Podcast

How Do I Pray Through a Crisis? (Pt 2) Jennifer Slattery

[00:00:00] Welcome to the Unshakable Hope Podcast, where real life intersects redeeming love. I’m Kelly Hall, and this is where we wrestle through faith questions, such as how do I trust God’s heart when His ways and delays are breaking mine? We’ll hear from people just like you and me, who have experienced God’s faithfulness when life didn’t unfold as they expected.

My prayer is that God would renew our hope in His Word and His love through these conversations.

Kelly: Hey friends. Today, I am so grateful Jennifer Slattery is joining me again as we dive into another Bible story and address part two of the question: How do I pray through a crisis? In the last episode with Jennifer, we discovered some key truths that help us talk to God when our circumstances feel out of control.

We pulled some [00:01:00] practical strategies out of Jennifer’s personal story as well as Hezekiah’s story in second Chronicles 32. I’ll link to that in the show notes, but I really encourage you to go back and listen especially to catch Jennifer’s story. It’s pretty amazing. But today we’re going to grab hold of a whole handful of new treasures that will help us bring our hearts to God when we’re afraid.

And I just want to mention for those of you who aren’t aware that this summer I’m doing this Redemptive Wrestling Bible Story series. I’m being joined by three passionate Bible teachers. You could actually call this series Hope that Wrestles because we’re landing in a place of unshakable hope in each episode.

We’re learning from the Bible how to wrestle through our fears and our confusion so that we can land in a place of greater freedom, where we’re trusting God’s heart. when his ways and delays [00:02:00] are breaking ours. So let me tell you about Jennifer in case you missed her introduction in the last episode.

Jennifer Slattery is a writer, speaker, and one of the hosts of the Faith Over Fear podcast and the Your Daily Bible Verse podcast. Her family often jokes about how she doesn’t much care what she’s doing so long as she’s with her people. And they would be right. That is so like me too. She’s been married to her best friend for nearly 30 years and has a creatively brilliant 26 year old daughter, a son in law she adores and a 22 year old son by choice and two grand dogs that bring her great joy.

Jennifer, I am so thankful to have you join me to talk through the second half of this topic. Welcome to the show.

Jennifer: Thank you. This is one of my favorites. Well, there’s a lot, I have a lot of favorite Bible passages, but this is a really good Bible passage, so it’s going to be fun.

Kelly: You [00:03:00] sound like me. I say that all the time. So one thing I want to tell you before we dive in today is the first time this story became an anchor for my life in a place of fear. I remember I just grabbed my Bible and I said, “God, I need you to show me someone in the Bible who was scared half to death because of their impossible situations.”

Jennifer: I love it.

Kelly: And at that time was such fear and desperation in my heart, I found so much hope and I was really anchored to God’s heart in this passage. So I’m wondering if you, if you don’t mind, if you could just give us a little bit of background on this passage

Jennifer: Absolutely. Yeah, so this is actually, it, this passage, it tells us about King Jehoshaphat. I love that name. Jehoshaphat. Anyway, he, and he was a, good king. So he ruled the Southern kingdom. There were, again, there were two kingdoms, Israel had been divided into two kingdoms. There was Israel in the North and Judah in the South. And he was over the Southern king, kingdom. And he was a contemporary to King Ahab in the North, a man [00:04:00] who was described as the Most evil king to rule Israel.

And I just think what a stark contrast you have between these two. You have a godly man and then an evil man and, and showing the, the blessings of aligning with God versus what happens when you don’t. Well, at. At one point, King Ahab, he asked King Jehoshaphat to form an alliance with him to fight against another kingdom.

And unfortunately, King Jehoshaphat, he agreed to do so. But then he did, so I’ll give him credit. He said, okay, but first let’s seek the Lord’s counsel. And so they, King Ahab, he brought together all the prophets of Israel, the Northern Kingdom, who were obviously, when you read in the story, they weren’t actually prophets.

