“Do you want to pray?” I asked, fighting back my impatience as my four year old took her time getting into her bed.
“Sure!” she said enthusiastically, snuggling under the covers. “Dear God, You know how.”
That’s it. Spoken matter-of-factly before finding numerous other ways to prolong her bedtime routine.
But it felt like a truth dart straight to my weary heart.
This year has felt like one impossible situation after another. Our black brothers and sisters are being killed in the streets. The unborn are being killed in the womb. Politicians incite division instead of unity. There is social unrest across the country. A worldwide pandemic. A struggling economy where some are out of work, and others try to juggle remote learning, childcare, and working from home. Add to that any number of personal challenges with illness, broken relationships, or finances and you’ve got a real hot mess on your hands.
Does it all feel like too much? Like there’s not enough air in the room? I know I’m not the only one who feels overwhelmed to the core.
2 Chronicles 20 tells the story of Jehoshaphat, King of Judah. He had just received word that a vast army was headed his way, intent on crushing him. He called for a fast in all of Judah so that the nation might seek help from the Lord. And at the end of his desperate prayer for help, Jehoshaphat said,
“We do not know what to do, but our eyes are one you.” (2 Chron. 20:12)
In other words, “God, you know how.”
I don’t know how to fix it - wouldn’t even have a clue where to start. There are days I feel out of control, powerless, exhausted, ready to throw in the towel. And then I look over at the sticky note next to my computer screen: God, You know how. A reminder of my daughter’s prayer, sweet in its simplicity.
God won that battle for Jehoshaphat, by the way. And the armies of Judah didn’t even lift a finger.
God, You know how, and I don’t. You are bigger than all of this. You are not worried or surprised. You are unshakable, unchanging. You will take every hopeless situation and use it for the good of Your children (Rom. 8:28).You will be the voice in our ear saying, “This is the way” (Isaiah 30:21). Lord, I don’t know what to do, but my eyes are on You (2 Chron. 20:12).
