At least 100 people gathered outside the Escambia County Courthouse at noon Thursday to offer praise and thanksgiving to God on the National Day of Prayer.

“Father, we do humbly praise your name as we ponder your majesty and your might,” the Rev. Ed Glaize, pastor of First United Methodist Church, said as he helped open the service, which featured three other ministers reading from scripture and praying.

Organized by First Baptist Church pastor Jack Fitts, the service focused on praise, confession, thanksgiving and supplication. Ministers and those gathered prayed for friends, family and the nation.

First Presbyterian pastor the Rev. John Mathieu told those gathered that confession is “a great privilege.”

“God will forgive us because of Christ and cleanse us because of Christ,” Mathieu said. “As we pray for our nation today … we know that only one person can change our nation, Jesus Christ. The burden is on Christ, but he gives us the privilege to take part in that burden.”

Pastor Tommy Quick of Dogwood Hills Assembly of God said God is “bigger than the issues before us.”

“Father, we say to you that we are dependent on you,” he said. “You hold the dust of the earth in a basket.”

Fitts encouraged those gathered to pray for anyone who needed prayer. “We pray that we might be a vessel through which your power is released,” he said.

The service began with the Pledge of Allegiance and ended with the singing of “My Country ‘Tis of Thee.”