There are times where life can become overwhelming. There’s absolutely nothing that can be done to prevent those seasons from occurring. No matter how many Bible verses you can quote or how many prayers you pray, there will be times where you’re simply in over your head.
Understanding how to navigate your way through those times is vital. If you’re feeling overwhelmed, don’t lose hope. You’re not in this alone.
No matter how hard we try to avoid it, there are times in our lives where we’re going to find ourselves completely overwhelmed. Perhaps you’re inundated with deadlines at work, and it seems like there simply aren’t enough hours in the day to get everything done.
When you combine those stressors with the other things that you have going on in your life, it can be overwhelming to even get up and start the day. Facing times where you feel overwhelmed doesn’t even have to mean that anything is wrong. There are times where life is overwhelming, even when everything is going as well as we’d like it to.
That means that seasons of adversity can be even more overwhelming.
Do you remember that job that we just discussed? What happens when you find out that the company is outsourcing your position, and you only have 30 days of work left? What happens if that news if followed up by the announcement of health issues, unexpected expenditures, and all sorts of other bad news?
Life can become overwhelming out of nowhere, and we’re often forced to try to scramble in the name of holding everything together.
Do you feel like you’re in over your head? If so, that’s OK.
Contrary to what you may have heard, you don’t have to have everything together. You don’t have to have a plan for how you’re going to deal with one season of adversity in life before you get to the next chapter.
Instead, if you’re in over your head, now is the time to rest. It’s time to rest because you’re in the perfect place for God to do what only He can do in your life. When you’re in over your head, you’re still in the palm of His hand.
Overwhelmed and Isolated
1 Kings 19:4-6 (ESV)
But he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness and came and sat down under a broom tree. And he asked that he might die, saying, “It is enough; now, O Lord, take away my life, for I am no better than my fathers.” And he lay down and slept under a broom tree. And behold, an angel touched him and said to him, “Arise and east.” And he looked, and behold, there was at his head a cake baked on hot stones and a jar of water. And he ate and drank and lay down again.
One of the most painful parts of being overwhelmed is the feeling of isolation that often comes along with it. In the verses that we just read, Elijah was overwhelmed. He was the only remaining prophet of God in Israel during a particularly dark time in the nation’s history.
In the proceeding chapters, Elijah had stood alone and overcome the prophets of Baal, and ultimately executed them. Queen Jezebel, who was notoriously wicked pledged that she would kill Elijah within the next 24 hours. That’s where we pick up the story we just read.
Elijah was completely isolated. He didn’t have a network that he could rely on to encourage him. He didn’t have a family that he could go home to that would help him refocus. Instead, he knew he was in over his head. After all, how could he possibly escape the Queen and King who wanted him dead?!
He couldn’t, and God told him as much. However, God didn’t shy away from Elijah during his overwhelming season. Instead, God ran to him. He will do the same for you. You don’t have to know how it’s going to work out; Elijah didn’t. However, you can trust that it will work out because you belong to the same God that Elijah belonged to.
An Inverse Correlation
2 Corinthians 12:9-10 (ESV)
But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
Within the world of statistics, there is a concept known as inverse correlation. Essentially, the principle of inverse correlation says that when one thing increases, another decreases. For example, if you start spending more money, you will notice a decrease in your savings account. The increase in spending produces a decrease in your bank account. That’s an inverse correlation.
In these verses, Paul spoke about a different type of inverse correlation. We’re not sure what Paul was overwhelmed by in these verses, but the fact remains that he was overwhelmed. Theologians have long debated what Paul’s thorn in the flesh was, and there still aren’t any definitive answers. However, we know that Paul understood that he couldn’t do anything about it.
Instead of being focused on his dwindling strength, Paul opted to focus on the increase in God’s power in his own life. God pointed it out, and Paul embraced it. When Paul’s own strength diminished, God’s power in Paul’s life increased. That’s how it works for us, as well.
Lightening Your Load
Acts 27:18-19 (ESV)
Since we were violently storm-tossed, they began the next day to jettison the cargo. And on the third day they threw the ship’s tackle overboard with their own hands.
Finally, this story found in the Book of Acts recounts a day where two of Christ’s moth faithful followers were overwhelmed. Peter wrote the Book of Acts, and this story that takes place sees him on a boat bound for Rome with Paul.
Unfortunately, due to some bad decision making from the owners of the ship, the boat wound up in a hurricane-force storm that threatened the lives of everyone on board.
The people who ran the boat did the only thing that they knew to do when they started throwing cargo overboard. The ship was sinking, the waves were rolling, and the winds were howling. There was nothing left for the people to do other than to try to make the ship lighter.
Now, we understand that God wasn’t going to let the ship sink because we have the luxury of reading the end of the story while they were facing things in real time. There is still something that we can learn from the people on the boat. The importance of lightening the load cannot be overstated.
When you’re feeling overwhelmed, take a careful inventory of your own life and determine if there are areas where you can lighten your load. When we’re facing overwhelming seasons in life, it’s easy to allow yourself to try to take on more in the name of leveling things out.
It’s easy to feel like if you can just grab onto a few more things to control that everything will calm down and you’ll be in a position to thrive. However, that’s the wrong approach.
If you’re overwhelmed, start letting things go. Paul, Peter, and the men in the boat had no control over their storm, and you probably can’t control yours either. However, if you start letting go of some of the load, you’ll find that your ship is lighter and you’re more poised to survive the overwhelming storm that threatens to take you under.
A Closing Prayer:
Father, You know how overwhelmed I am by the things going on around me. Help me. I need You to come to me just like You went to Elijah. Help me to relinquish control and realize that Your strength increases when my strength decreases. In Christ’s name, Amen.