What happens when you speak the name? I suppose that depends on why you are
speaking it, and the attitude of your heart.
Several years ago, I stood between people speaking the name of
Jesus for contrasting reasons.
My husband’s family’s business, which manufactured drip
irrigation, had begun in a converted greenhouse behind his parents’ home. At a point where the business was moving to a
new location, one machine was still in the structure behind his parents’ house,
and one employee was working there alone with the shift foreman coming there to
check on him during the evening. The
guy, for reasons beyond understanding, reach up under the guard meant to
prevent entrapment and got his hand caught in the mechanism of the
machine. My mother-in-law was home alone
and heard him crying out for help. She
called my husband, and as it happened, my mother was at our home that evening
and could stay with our children, so that I could go with my husband.
My husband called the factory manager who knew how to release
the machine, but until he and the ambulance arrived, the man’s hand remain
wedged in the machine. I was standing
behind him, and my mother-in-law was behind me.
The man repeatedly said, “Jesus, Jesus!”
He was NOT calling out for help from Jesus. He was “using” the name. My mother-in-law was whispering “Jesus, Jesus”
prayerfully. The contrast was striking.
I too have called out “the name” in such distress that I could
not even pronounce it clearly. Almost 20
years ago, I was awakened from a sound sleep having an allergic reaction to a prescribed
medication I had taken at bedtime. I had
been on the medication for months without any difficulty. But, this night my entire body turned bright
red, and I had difficulty breathing. I
thought my mouth was dry and asked my husband to get me a drink of water. Actually, my tongue had swollen and was
filling my whole mouth. Eventually it
protruded from my mouth, and my husband and a first responder said it was blue.
At some point, I realized just how much
trouble I was in, and unable to speak clearly, I cried out, “Hep me. Theethus!”
An EMT arrived and prepared to put in an IV, but before the
needle was in, I felt my tongue shrink back to its proper size. At that point, I had been given some oxygen,
but no other treatment. My only
explanation for the abrupt turn around in my condition is that Jesus understood
my appeal even though I couldn’t speak his name clearly.
A Christian friend, who lived across the street from us at the
time, happened to be up late and saw the ambulance at our house. She called and asked my husband what was
going on. She told me later, that she
got right down on the floor before the Lord and pleaded with him for my
life. My husband had awakened our son,
who was a teen at the time, so that he could open the door for the emergency
workers and direct them upstairs. Our
son later said that he had been praying as he waited and paced.
What happens when we speak the name of Jesus?
The name is sweet to the ear of a believer.
The name brings comfort.
How sweet the name of Jesus sounds in the
believer’s ear.
It soothes his sorrows, heals his wounds. And
drives away his fear.
What happens when we call upon the name of Jesus?
The name is powerful!
Philippians 2:10-11 That at the name of Jesus every knee should
bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth,
and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of
God the Father.