Prophets because they were there. They were his yes men Apparently and yeah, and they basically said hey, you’re gonna be successful go do whatever you want to do. God’s gonna give you success and King Jehoshaphat Recognized that they weren’t speaking for God and he said is there [00:05:00] not a prophet of the Lord that we can inquire of?

Um, and so this, this cracks me up. So King Ahab said, well, there’s one, but he never tells me anything. I want to hear. He never tells me anything good, which just to our listeners, that that should be your first red flag. If you ever find yourself doing that, that pastor never tells me anything I want to hear.

Maybe hit pause. And investigate what’s, what’s going, going on. Well, so they bring this other, prophet in and, and initially he kind of responds with a sarcastic, yeah, you’re going to be successful. But then he’s, he says, basically in essence, you’re going to be slaughtered and your people are not going to have a ruler.

And so the King Ahab responds, instead of repenting and turning to God, he responds by saying, Hey, throw this guy in. In prison give him nothing but bread and water until I return safely. And they go to, so basically King Jehoshaphat links arms and goes into battle with this, [00:06:00] this evil king. And God does rebuke him for this, but also we see that God showed him grace because of all the, the religious reforms that he had initiated prior.

And to kind of boil it down a nutshell, King Ahab was killed in battle and that had to have made such an impression on King Jehoshaphat, like the prophet said, this was going to happen. This did happen. I, that could have been me. And I wonder if, like, sometimes when we escape dangerous situations, we can use them to live differently in the future, right?

To impact how we respond in the future. And so fast forward. He finds himself in 2nd Chronicles 20 where a vast army is coming up against them. They’ve already entered the land of Judah. They’re like 30 miles away that would have been, so like saying there, for those who are listening [00:07:00] in the United States, they’re already in Washington DC or they’re already, you know, that that would have felt really… I would have felt pretty desperate And it’s also interesting to me that this threat came directly after his Religious reforms. It’s kind of like yeah, I mean have you had that Kelly where you’re doing, you do something maybe really big for God that took a lot of sacrifice or a lot of time and energy. And then you’re like, bam, and this is what happens, right?

Kelly: Yeah. Coming back from speaking at a women’s retreat. That’s when it can often happen. Yeah. Like everything falls apart at home. What??

Jennifer: Right. And so he had instituted. righteous judges through the land, he’d set priests to and, and Levites and heads of family to serve in the temples.

We’d done all of this stuff. And, but it’s, it reminds me in your comment reminds me, [00:08:00] we should expect opposition whenever we take steps towards God, whenever we take steps of faith. And, and like we talked in the previous episode, but we must remember that the devil is already defeated and we gain power by aligning ourselves proximity to God, drawing near to God and resisting the devil, which just stand firm, right? Like don’t let, don’t let him terrify you. , don’t tuck tail and run, I think.

Kelly: Right, right. That’s so good. I’m so glad you brought that up in this particular instance. , like you said, the enemy is super close. I mean, it’s just around the corner. It’s very frightening. It says in the Bible that Jehoshaphat was alarmed.  I would translate that to scared half to death.

Jennifer: Yes, yes.

Kelly: That’s my interpretation.

Jennifer: Deep breathing, hyperventilation.

Kelly: Exactly. So it says [00:09:00] here that he did have a quick response and like you said, maybe his quick response to seek help from the Lord right away had something to do with what he had just encountered with Ahab.

Jennifer: Yes. I do like that he Especially so it says in second chronicles 20 verse 3. I love the wording…alarmed, Jehoshaphat resolved to inquire of the Lord and he proclaimed a fast for all Judah and And what a what an example he set to the people right because when we turn to god in times of fear, we’re not only bolstering our faith we are demonstrating To our friends to our children if we have children to our spouses You What to do when we’re afraid.

