JOIN US IN PRAYER & RELIEF
Our hearts are heavy as we grieve alongside the families, friends, and communities impacted by the devastating flooding in Central Texas. We’re lifting up in prayer all those who have suffered loss, as well as the brave men and women working tirelessly in rescue and recovery efforts.
Below, you’ll find specific prayer points to help guide your intercession. We also know that many in our church family feel called to respond in practical ways—whether by going, giving, or both. This page includes opportunities for you to get involved and support relief efforts directly.
As we seek the Lord in this time of pain and grief, we invite you to bring every emotion to Him—the One who mourns with those who mourn and draws near to the brokenhearted.
WAYS TO GET INVOLVED
Our Missions Team is currently in communication with our Mission Partners and those on the ground in Central Texas. As soon as we hear of ways that our church can be involved in the relief work, we will update this section with ways to serve and give. To be notified of these opportunities, text RELIEF to 45859.
RESOURCES
How Do We Make Sense of Disaster?
As the floodwaters have risen in Central Texas, so has the grief. Homes lost. Lives upended. Loved ones gone. In times like these, we reach for answers – but more often we just groan. And yet, even in our groaning, we are not alone. God is not distant from our suffering. He is not surprised by it. And He is not silent in it.
So how can we make sense of this?
1. Even When We Don’t Get an Explanation, God Still Gives Us Revelation
In times of crisis, our hearts naturally cry out for answers: Why this? Why now? What’s going to happen? But more often than not, God does not give us detailed explanations. Instead, He gives us something greater: He reveals Himself.
The Bible tells us God is sovereign: “The Lord has established his throne in heaven, and his kingdom rules over all.” This reminds us that God is reigning, not from a distance, but with care and authority over every detail, even when life feels out of control. That includes the storm. That includes the aftermath. That includes this very moment.
But sovereignty doesn’t always come with clarity. God is not obligated to explain Himself in ways we can understand. He often doesn’t satisfy our craving for control through answers. Instead, He calls us to deeper trust through revelation.
Many people insist on detailed explanations before they feel peace, asking, “Why did this happen? Why is the world like this?”
God doesn’t always give us the answers we’re looking for. Instead, He gently asks: “Will you trust who I am, even when you don’t understand what I’m doing? Can you rest in My character, even when you can’t see the outcome?”
To be honest, there have been many times – recently, even – when I’ve found myself wrestling for answers. I wanted direction. I wanted clarity. I wanted a map. And in one of those restless moments, when I was desperate for a plan, God gave me something deeper. He reminded me of who He is.
He is the One who speaks creation into existence.
He is the One who holds galaxies together by the power of His word.
He is the One who is sovereign over every storm, and yet chose to step into our suffering.
And that means, even when we don’t understand His ways, we can trust His heart. So no, we haven’t been given every explanation. But He has revealed His power and His love. And sometimes, that’s all we need.
2. Suffering is a Wake-Up Call to Our Fragility
Romans 8 tells us that the world is “groaning” under the weight of sin. That includes disasters like a flood. Flooding, like disease or famine, is part of a creation subjected to frustration because of sin (Rom. 8:20). It doesn’t mean that people who suffer did something wrong; it means the whole world is broken.
But even in the pain, that brokenness is a mercy if it wakes us up. If it shouts through our comfort and self-sufficiency and says, “You are not in control. You need a Rock that cannot be shaken.”
When we feel the fragility of life, we are being invited to stand on something firmer than sand. We are being called to Christ.
3. Jesus is Near to the Broken-Hearted
God is not removed from our pain. Actually, He stepped right into it in the person of Jesus.
Think about this story in John 11. Mary and Martha’s brother, Lazarus, had died. When Jesus arrived, He saw their grief, He saw their tears, and even though He knew resurrection was just moments away, He didn’t rush to fix it. He stopped and wept with them. In the shortest verse in the Bible, “Jesus wept.”
Why? He knew that Lazarus was about to walk out of that grave alive. So, why would Jesus weep if He knew He was about to raise Lazarus from the dead?
Because He wasn’t just showing His power – He was revealing His heart. He was entering into their sorrow to show that our pain matters to Him. He doesn’t dismiss it. In fact, He joins us in it.
So, when you are hurting, He’s not standing at a distance. He’s with us. He weeps with us.
But He also does more than weep. Jesus went to the cross, died in our place, and rose again to secure the promise that one day every flood will cease and every tear will be wiped away (Revelation 21:4).
So take heart—your pain is real, but God is nearer still.
