Gracious Father,

Our hearts cry out to you for the people of Japan. We don’t claim to comprehend what they’re feeling because we have never experienced anything so devastating. But we do understand bits and pieces of their grief and fear. Some of us understand loss of loved ones and empty loneliness. Others of us know how it feels to lose jobs and wonder how we’ll find shelter. All our hearts pound when danger threatens. The mere mention of losing sons, daughters, spouses, parents, sisters, brothers or a home overwhelms us.

Yet these precious people have lost more. So much more.

We sorrow with the Japanese people.

Our prayers feel paltry and we barely know what to ask you for. Thank you that you see each of them through your eyes of love and you know exactly what they need. We know their troubles must necessarily continue for a while as repair of the country and healing of lives takes its natural course, but we also know that you are able to lessen the impact. You can supernaturally ease their pain even as suffering surrounds them.

Be merciful to them, Lord. Quiet the earth under them. Keep Mt. Fugi silent. Protect them from nuclear meltdowns and radiation exposure. Heal both the Japanese citizens and the American servicemen who have already been contaminated. Provide food and water for the people forced to search through rubble for something to eat. Warm them through the frigid nights. Guide them to locate lost loved ones.

Just as generous people around the world and across America donated to Haiti, prod them to open their purse strings to help the Japanese people.

Reveal yourself to the Japanese people, God. Draw them to you; save their bodies and souls. Offer comfort; be the balm for their grief and teach them to turn to you for courage when they fear. In the name of Jesus, we ask you to show yourself strong in the midst of those people. Pour out your blessings on them. Amen.

Supporting verses:

Two years before the earthquake of King Uzziah’s reign Amos prophesied a scene similar to Japan's earthquake and tsunami. “The LORD roars from Zion and utters his voice from Jerusalem; the pastures of the shepherds mourn, and the top of Carmel withers. . . . The Lord God of hosts, he who touches the earth and it melts, and all who dwell in it mourn, and all of it rises like the Nile, and sinks again, like the Nile of Egypt, who builds his upper chambers in the heavens and founds his vault upon the earth; who calls for the waters of the sea and pours them out upon the surface of the earth – the LORD is his name.” Amos 2:2; 9:5,6

In the midst of devastation for the Jewish people, Jeremiah wrote, “The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases, his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. ‘The LORD is my portion,’ says my soul, ‘therefore I will hope in him.’ The LORD is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him. It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the LORD.” Lamentations 3:22—26

“I, I am he who comforts you.” Isaiah 51:12

"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotton Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." John 3:16