And I think, and he’s to proclaim a fast for the entire nation. And then he prayed in front of them. And I, I think that’s, I, and I also, I was thinking of this too. A lot of leaders would pretend like they’re not afraid. Yes. [00:10:00] And this passage has such weight because. He showed his fear, but then he showed where to take his fear.

I think that it, it adds weight to the passage.

Kelly: I totally agree. I’ve thought of that so many times that he didn’t just pretend he didn’t posture. He wasn’t worried about what the people thought of him. He just humbled himself before God. He just became the most humble dependent man that ever walked on the face of the earth.

I love how honest he was. And. And then we see his prayer right here, and I’m wondering if you could read that for us, too, because it’s a beautiful.

Jennifer: Yeah,

Kelly: but I’ll say before you read it, though, Jennifer is this is a long prayer. It goes from verse 6 all the way to verse 12. So what I’d like you to do is read verse 6 and verse 12.

So read the front and the back.

Jennifer: Sure, sure. Okay. Lord, the God of our ancestors, are you not the God who is in heaven? You rule over all the [00:11:00] kingdoms of the nations. Power and might are in your hand, and no one can withstand you. Our God. So this is skipping down to verse 12. Our God, will you not judge them?

For we have no power to face this vast army. That is attacking us. We do not know what to do, but I love this part. We do not know what to do, but our eyes are on you.

Kelly: So powerful.

Jennifer: So honest.

Kelly: So honest. I can’t tell you the number of times that I have come with my crisis and sat in this story. Sometimes in the middle of the night, I couldn’t sleep.

And I came downstairs and opened my Bible to this passage and Because as I mentioned in the previous episode, sometimes it’s hard to find words to pray when you’re in a crisis. But I would pray all of these words. And there are other parts of this prayer that are impactful. But I’d like to start with just having you speak to how those particular parts of the [00:12:00] prayer encourage you in your faith in a crisis.

Jennifer: Well, I think I like a lot, actually, but I liked first you said the God of our ancestors. So he’s like, he’s like, we have history. We have history with you God, and they actually, the Jewish people had a law, and it’s our history too, if we’re Christ followers. And he said, are you not the God who is in heaven?

You rule over all the kingdoms of the nations. Power and might are in your hand, and no one can withstand. So it’s like, this, this army is vast. It seems insurmountable. It seems inconquerable. And yet, what we know is true, is that might is in your hand, God. No one, no army, no matter how big, no ruler, no matter how powerful, can withstand you.

I love that, and then I also think it’s just, it’s actually the best position we can place ourselves, that place of humility. I don’t know what to do. It’s like when we think we know what to [00:13:00] do that we’re in trouble, but to say, I don’t know what to do. So show me. So show me what you’re going to do.

Kelly: Yeah.

It’s totally up to you, God. I’ve got nothing. And that’s, that is, believe, believe it or not, that is a really freeing place to rest in the Lord because you’re not frantically searching through your mind, trying to come up with a solution is, Oh, you already know that there’s nothing I’ve got. I got nothing.

There’s nothing I can do to rescue us from this situation. I, and it would have been so easy to try to posture, to pretend, to order people, go make some weapons, you know, just to do things that kind of felt like you were accomplishing something. But I love that he just told the truth and rested in this place of utter dependence and surrender.

Sure.

Jennifer: Yeah.

Kelly: On the Lord’s power. God, if you don’t come through for us, we’re, we’re lost.

Jennifer: Right. Right. I [00:14:00] also am impressed that he didn’t try to flee because he could have. He could have abandoned all his people and hid in the caves or into another nation. Yeah. And instead he stood there. With the people and he pointed them all to God, which I think is really, really powerful.

And then one man came forward and gave, basically God spoke through him and said, Hey, tomorrow you’re going to go out to battle and you’re going to take your positions. You’re going to stand firm and you’re going to watch for God’s deliverance because the battle belonged to God. And I, that would have been a hard, hard call.