4. The Church Should Rise with Courage and Compassion
In every disaster, there is devastation, but there’s also an invitation. And it is an invitation for the Church to rise, to reflect the heart of Jesus, and to respond with courage and compassion.
From the earliest days of Christianity, disaster has been a stage for Christlike love. As Rodney Stark points out in The Triumph of Christianity, it wasn’t just the message of Christians that changed the Roman Empire, it was their mercy.
When plagues swept through the empire, doctors fled to the country. People who had symptoms were kicked out of their houses. Priests left the temples. But this is interesting, Stark writes that, “Christians claimed to have answers and, most of all, they took appropriate actions.” They served. They loved beyond family, beyond tribe, and beyond faith. And people noticed.
That legacy still belongs to us.
This is not a time to shrink back. It’s a time to press forward. To become the hands and feet of Jesus through prayer, generosity, and sacrificial presence. As 2 Corinthians 1 reminds us, we comfort others with the comfort we’ve received from God.
The flooding may be a painful – but it is not purposeless. God is at work. And even now, He is calling His people to look beyond what is seen, to move toward the pain, and to show a watching world what His love really looks like.
Let’s not miss this moment.
Text RELIEF to 45859 to get updates on how you can get involved in disaster relief in Central Texas.
Click here for a more in-depth discussion on the Message Recap Podcast.
Four Ways to Pray for Central Texas
As we watch the devastation unfold across Central Texas, our hearts break for the families who’ve lost homes, communities upended, and lives forever changed by the flooding.
First and foremost though, we need to pray. After all, prayer isn’t preparation for mission; prayer is the mission. But in moments like these, it’s natural to say, “I’m praying for you.”
But sometimes I think we’re left asking… how? I mean, how do you pray when the hurt feels so deep and the needs so overwhelming?
If you’re unsure where to start, you’re not alone. So let me offer four ways you can pray right now.
1. Comfort the Grieving and Displaced
Scripture tells us that God is the God of all comfort.
“God is the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.” 2 Corinthians 1:3–4
He draws near in the middle of the storm. More than that though, He equips us to comfort others.
Pray something like this, “God, be their refuge. Be their strength. Show them that they are not alone.”
2. Strength for First Responders and Relief Workers
First responders, EMTs, volunteers, and community leaders are are showing up day after day, pouring themselves out physically, emotionally, spiritually. The days are long. The nights are heavy. And the weight of what they witness stays with them.
So pray that God would give them more than endurance—pray for clarity when decisions are hard, protection when situations are dangerous, and stamina when the work feels never-ending.
Start like this: “God, strengthen their hands. Guard their hearts. Let Your power move through their compassion. Be their shield, their rest, and their peace.”
3. For the Church to Rise with Love
In John 13:35, Jesus said, “By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” He wasn’t talking about sentimental words or surface-level kindness. He meant active, sacrificial love, the kind that shows up in the rubble. The kind that listens long, gives freely, serves humbly, and stays present.
Those who have experienced the Gospel become like the Gospel. We’ve been served so well by Jesus that we are compelled to serve others with that same kind of love. We’ve been loved at our worst, so we show up to love others in their hardest moments.
Pray something like this: “Lord, let the Church shine in the darkness. Let our love be bold, visible, and real—so that through us, the world sees You.”
4. God’s Presence in the Wake of the Storm
In the silence of grief, in the confusion of loss, in the numbness that follows tragedy… ask that God would break through. Pray for His supernatural comfort to settle in hospital rooms, shelters, homes, and hearts. That His voice would rise above the noise, and His peace would come where no peace should exist. Ephesians 3:20 says our God is able to do exceedingly and abundantly more than we ask or imagine. That includes revealing Himself in ways we never anticipated—through a moment of stillness, a word of truth, a touch of grace, or an act of love that changes everything.
So pray boldly: “Father, break in. Be near. Let Your presence fill what feels empty—bringing peace where there is pain, awakening faith where there is fear, and reminding us you are here.”
If you’re feeling numb, overwhelmed, or at a total loss for words… you’re not alone. Right now, so many are hurting and searching for how to make sense of what’s happened. And maybe you want to pray—but you don’t know how.
Or maybe you don’t.
Take heart. The good news is this: even when you don’t know what to say or don’t want to say it, God is still speaking. Romans 8:26 reminds us, “The Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.”
And just a few verses later, we read that Jesus Himself is also interceding for us at the right hand of God (Romans 8:34).
So even when your prayers fall silent, He keeps praying. Even when your faith feels faint, He remains faithful. Even when you don’t have the words, He fills the silence with mercy.