He will beautify the meek with salvation" A prayer for bending the knee under the Sovereign Hand of a Mighty God of the

Universe.

Hurricane Sandy has come with force winds. We city dwellers have, for generations laughed in the face of such storms. Unwittingly laughing at the reminders that God gives us of His sovereignty. These storms have provoked our pagan pride and we repent at this time, Dear Lord. In the light of the humility we see in the North Carolinian submission to Your divine intervention in creation. We bow our heads and we bow our knees in repentance and faith that You have every right to level our city in this storm and in any way that You see fit. We beg, in wrath that You remember mercy! We know that we have provoked You to Your face, mimimizing Your great power in the winds and in the waves. We have seen it as a challenge to build against Your forces, as though we were competing with Your wrath. We have sent souls to their doom, in airplanes and boats and laughed that they and we had not bowed at Your fierce wrath, exhibitted in the storm. We repent dear Lord. We glory not in our stocks of animals to the demise of the souls given to our care. We glory not in the bucklers that we have built with our own hands to stand against Your fury. We know that they are matchsticks against Your true and just fury against our sins. We submit and confess to You that we are learning to bow under Your just judgments against us. We have no power against Your wrath and we have no reason to glory except that we know that the Lord Jesus paid it all for our souls' salvation, at the cross of Calvary. God, You are our God. You said to Abraham that if there would have been 10 in the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah you would not have demolished them. We have sinned against light and deserve far worse than they received, except for Your love and mercy that has been showered upon us. We must learn from more humble peoples not to provoke You as we have made a habit of doing in our unbelief. Your storms are reminders to care for the less fortunate. The people who have no wall of protection and the people who are incapable of finding a shelter in the storm, give us grace to see this in the fierceness of Your exhibitions of power. We know that You are sovereign and we pray that You will use this to draw us to Yourself and to give us grace to grow and learn to emulate Your mercy as we have emulated Your power and strength in our cities. Hold us and guide us to the humble path as our sins make us rise in sinful pride. We love You Lord and pray for mercy and grace to learn and grow, In Jesus Name. Amen.