Like, okay, this vast army, you’re going to go stand in front of them. That would have been, and not, not only was in obeying King Jehoshaphat, wasn’t just putting himself at risk. He was putting his soldiers at [00:15:00] risk. He was putting everyone in the nation. At risk and, and based on what historians tell us the Assyrians did to the people they conquered.

This was a big, a big deal. But when I read this passage, I’m struck by the fact that they focused on God’s promise of deliverance and, and then, and responded in faith and worship before. They saw his hand before they experienced his, his rescue. And the passage tells us, I was really struck with, like, if that had been me, if I had heard that, I’d have been like, what, what can we, can we like talk about this?

Can we, can we form a committee here? And, and scripture tells us that Jehoshaphat bowed down in worship. The people fell down in worship and the Levites stood up and loudly praised God. I don’t know. I mean, I, I don’t know. I would have been wanting to praise him for his promise of deliverance, but I would have been wrestling with him on the how.

Kelly: [00:16:00] Yeah.

No kidding. Right.

And here’s the part, here’s the part where I would have really struggled. So after the promise, you know, and they praise God and all of this, it says that, in verse 20. It says early in the morning they left. So this means they had to go to bed.

Did they go to sleep?

Kelly: Really? Really? So terrifying. These enemies could come and get us while we’re sleeping. So that took, in my mind, even more faith. Just say, wow, I’m going to believe you about this. And so I’ve asked the Lord and said, can we really sleep well during a crisis? I mean, what, what is that about?

What is that about? But in the Psalms it’s three or four, David says he was surrounded by enemies and yet he laid his head down and he slept in peace because he knew the Lord was with him. Amen. So I just, that’s a powerful thing for me because I struggle to sleep well when I have a crisis going on in my life.

So that really stood [00:17:00] out to me. And then I have this quote written in my Bible right there by Oswald Chambers that for me captures. this situation really well.

It’s much easier to do something than to trust God. Panic is not inspiration.

Jennifer: Oh boy, I should have tucked that in my pocket while I was parenting. It’s not a solution.

Kelly: I love that so much!

Jennifer: Yes, yes. Well I love King Jehoshaphat’s Response to the next day. It’s scripture says that he appointed men to sing to the Lord and to praise him for the splendor of his holiness as they went out at the head of the army saying, give thanks to the Lord for his love endures forever.

And we don’t know whether that was something God laid on his heart. To do or whether he was bolstering himself and his people. I mean, that is a great Right. There is a little nugget when we’re afraid when we are overwhelmed just to say over and [00:18:00] over his love endures forever His love endures forever his love endures forever.

There’s power in that like just to remind us We’re not forsaken. We’re not abandoned!  the creator of the world of the universe is with me.

Kelly: So powerful. My husband will even say when we go to church and we’re singing the worship songs, he’ll say, we’re doing battle right now. We’re bolstering our faith, you know, to prepare for the struggles we’re going to have later today or tomorrow.

Or even right now, while we’re singing praises, there’s power in our praises. And you talked about that a lot in the last episode about how that has helped you. And when verse 22, I love that it says this as, as they began to sing in praise, that’s when the Lord set ambushes. So as you mentioned, they didn’t wait until the victory until they had evidence.

That the victory had been won as they began to [00:19:00] pray as they stepped out in faith as they Were living like what god said was true And stood on his word and stood firm just like the prophet had said be strong and courageous stand firm You’re not going to have to fight this battle. It’s the lord as they did that god’s power was just unleashed in Crazy ways where these enemy armies actually turned on themselves destroyed themselves I mean it was It’s absolutely so unexpected, such an unexpected deliverance.

Jennifer: As you say that, I’m, I can’t help but think of all the times when I did not stand in wait and I rushed ahead and I made things worse. And, and there’s always grace, praise God.

Kelly: Yeah.

Jennifer: but you would think I would learn by now, like it’s always better to, and sometimes it’s because I just didn’t seek God. I just ran without even, and so I do love that King [00:20:00] Jehoshaphat sought God.

