How to pray for Japan.

Since Friday's devastating earthquake the number one Twitter conversation in the world has been #PrayForJapan. Prayer for Japan is trending but how do we actually do it? How are we to pray for such an overwhelming situation? Here are a few pointers from 24-7's Jon Petersen who grew up watching fish being pulled from the Japanese ocean where he lived the first eighteen years of his life.

The Japanese are a wonderfully created people and stand in the vortex of God's love in these days. A disaster like the recent earthquake exposes them to the humiliation of needing help from outsiders.  With a strong historic identity in Shintoism (indigenous to Japan) and influenced by Buddhism, their gods have not protected them - neither have the gods of materialism and technology.  God in his redemptive way wants to reveal himself to the Japanese people in an unprecedented way even through such a heart-breaking tragedy.  

    * On a recent visit to Japan I was excited to see that the Church, though small, is experiencing a renaissance through the youth, literature and increased hunger to look to other gods.
    * I'm therefore encouraged to pray right now for the Church to rise up and be a redemptive instrument to bring practical and spiritual help to this island nation.
    * Pray too that a partnership between the indigenous Church and Global Church will release a realization of the love of Christ to those who up till now have been resistant to the Lord's invitation to enter His family.

    * Lastly pray for a gentle prophetic voice to rise from amongst Christ-minded spokespeople who will bring clarity and hope to Japan during this time of extreme confusion - Daniels and Josephs raised up as deliverers in the land...

A prayer for Japan:

    For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom his whole family (every "fatherhood" inlcuding the Japanese race) in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your (Japanese believers) hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge--that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

Eph 3:14-19 (NIV)

Kilde: Jon Petersen.