. So many people call us, email us. When we were doing bus tours, they'd almost run us off the road, chase us in the parking lot saying, Teach me to pray.

I want to have a strong, vibrant prayer life. I don't know what to say. And so we want to do that for the nation throughout the year.

And so they can find out a lot more at NationalDayOfPrayer.org. So, well, just, you know, there might be somebody listening, right? And they're like, Man, I relate.

I relate. Kathy, what should I do? Teach me to pray.

What would you say to them? I would say get in the Word. So open your Bible and find out more about God. I'll say these three words. Know Him more. That's praise.

Grow in Him more. That's thanksgiving. That's being a disciple.

People don't know that. That word disciple actually means pupil, student. So be a student of Him, a student of His Word. Look to see what God's doing. Enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise.

And then in His Word, read His scripture and find out how you can put that into practice. Lord, teach me how to love people. Lord, teach me. Lord, teach me. Lord, show me how to be this. Your Word says I am this.

Show me. And, of course, we always intercede. Always ask Him. We have not because we ask not. And so I would just encourage you to be diligent and consistent every day to pray. Wow, that's really, really a beautiful word. And as you were saying that, I couldn't help but note for those who are thinking about what she just said, to know God is to pray like you talk to people that you know and you get to know them by talking to them. But God's Word is Jesus. It says in the beginning was the Word and the Word was God. Well, that means Jesus is the Word. So when you're reading the scriptures, you're literally talking to Him. And you're learning more about Him in that process, which is everything to do with the Hebrew term yada, which just means it's kind of like intimacy. Like you would take somebody by the hand.

It has everything to do with that idea. Well, you want to take God by the hand, open up His Word, and then if I might just suggest you want something really fun, turn to, if you can find this pretty easy, in the book of 1 Samuel, right? Chapter 2. There is one of the most fabulous prayers that has ever been prayed by a lady who had just given up her only son that she had prayed to receive. It's Hannah's prayer.

And so it's really fun from my perspective to look at some of the great prayers that people prayed through the centuries. And the book is about, it's not a book of exceptions, this is a book of examples of how people grew in their relationship with God. And so here you have Hannah, right?

Right. Persecuted, made fun of, tortured basically by her husband's other wife. And then also as she sat and prayed at the temple, she was accused by the prophet of being drunk and she's like, no, I'm just so desperate. I'm just so desperate.

I'm not drunk, I'm desperate. I'm just as forgot to, for a child, for God to answer my prayer. And Samuel said, sorry, he said, you will receive your son.

And she got Samuel. And that was the answer to her prayer. So, you know, I'd love if you just thought, yeah, teach me to pray.

Robby or Cathy, I would love to know how to pray more. That in itself is thirst. And blessed are you. Right. If you thirst to increase your prayer life, that's just, and so, wow. There's other resources that are there available, right?

Yes. Nationaldayofprayer.org. So Cathy, what an honor, as I said, just an honor, really, to have a chance to meet you and talk to you.

Like, I didn't expect this today. Aw, thank you so much. God bless. Thank you for being with us. Thank you. We look forward to praying with you more. Yeah, me too. Thank you.