The state of Tennessee has called its citizens to spend the month of July in prayer and fasting as a way to “reclaim our nation” after Pride Month, ask that “the Holy Spirit fill our halls of government,” and renew our nation in God’s image and likeness.

The resolution asks God to deliver the state and our nation “from violence committed upon our citizens by non-citizens,” as well as “human trafficking,” “deadly fentanyl” sales, family breakdown, and “corruption in our federal government.”

“[W]e hold that ‘Except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain,’” the resolution says, quoting Psalm 127:1.

“[A]s public servants in the Tennessee General Assembly, [we] seek God’s [m]ercy upon our land and beseech Him to not withdraw His Hand of blessing from us,” the resolution declares. “[W]e recognize that God, as Creator and King of all Glory, has both the authority to judge and to bless nations or states. … [W]e recognize our sins and shortcomings before Him and humbly ask His [f]orgiveness.”

Importantly, it concludes with a petition for the renewal of the state and the entire country: “[W]e ask that the Holy Spirit fill our halls of government, our classrooms, our places of business, our churches, and our homes with peace, love, and joy,” says the resolution. It asks all Tennesseans to engage in a month of “prayer and intermittent fasting” as “a means of seeking God’s blessing and humbling ourselves to receive His [g]race and [m]ercy, transforming ourselves, our communities, our [s]tate, and our [n]ation.”

Tennessee State Rep. Jason Zachary (R), a cosponsor of the bill, told “Washington Watch” Tuesday that legislators passed the bill in the spring with July in mind, because “this is the month of our independence. To be really transparent: We’re following Pride Month, and that was part of the conversation — how we reclaim our nation? And the way we as believers approach that is through prayer,” said Zachary. “We know that we are facing an enemy who is looking to steal, kill, and destroy. And we serve the Author of all things, the King of Kings.”

Delegates envisioned “the people of our state being unified. Believers calling out, saying, ‘Lord, we need You. We’re a land who has lost its way. We’re still the greatest nation in the world, the freest people, the wealthiest people. We’ve done more to advance the Kingdom and further the cause of Christ than any other nation in the history of the world,” said Zachary on Tuesday.

“But we’re very different” than the faith-filled generations that carved the United States out of an undeveloped wild and founded a constitutional republic rooted in biblical principles, Zachary told “Washington Watch” guest host, former Congressman Jody Hice. “Even the 10 years that I’ve been serving,” America has become “a very different nation.”

Elected officials saw this resolution as their way of putting into effect II Chronicles 7:14: “If my people, which are called by My name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from Heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.”

Hice, the former U.S. representative turned senior vice president of Family Research Council, called the bill’s passage “a great source of encouragement” and “certainly a story that you are not going to hear about from the legacy media.”

The state House of Representatives passed the legislation, House Joint Resolution 803, by an overwhelmingly bipartisan 82-6 vote on March 4. All six no votes came from Democrats: State Reps. Aftyn Behn (D-51), Bob Freeman (D-56), Gloria Johnson (D-90), Justin Jones (D-52), Justin Pearson (D-86), and Jason Powell (D-53).

The bill passed the state Senate 27-1 on April 8. The only no vote came from State Senator Heidi Campbell (D-20), who once called a bill protecting women and girls from being forced to compete against or change in front of men “hate legislation.”

Zachary said many of his fellow congressmen are also “passionate Christ followers.”

Governor Bill Lee (R) signed the prayer resolution into law on April 16. The signature reflects the governor’s personal relationship with God, said Zachary, who declared, “Governor Lee loves the Lord.”

Public officials asking for people to voluntarily pray for their nation — according to their conscience, in the church of their choice — predates the American Revolution. Some doubled as concise treatises on government from a Christian perspective. George Washington’s first Thanksgiving proclamation in 1789 stated that “it is the duty of all Nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey his will, to be grateful for his benefits, and humbly to implore his protection and favor.”

He implored all Americans to “unite in rendering unto [H[im our sincere and humble thanks … for the signal and manifold mercies, and the favorable interpositions of [H]is Providence which we experienced in the course and conclusion of the late war,” as well as “the great degree of tranquility, union, and plenty, which we have since enjoyed.”

Washington specifically requested that all Americans give thanks “for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed,” a freedom the First Amendment recognizes as an unalienable right given by God and which cannot be restricted by the government.

His Thanksgiving proclamation also struck a penitential note, asking U.S. citizens to join him in “most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations and beseech [H]im to pardon our national and other transgressions.”

The father of our country also asked faithful Americans to pray that the U.S. government will always “promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue.”

In 1861, Abraham Lincoln likewise called Americans to observe “a day of public humiliation, prayer, and fasting” for the end of “faction and civil war” between the states.

Lincoln asked his fellow countrymen “to acknowledge and revere the supreme government of God,” to “deplore their sins and transgressions in the full conviction that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom,” and to pray that the union of all states “may be restored in all its original excellence.”

Lincoln’s call to prayer reflected the martial themes of the times, asking for Americans to pray for the Union Army, “that our arms may be blessed and made effectual for the reestablishment of law, order, and peace throughout the wide extent of our country.”

Some declarations showed more enthusiasm than others. Although President Bill Clinton called religious liberty a “fundamental human right,” he seemingly observed the day only because it was required by statute. “The Congress, by Public Law 100-307, has called on our citizens to reaffirm the role of prayer in our society and to honor the religious diversity our freedom permits by recognizing annually a ‘National Day of Prayer.’ Now, Therefore, I, William J. Clinton, President of the United States of America, do hereby proclaim May 7, 1998, as a National Day of Prayer,” Clinton wrote.

Rep. Zachary said his own church would implement the resolution through its Sunday School program. He’s also heard similar plans from “Baptist pastors, Presbyterian pastors, Pentecostal pastors,” and a “really cool movement of younger pastors,” as well as private citizens among the state’s “older demographic.”

“We need the Lord to hear us and heal us and have grace on us once again,” said Zachary.