And then other times it’s because he seems like he’s taking longer. than I want. And the threat seems to be moving too quick.

Kelly: Right, right. I can’t tell you the number of times. I have dozens of stories I could share as well about how I have taken things in my own hands. I’ve let fear and panic become my so called inspiration.

And, I took counsel for myself and my panic is telling me I should do this. And so I run and I do it. And, um, And you’re right. It never turns out well. And that’s what experience teaches you. More and more life shows you, okay, I am going to It’s not do what I’ve done in the past because I seen how that works and that does not turn out pretty.

So Lord, I’m going to look to you and I’m going to wait on you. And then when you, when he takes longer, then we have to say it again because we become impatient and we become doubtful and we become fearful. So that’s why this is all about wrestling. That’s why I love this passage [00:21:00] so much because it shows us how to wrestle and pray through a passage.

Yeah. In a way that sets our heart on God.

Jennifer: Beautiful.

Kelly: Hey, there’s one song I want to recommend to our listeners. And it’s one that got me and some family members through a crisis. God used this song, the battle belongs by Phil Wickham, and it would just come on at such unexpected moments in the middle of our crisis.

So that’s one I would recommend.

Jennifer: I love that. I listened to a song. Just the other day that by Lauren Daigle, and I don’t know if it must be new but you’re gonna be okay And it was such a beautiful, it’s, it’s slower, but it’s just a reminder. You’re going to be okay. You’re good. Sometimes we get stuck in like the snapshot and so often when we can look back and my husband and I were actually just talking last night.

We went through a really difficult period. I want to say, so our daughter would have been like eight at the time. And so she’s 25. So [00:22:00] I’m not. 17 years ago, and I know if you would’ve asked him at the time, he would’ve felt like he failed because it was just, it was some job stuff and, but that saved our marriage.

Like looking back, like all God did, we were in a, in a, a really rough place, kind of moving in different directions. And. Not connecting. Our hearts weren’t connecting and just everything God did through that. And he broke through some, some falsehoods that I had developed regarding my husband. Like things that I had assumed regarding my husband. that God used that situation to help me to see his heart more clearly. And. , so I think just remembering, I like your experience reminds us that our moment Is not the full journey.

Kelly: Yeah. And that is what you said too. It’s going to be okay. This is not the end of your story. God is with you and we get [00:23:00] weary when we’re trapped in the hard for a long time, but that’s why this Chapter and the one we did last week is so helpful because we can pray these words. We can walk through it time and time again with our particular situation. And there’s one, a couple of other things that I just love that helps me. I love that they call this a vast army. Hello. How many of us have been in absolutely impossible situations?

Let’s just call it what it is. Like, yeah, all the odds are stacked against us. There’s no hope. There’s no way through, right? And so I love that. What we see here is the truth that we have a God who has All power. And I have all these scriptures written out to the side, like Job 42, 2 that says no one can thwart God’s plans.

And Jeremiah 32 17 that says, nothing’s too hard for God. And Isaiah 46, 9 and 10, he is God. There is no other. He is God. There’s no one like him. I need, I love that. Need a [00:24:00] lot of help to trust God in a crisis.

Jennifer: Yeah. Well, and I love how you actively fill your mind with truth. We are filling our minds with something all the time.

And I think it was Mary DeMuth who talked about, or no, Irene, Dr. Irene Kregel, she had talked about how the mind left idle automatically goes towards negativity and that was really powerful to me. So the mind occupied on good things, beauty and truth and worship and all of those things It makes it, it’s less apt to go towards the, the frightening and the discouraging, and I’m not saying we’ll never experience, obviously we will, but, but we can guarantee the idle mind will tend to go towards. Where we don’t want it to go.

