Just Say Jesus...
Life gets tough, and times get hard
It's hard to find the truth in all the liesIf you're tired of wondering why
Your heart isn't healing
And nothing feels like home
Cause your lost and alone just screaming at the skyWhen you don't know what to say
Just Say Jesus
There is power in the name
The Name of Jesus
If the words wont come
Cause you're to afraid to pray
Just Say JesusWhisper it now, or shout it out
However it comes out, He hears your cry
Out of nowhere He will come-you got to believe it
He will rescue you
Just call out to the Way, The Truth, The LifeWhen you don't know what to say
Just Say Jesus
There is power in the name
The Name of Jesus
If the words won't come
Cause you're to afraid to pray
There is just One name
Strong enough to save
There is just One name
There is just One nameJesus
When you don't know what to say
Just Say Jesus
There's still power in the name
The Name of Jesus
If the words wont come
Cause you're to afraid to pray
If the words wont come
And you don't know what to sayJust Say Jesus
~7eventh Time Down
This song has been so good for me to listen to recently. I've been thinking a lot about the power of prayer, as well as what happens if it feels like God doesn't answer your prayers. I think there is a beautiful vulnerability in simply saying the name of Jesus, knowing how powerful it is:
Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. ~Philippians 2:9-11 ♥️
EVERY. Even the demons submit to the name of Jesus (Luke 10:17). The fact that we have that authority is incredible to me! At the name of Jesus, we are saved. At the name of Jesus, healing happens. We baptize in Jesus’ name, and are justified by it. When I am lost, he directs me. In the moments that I feel so attacked by all the lies of the enemy (which can be narrowed down to being worthless, helpless, or unlovable every time), Jesus tells me that he died for me, I have been adopted into God’s family, and I have the power of the Holy Spirit dwelling inside of me-to name a few. And when I feel exhausted, overwhelmed, drained, and hopeless, I am reminded that weakness is the perfect posture to experience the Spirit’s help (Ruth Chou Simons, sharing on Romans 8:26-27). Way. Truth. Life. John 14:6 <3
It all sounds great…But in practice…Let’s just say my human nature likes to rear its ugly head to distract me. When I am struggling with seeing the “bright side” of a situation, I try to shift my perspective. Sometimes it takes the gentle nudges of my wonderful husband who fights for me every single day, as well as my other fellow prayer warriors. I was recently reminded of the power of perspective as I listened to the Ed Mylett Show. This particular episode was an interview with Inky Johnson, whom I highly recommend listening to if you don’t know who he is! Inky said several times that “perspective drives performance,” and “how we view what we do effects how we do what we do.” One of the first responses he had to learning he had a paralyzed arm was “I’m blessed,” because he could have lost his life, and he was also in a hospital where several patients were worse off than him. He could have easily looked at his arm as the thing that crushed his dream of being an NFL player to support his family, but he instead implemented an attitude of gratitude. If all we focus on is the struggles and the negative, that is all we’ll have. Another quote from Inky that stood out to me was, “Consider a situation a blessing before it is a blessing, and use your situation to add value to the world…Play the hand you’re dealt as if it’s the one you’ve always wanted, and win with it.” What a beautiful perspective to have!
I think another posture and perspective we can take on is that of childlike faith. One story that comes to my mind is when Betsie and Corrie ten Boom spent time in the concentration camp, Ravensbrück during WWII. Within the first hour of arrival, Betsie prayed, “Show us. Show us how,” in response to Corrie saying “how can we live in such a place?” Immediately God gave her an answer from what they had read that morning in 1 Thessalonians:
[Corrie reads] “…to one another and to all. Rejoice always, pray constantly, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus—’”
“That’s it, Corrie! That’s His answer. ‘Give thanks in all circumstances!’ That’s what we can do. We can start right now to thank God for every single thing about this new barracks!”
I stared at her, then around me at the dark, foul-aired room.
“Such as?” I said.
“Such as being assigned here together.”
I bit my lip. “Oh yes, Lord Jesus!”
“Such as what you’re holding in your hands.”
I looked down at the Bible. “Yes! Thank you, dear Lord, that there was no inspection when we entered here! Thank you for all the women, here in this room, who will meet You in these pages.”
“Yes,” said Betsie. “Thank you for the very crowding here. Since we’re packed so close, that many more will hear!” She looked at me expectantly. “Corrie!” she prodded.
“Oh, all right. Thank you for the jammed, crammed, stuffed, packed, suffocating crowds.”
“Thank you,” Betsie went on serenely, “for the fleas and for--”
The fleas! This was too much. “Betsie, there’s no way even God can make me grateful for a flea.”
“‘Give thanks in all circumstances,’” she quoted. “It doesn’t say, ‘in pleasant circumstances.’ Fleas are part of this place where God has put us.”
~Corrie ten Boom, The Hiding Place
Later on, Corrie would refer to the environment around them as “the sanctuary of God’s fleas,” because it was the fleas that kept the supervisor and guards out of the big room they had to knit in. This gave them the freedom to minister freely to all the women around them. Corrie recalls,
We sat by deathbeds that became doorways of heaven. We watched women who had lost everything grow rich in hope. The knitters of Barracks 28 became the praying heart of the vast diseased body that was Ravensbrück, interceding for all in the camp—guards, under Betsie’s prodding, as well as prisoners. We prayed beyond the concrete walls for the healing of Germany, of Europe, of the world—as Mama had once done from the prison of a crippled body.
Although Betsie’s physical life ended while at the camp, the legacy of her faithfulness continues to live on and impact lives around the world. I am drawn to childlike faith, and learning what that looks like. Recently, my church had a sermon on Mark 9:30-37, and 10:13-16 (it’s here if you’d like to watch it!). There were a few points that stood out to me when it came to how Jesus views children. First, Jesus is the defender of those who cannot defend themselves. Children were viewed as the lowest of the low, and yet Jesus said the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. When children pray, there is a beautiful unashamedness about them, where they come to God just as they are, and simply pray. We don’t have to have the right words, or any words at all:
In the same way the Spirit [comes to us and] helps us in our weakness. We do not know what prayer to offer or how to offer it as we should, but the Spirit Himself [knows our need and at the right time] intercedes on our behalf with sighs and groanings too deep for words. And He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because the Spirit intercedes [before God] on behalf of God’s people in accordance with God’s will. ~Romans 8:26-27
I’ve been reading a book called Clippings From My Notebook by Corrie ten Boom, and one short story stood out to me, and completely changed my perspective toward prayer:
A mother I met told me that she saw her little boy sitting in a corner of the room, saying “A—B—C—D—E—F—G….”
“What are you doing?” she asked.
“Mom, you told me I should pray, but I have never prayed in my life and I don’t know how. So I gave God the whole alphabet and asked Him to make a good prayer of it.”
Mind. Blown. And quite humbled. I find myself more distanced from prayer sometimes when I feel like I don’t have the right words, or it won’t come across to God the way I want it to because…you know…he clearly needs our help with knowing how we think and feel…see above quotes. So sometimes, every so often, I need a little nudging from my Jesus. Sometimes I hear a few songs, then have some conversations, then we learn about the same topics at youth group, and I listen to an interview and a few sermons, read a couple of books, and go to a women’s conference…and they all connect. Sometimes I learn to just say Jesus.
