Have you ever felt an earthquake? I did this past week. I was blessed to be at a pastors’ conference in Puerto Rico. I felt the earth shake—four times! Thankfully, there was no damage where I was. But it was eerie. Unsettling. To wake up in the dark and have everything moving. Suitcases rolled across the floor. Water swished in water bottles. Just a few seconds of the earth shaking is enough to make you feel completely helpless. Completely out of control.
But it doesn’t take an earthquake to make you feel that way. As proud and self-confident as we like to be, moments in life powerfully remind us that we’re not in control. We can’t do everything. Often, we can’t do anything. We’re completely helpless. Completely out of control. Felt that way lately?
Good. It’s good for us to feel that way, because then God can remind us whom to trust in: “God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging” (Psalm 46:1-3).
Even when the earth isn’t shaking, your life doesn’t depend on the strength of the ground or the strength of your legs or the smarts of your mind. It depends on our Refuge and Strength—our Almighty God and Savior. When the earth shakes, God reminds us, “Be still and know that I am God” (Psalm 46:10). What a promise! Even when the earth shakes, “God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.”
Upside-Down Savior 
Hi Nathan, I’ve been searching for prayers for peace and protection regarding Earth tremors, for my family living in Jamaica. The Island has been experiencing them more frequently over the past couple of years, moreso this year. I live in the UK, and would just love to send a comforting prayer for them to declare over their lives when it occurs. Frankly, I think the entire Country needs a spiritual cleansing. But, for a start, please help me find an appropriate prayer for my siblings and their families🙏 . Please keep Jamaica in your prayers.
God bless you, Ruth
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Hi Ruth! Thank you for your comment and your prayer request. I said a prayer for your family in Jamaica this afternoon. As for what to pray for, the words of Psalm 46 in the Bible come to mind. Pray that God would be the refuge and fortress of his people, even as the world itself seems to be falling apart. Pray that God would give his people peace in Jesus Christ our Savior, even when the outward circumstances of life give us so many reasons to worry. Here are the first verses of Psalm 46 – both for you and for them:
1 God is our refuge and strength,
an ever-present help in trouble.
2 Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way
and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea,
3 though its waters roar and foam
and the mountains quake with their surging.
4 There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God,
the holy place where the Most High dwells.
5 God is within her, she will not fall;
God will help her at break of day. (Psalm 46:1-5 NIV)
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