Eyes on You

Transcript

Hello, my friend… so glad you're with me today. This is By God's Call — day 129, Eyes on You.

"O our God, will you not execute judgment on them? For we are powerless against this great horde that is coming against us. We do not know what to do, but our eyes are on you." 2 Chronicles 20:12.

This is one of the most honest prayers in all of Scripture. And the context is terrifying: Moabites, Ammonites, and other peoples had joined together into a massive coalition against Judah. This wasn't one army — it was several, combined, coming from multiple directions at once. Jehoshaphat received the news and the text tells us plainly: he was afraid.

And what he did with that fear is what I want you to hold onto today. He didn't fake a courage he didn't have. He didn't scramble together a brilliant military strategy on the spot. He gathered the people, and in front of everyone, prayed out loud a prayer of such raw honesty it cuts straight to the heart: "we are powerless."

Sit with that. A king, standing before his people, publicly admitting he didn't have the resources to win this war. That is not weak faith — that is where faith actually begins. Because real faith doesn't start by pretending we have everything under control. It starts by admitting, without pretense, the true size of the problem.

And then comes the line I find even more courageous: "we do not know what to do." Think about how often we avoid saying that. We'd rather pretend we have a plan, even when we don't. We'd rather look like we're in control, even when we're completely lost. Jehoshaphat didn't do that. He confessed, in front of his entire nation, his own confusion.

But — and here is the most important part of this whole prayer — that confession of not knowing did not end in despair. It ended by turning his eyes somewhere else: "but our eyes are on you." Notice the word "but." We don't know what to do, BUT. That "but" is the turning point of the whole story. It's the moment human powerlessness finds the one safe place left to look: eyes fixed on God.

And looking to God is different from staring at the enemy army, calculating the odds. It's different from studying the map, searching for an escape route. It's different from looking at your own strength, knowing full well it isn't enough. Looking to God is an active choice about where to put your attention when everything else is screaming for you to look somewhere else.

And Jehoshaphat prayed this before a single soldier moved. Prayer didn't replace strategy — it came first, and it shaped everything that followed. And what followed was one of the most astonishing miracles in the entire Old Testament: the enemies turned on each other, and Judah never even had to fight.

So today, I want you to do what Jehoshaphat did. Before breakfast, pray this exact line out loud: "I don't know what to do, but my eyes are on you." And name the specific situation that's pulling the ground out from under you. Say its name. And then, turn your eyes.

Stay close to God. Pray — then act. I'll see you tomorrow, my friend.