Happy New Year, everyone! The hustle and bustle of Christmas is past, and life is starting to settle into the cozy lull that January brings. With the New Year comes many resolutions, hopes, dreams, and challenges. I ordinarily don’t get too swept up in the pressure to do these things at the start of the year. Most are just fads that barely make it to March (and I’m being generous). However, this year is a special year. You see, as the clock struck midnight all across this great big beautiful land, we entered a year of celebration. America is turning 250 years old!

So begins the Semiquincentennial.

Now, those of you who have been around here for any length of time know that I am ecstatic over this. My family started the New Year in true American style — watched the America 250 tribute of Time Square, oohed and aahed over the spectacular display that lit up the Washington Monument, and rang in midnight with a chorus of “Proud To Be An American”. After all, this milestone in American history deserves to be commemorated in great ways.

This is a once, maybe twice, in a lifetime celebration. It will be another fifty years before we see another milestone like this. Fifty years. An entire lifetime will have passed, and many of us will be old and gray. We will have witnessed another half century of American history by then, and will be passing the torch of freedom to the next generation.

Perhaps that is why this milestone seems so important to me. We have the privilege to be alive to see this magnificent moment, and I do not intend on wasting it.

Prayerfully this year will see many fun and interesting posts on this blog, with regard to the Semiquincentennial. So keep your eyes open!

But first, I have a challenge that I would like to propose to each of you. And I hope you will seriously consider it.

America is a struggling nation. We are quickly turning our backs on the biblical foundations that have made us great. If these things do not change, I don’t know if America will still be standing by the time of our Tricentennial. I pray that we are. But nations crumble when righteousness is forsaken.

The good news is, God answers prayer. There have been many blog posts I’ve written about various times when God heard the prayers of America and answered them in mighty ways. I have no reason to doubt that He can still do so today.

In fact, I have every reason to believe that He will! Have we so soon forgotten His mighty power in our last presidential election? I don’t know about you all, but I fervently prayed for His mercy that year. And He answered mightily.

So today, I propose to you the Semiquincentennial Prayer Challenge.

How it is going to work:

This year, each month will have a new prayer focus on behalf of our nation, which I will post at the start of every month. I challenge you to commit to praying fervently with me over each month’s respective prayer spotlight.

This is not a contest, or a show of spirituality. Rather, this is a call to arms. This is God’s people crying out for mercy and grace in an hour that will define our next fifty years or more.

It is a year of celebration for all that God has done for us. What better way to honor America than by hitting our knees on her behalf? And maybe, just maybe, our prayers will be what carry us into our next century stronger than ever.

I will be posting later this week with January’s America prayer spotlight.

Who will join me?

A. M. Watson

Hebrews 13:8