Kelly: That’s so interesting. I, I’m glad you brought that up. I even heard that 95 percent of what we think are negative thoughts. And so we’re always [00:25:00] arresting. Most of us are arresting those thoughts, pushing them away. But it’s important to be reminded. Yeah, that’s what we’re dealing with.

I’m wondering if I can ask you about one other part of this passage and see what you think about it. So it’s in the middle of his prayer, the middle of Jehoshaphat’s prayer. And it’s, verse nine. It’s just talking about the fact we’re so Jehoshaphat standing in front of the temple and he’s saying, God, you told us your temple dress here, right?

Come here and cry out. You will hear us. And it just reminds me that once we’ve said yes to Jesus. His spirit indwells us. We are his temple. And so right here, right now, we are people who bear his name and we can cry out in our distress and he hears us. And that’s so comforting. This comforts me because this tells me. This is who I am. I’m his child. He loves me. He’s for me. He’s already working on my [00:26:00] behalf and fighting in ways I couldn’t even believe if he showed me. And because my temptation somehow, when I’m panicking is to think, well, how can I pray to move God’s hand? Like I’m not literally thinking that, but my mind is actively searching for just the right words to pray that will move God’s heart on my behalf.

And that’s a lie. God is already on your side, already working for you. And so when I pray, Lord, I just come before you because I’m someone who bears your name. And it’s in that identity that I am coming to you and crying for mercy and acknowledging that I know you hear me and you’re working right here right now.

Jennifer: That’s beautiful. I love, I just want to repeat that again, because I think it was beautiful what you said. His heart is already moved towards you. His heart is already. We don’t have to capture his attention, but I love that.

Kelly: Such a deep comfort.

Jennifer: [00:27:00] Yes. In

Kelly: a crisis. We need to know. We need to know.

So as we close for our listeners, when you are scared half to death and you are  in a crisis in our last episode, we talked about how comforting it is to, to praise God. We talked about that again in this episode, and I’m going to leave you with two passages. That encourage my heart so much power and miter in your hand and no one can withstand you That’s from verse the end of verse six And then do not be afraid or discouraged because of this vast army for the battle is not yours But god’s those are some powerful truths that we can pray in every single crisis We don’t have to fight the battles our god fights Force.

We have a God who tells us I’m your keeper. You don’t have to keep yourself. I’m your protector. You don’t have to protect yourself. We have a sovereign God who is all powerful so we can stand firm and trust that [00:28:00] our God will make a way where there seems to be no way.

Jennifer: Beautiful.

Kelly: So Jennifer, , I’m so thankful you joined me today.

So thankful.

I just want you to share anything else you want to leave us with and then tell our listeners how they can get in touch with you.

Jennifer: Well, I’ve enjoyed chatting with you too. So I love that we can unpack these. And I’m, I’m so grateful that God has recorded in scripture and preserved. He didn’t actually have to give us the Bible.

Right? And I just think the, the lengths he went to, went through to communicate with us and to help us experience thriving life. I, I’m very grateful for. And so maybe I would just encourage all of us, myself included, if he went through that much effort throughout generations to preserve scripture for us.

He knows us better than we do. He knows why we need it. So then I would encourage us to prioritize it as well, because it’s for our good and for our peace and for our thriving. [00:29:00] So, yeah. And if people wanted to connect with me, you can go to my website or you can visit the Faith Over Fear podcast, which then you’ll get to hear Kelly has some really insightful things she shared with me for two episodes she joined me on.

And I’d love to connect with people on social media.

Kelly: That’s great. Well, I’ll be sharing all the links to all these episodes in our show notes. I love Jennifer’s podcast and I’m so thankful that God has connected us. We’re now new friends. Yes. Yes. Thank you.

If you were encouraged in your faith today, it’d be great if you’d help get the word out by subscribing, sharing with a friend or leaving a review. I’d love to hear from you. You can reach out through my website, kellyhall. org and pick up some free resources while you’re there. Thanks for listening to the Unshakable Hope Podcast.