Procedure Manual Step 2:

We do not know what to do,

but our eyes are on you.

(2 Chronicles 20:12)

Yesterday, we talked about being alarmed but also resolved. What do we do next?

Isn’t it frustrating to be in situations, conflicts, hard places, and have no idea what to do — to feel as if there are no easy solutions and no certain answers? But I love the honest admission by King Jehoshaphat and his people. They didn’t know what to do, but they knew who to turn to. Their attention was fixed on the Lord. I have relied on the truth of 2 Chronicles 20:12 many times over when I didn’t know what to do.

A few years ago, I was nearing the end of a conference at which I’d been speaking, and looking forward to a relaxing dinner with our team that night. My friend Beth and I were talking about potential restaurant choices when a frantic arena staff member told us there was an emergency and we were needed right away. A woman attending the conference had just been told her two grandchildren had been killed that day in a fire. Moments later we were at the side of a woman lying on the floor, surrounded by her friends, and sobbing to the point she could hardly breathe.

The woman’s grandbabies, ages eight and four, had recently spent spring break with her. Just days earlier, she’d held them, rocked them, stroked their hair, and kissed them all over their faces. How could they be gone? The tragic news was too much for her to process, and she’d collapsed.

The EMT who’d been trying to help her breathe stepped aside so we could hold the woman’s hands and pray with her. At first, I stumbled my way through requests for Jesus to pour His most tender mercies into this situation. I prayed for comfort and the reassurance that these precious children were being held by Jesus at that moment. It was so hard. My mommy heart ached deeply for this woman, and I couldn’t contain my own tears.

As my friend Beth began to pray, I noticed something miraculous. Every time she said “Jesus,” the woman’s body relaxed, her crying slowed, and her breathing eased. So when it was my turn to pray again, I just said His name over and over and over. This sweet grandmother joined me, “Jesus, Jesus, Jesus.”

As we continued to repeat the name of Jesus, we felt an outpouring of power beyond what we were capable of mustering up on our own. The Bible teaches that there is power and protection in the Lord’s name (John 17:11). I saw that power. I experienced it. And I won’t soon forget it. That’s why whispering the name of Jesus is definitely part of my procedure manual for raw reactions. Whether we are facing an emergency situation or an everyday unglued reaction, the name of Jesus brings peace.

The human soul is designed to recognize and respond to the calm assurance of Jesus. When I am in an unglued place, I can invite a power beyond my own into the situation simply by speaking His name. I don’t have to know what to do. I don’t have to have all the answers. I don’t have to remember everything I learned in Bible study last week. I just have to remember one thing, one name —Jesus.