Courthouse hosts prayer meeting

2 Chronicles 7:14: “If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”

That verse was quoted or referenced a number of times on Monday as about 200 people gathered on the northern lawn of the Madison County Courthouse for a prayer meeting that’s a part of the statewide prayer effort passed by the Tennessee General Assembly in April calling for prayer at each of the 95 county courthouses at some point in the month of July.

Once Mayor A.J. Massey read a proclamation about the event, a number of local pastors and State Rep. Chris Todd stepped to the microphone asking for divine intervention for the local area, the state of Tennessee and the United States, and the event was coordinated by Jackson First Assembly Pastor Garry Martin.

“It was a great time of prayer and just God’s people simply calling out to God,” Martin said later. “It wasn’t a political event even if it was endorsed by politicians in Nashville.

“It wasn’t about right wing or left wing. It was about the God above us all and crying out to Him on behalf of our nation, our children, our cities, our schools, our churches.”

Among those who prayed, Soulquest Church’s Ronnie Coleman acknowledged in his prayer that those assembled may have different political preferences in upcoming elections.

“God, we may vote in different ways, but help us see that the answer to our country’s problems isn’t a Republican or a Democrat,” Coleman said. “But it’s Jesus Christ the Son of the living God.

“Help us to turn to You God and seek You.”

Martin said some among the assembled asked about the possibility of having similar events on an annual basis.

“I’d love for that to happen, but that’s something we’ll look into later down the line,” Martin said.

Brandon Shields, brandon@jacksonpost.news