Prayer in the Face of Cataclysm
O GOD Most High, you are great and abundant in power, your understanding is beyond measure (Psalm 147.5); we cry out to you in the midst of this cataclysmic event because we are distraught. Return, O LORD! How long? Have pity on your servants (Psalm 90.13)! O dear God, the loss of life, the undeserved violence foisted on the children, the death brought to those who did no wrong, the robbing of safety, security and well-being! How long, O Lord? Will you look on (Psalm 35.17)? How long, O LORD? will you hide yourself forever (Psalm 89.46)? O Lord, have mercy!
But you, O Lord, know what it is to have injustice and vicious brutality poured out on someone you love! Your own Son faced torture, and bore the bloody slaughter of the cross for us and our salvation! He too asked, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" (Matthew 27.46) as evil clouded his perception. You know! And not only do you know, but through his resurrection on the third day, you have inaugurated the new creation; you have initiated the remedy to what is killing and destroying us!
O Father; Abba, Father! Have mercy on us! Be with the weeping families, the emergency responders, the children and adults. Draw them close to you, strengthen them, guide them through the aftermath as they try to put sense to their lives. Re-integrate their hearts, minds and existences. And Father, bring about an end to such nefarious villainy! Hear us as we cry out to you, Father! Hear us!
Come, Lord Jesus! Amen
[This prayer put together on 14 December 2012, after terrible shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut; and the terrible knife attack at Chengping Elementary School, Hunan Province, China]
But you, O Lord, know what it is to have injustice and vicious brutality poured out on someone you love! Your own Son faced torture, and bore the bloody slaughter of the cross for us and our salvation! He too asked, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" (Matthew 27.46) as evil clouded his perception. You know! And not only do you know, but through his resurrection on the third day, you have inaugurated the new creation; you have initiated the remedy to what is killing and destroying us!
O Father; Abba, Father! Have mercy on us! Be with the weeping families, the emergency responders, the children and adults. Draw them close to you, strengthen them, guide them through the aftermath as they try to put sense to their lives. Re-integrate their hearts, minds and existences. And Father, bring about an end to such nefarious villainy! Hear us as we cry out to you, Father! Hear us!
Come, Lord Jesus! Amen
[This prayer put together on 14 December 2012, after terrible shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut; and the terrible knife attack at Chengping Elementary School, Hunan Province, China]
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