Whenever I’m anxious, I often feel paralyzed and unable to pray. In those moments, I remember two elderly women who taught me a simple way to connect with God.

One of those women was my late grandmother Janollah Payne, whom we called “MaMa.” When we all prayed, she would always whisper, “Jesus – yes, Jesus.” We might be praying for someone’s healing or simply blessing the food in front of us, but you could always hear MaMa saying His name, over and over again.

A few years after my grandmother died, I met another elderly woman named Yvonne, and she told me this about prayer: “When you say the name of Jesus, you need to understand that you are invoking the most powerful name in all the universe. And no matter what you need, the manifestation [of His provision] will always be greater than your expectation.”

The other day, I was facing a situation over which I had no control, and I was overtaken with anxiety. In that moment, I remembered those two beautiful women and their example. And although I could not find the words to pray about my situation, I knew what I could do: I simply prayed the name of Jesus, over and over again, believing it mattered, simply because it was the name of the Son of God.

My situation did not magically resolve, and that’s okay. The name of Jesus is not an incantation we use to get the results we want. It is the name before which every knee must bow, in Heaven and on earth (Philippians 2:10-11); so if there are circumstances in our lives that do not align with His will, sooner or later, they must submit to it.

Let’s cry out to Jesus, Yesua, Zesu, Yiitju, Jesús – it’s not the pronunciation that matters; it’s the Person to whom we’re speaking. And because there is no higher authority to whom we can take our concerns, we can rest assured that the mere mention of His name changes everything.

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