How Do I Pray?

With Cyclone Yasi looming on the eastern horizon a couple of days ago, I was trying to pray. But how do you pray in such a situation?

Do I ask God to make Yasi disappear? Sure, God is BIG and MIGHTY and POWERFUL and He's the CREATOR....so He could make that old cyclone just vanish. But did He want to mess with the natural way (systems He orchestrated way back when) things go?

And yes, I could have prayed for it to change direction and go away, far away from Australia. But in all honesty, I didn't want that to happen. The alternatives to Yasi hitting northern Qld were that it might come further south...and that's where I live. Or even worse, maybe it would head north...to PNG or back east to Fiji or Vanuatu and I certainly didn't want those tiny island nations in the path of this monster.

I could pray for it to downsize....and I did. And it didn't straight away, but it sure was answered prayer when it became a Category 2 (from a 5) in a matter of hours.

And like so many others, I could pray for the PEOPLE involved. I prayed for no loss of life. God is the giver of life and He's the One who values life most, so I knew I was praying in His will. I prayed for people's safe-keeping and protection. For lives to be protected, even if replaceable properties and businesses weren't. I prayed for their emotional state....that fear and sadness wouldn't overwhelm them. I prayed for the children who might be so very scared with the loud noise and seeing so much devastation of homes and other properties.

My prayers were also for those making decisions in the lead-up to landfall and now in the aftermath. We pray for wisdom and strength for them. And for those on the ground now helping, cleaning up, assessing, rebuilding, and the rest....we continue to ask for courage and determination and perseverance and that God would bless them with moments of laughter and lightness in this tough journey ahead.

Is that how to pray? I am still not sure.....but I am ever so grateful there is Someone so much bigger than us that we can ask these things of. And I will be sure to pray prayers of thankfulness too, because He has answered so many prayers so graciously already.