Prayers for Japan

So many of us watching the aftermath of the Tsunami wonder, how can we help our brothers and sisters in Japan? Consider intercessory prayer, along with whatever other gifts you may offer through whatever human means (nonprofits or faith-based groups) can get them to those who suffer.  It doesn’t replace our need to be God’s “hands and feet” in this world, or release us from our duty to help in other visible ways (perhaps through the International Medical Corps or Doctors Without Borders). Prayer is only one part of the puzzle.

Intercessory prayer is like a “spiritual bouquet” brought on behalf of someone else for whom you care or have compassion. Anyone with a heart for intercessory prayer can stand before God with an open heart and ask.

Many of us in the modern day age have difficulty putting trust in something so ineffable as prayer, but our prayers are not nothing, and a few scientific studies have even been done to attempt to prove their worth to the skeptical. Those who have felt their benefit know prayer is very powerful, even life-saving. Evangelist Reinhard Bonnke became aware of the power of intercessory prayer when, consumed by fever and convinced he might dying in Africa, he heard the voice of a woman in his church in Germany, praying on his behalf. After he recovered, he wrote his father to ask what had happened, and she confirmed she’d been awoken with the inspiration that he was dying and that she should pray for him. She prayed for hours until she felt a breakthrough — the very moment his fever broke.

Bonnke has noticed that, in the Psalms, such prayers always rise up to God on the wings of praise. Even The Lord’s Prayer begins and ends with praise.  Form your intercessory prayer with praise, gratitude, and trust in God, and then ask for God’s help, specifically, on the behalf of those for whom you are praying. Trust that God will always hear you, do what you can, and then leave it to God to do what God will do.