Hurricane Florence, Flooding and the Aftermath

Hurricane Florence has proved to be catastrophic. I know many of you have been praying. Please don’t stop. My wife, Ceci, has been monitoring the situation closely since the beginning and we sent out an emergency prayer alert on Wednesday, ahead of the storm. The good news is that Florence was downgraded as it came ashore from a 4 to a 1. That’s the good news. The bad news is that once ashore, it slowed down. This means that huge amounts of rain hit the coast of North Carolina and up to 20” of rainfall has caused widespread flooding. Hundreds of people have had to be rescued. Over half a million people remain without power. More than 2100 flights have been cancelled. As of this writing, two precious lives were lost and we pray no more will be. The governor of North Carolina, Roy Cooper, has warned that the storm could continue for days. There have been a number of prophetic words released giving reasons why God may have allowed this storm, but today, I want us to focus on praying to hasten the end of this national tragedy.

“He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, ‘Quiet! Be still!’ Then the wind died down and it was completely calm. He said to his disciples, ‘Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?’” (Mark 4:39-40; NIV)

Give Him 15 minutes in prayer:

  • Ask God to forgive our nation if there is any sin that we are missing, which may have allowed this storm.
  • Command the storm to stop completely!
  • Intercede for the hundreds of thousands impacted by Florence. Lives, health, homes, jobs, travel, utilities, and communication services are all affected at this time.

A prayer you can pray:

Father, we humble ourselves before You today and bring our national situation to You. Hurricane Florence was allowed to hit our shores and has caused great distress. We repent of any sin, current or past, that is undealt with before the cross of Christ and the throne of grace. Reveal things to us that we cannot otherwise see, so we can avert these tragedies in the future. We have seen You dissolve and divert storms in the past, as Your people humbly prayed. We see in Matthew, Mark and Luke that Jesus calmed storms. We want that level of faith, so the citizens of the United States do not have to suffer such loss. May many turn to You, Lord, in this hour of great need. But, how much better if we were saved from it and could testify of Your saving grace! Be seen in the midst of the storm! Bring it to an end! Let the earth swallow up the water! Heal our land! In Jesus’ name, amen.

Today’s decree:

We say to the storm named Florence, “Peace! Be still! Flooding, subside!”