“When My Heart is Overwhelmed…” What Now?

Everyone faces seasons in life when things are utterly overwhelming. When it seems like nothing will ever get better, or when things feel like they are too hard or when you just can’t take much more. It’s emotionally, mentally, spiritually and even physically exhausting to be in a state of existence where you are barely keeping your head above water. It is during these seasons when we all struggle to press into God because it feels like just one more thing on our plate. Sometimes we don’t even want to. Right?  Prayer. Reading the Bible. Worship. These are all part of the winning strategy God has for you to walk in victory, which is why the enemy tries to hard to exhaust you. He knows you’ll win if you will truly fight! 

Other Christians walk through these same seasons. Keep walking! The Bible addresses the feeling of being overwhelmed and worship is a critical component of the victory God has for you! Hard times come to everyone, and we all experience a range of complex and difficult emotions when darkness and storms create havoc in our lives. But there is a Biblical and victorious path for you, and it begins with praise! Don’t let the enemy deceive you into thinking you’re alone. You are NOT alone! God is with you, but you also have other men and women of faith who have weathered the storms.

You’re in a spiritual battle, and you have been given effective spiritual weapons, but you have to use them if you want to see victory. And you must know how to use them, too! So what can you do when you’re too overwhelmed to fight and you don’t want to do anything? First, don’t let yourself become isolated, because the enemy can attack you much easier in if you’re alone. Take the people of war with you into your battle season! Send a text, make a call- reach out and ask another Christian to come alongside you to help you stand when you are too weak stand on your own because, “if someone might overpower another by himself, two together can withstand him.” (Ecclesiastes 4:12)

Being Overwhelmed is a Natural Response That Needs a Supernatural Approach

Your emotional responses are normal and natural, but you need a supernatural approach to as part of addressing your spirit and strengthening yourself as fire and hail and thunder and lightening rain down on you. Here are three ways to forge your faith in the fire:

When your heart is overwhelmed:

Your heart is the place from where “the issues of life” flow. (Proverbs 4:23) Everything that pertains to your human experience starts in the heart, which encompasses your mind, your will, your passions and appetites, your character. “From the end of the earth I will cry to You; when my heart is overwhelmed, lead me to the rock that is higher than I.” (Psalm 61:2) When you are overwhelmed in your heart, remember that those things that seem so difficult and impossible and huge are not bigger than God.

Invite the Lord to show you His perspective of your problems. He will lead you to Himself, first, and then He will lead you and walk with you through the dark valley. “Lead me to the rock that is higher than I,” David wrote. “For You have been a refuge for me, and a strong tower from the enemy…. Thus will I sing praise to Your name forever, that I may fulfill my vows day by day.“ Your praise will overwhelm your problems or your problems will overwhelm your praise. Praise is a lifestyle, a response, a willful faith action and your praise will defy your feelings. It will contradict them as you shove them aside to reach for the Lord. It won’t be easy, but it will be worth it.

When your spirit is overwhelmed:

When your spirit is overwhelmed, everything is thrown into disorder because your spirit guides the heart and the flesh, the mind and the soul. Spiritual turmoil can come from deep questions or confusion or conflict about who God is, or because your experiences in your life aren’t lining up with the promises in God’s Word or because doubt, sin or darkness have crept in. “I remember God, and I groan; I complain, and my spirit is overwhelmed.” (Psalm 77:3) The path forward from being overwhelmed in your spirit is to remind yourself of the nature and the character of God. When your spirit is overwhelmed, your faith can grow weak and you are vulnerable to other spiritual attacks!

Your praise will overwhelm your problems or your problems will overwhelm your praise- only you can determine which reality you live in.

~Alicia Purdy

To fight this, you need to remember the mighty things He has done for you! Pour it all out to God – the ugliest, blackest stuff you have – and He will take it! Then, as an act of faith, worship.  “Then I said, “This is my grief; yet I will remember the years of the right hand of the Most High.” I will remember the works of the Lord; surely I will remember Your wonders of old. I will meditate also on all Your work and ponder on Your mighty deeds.” (Psalm 7710-12)

When your soul is overwhelmed:

Your soul is the living being inside of you that makes you who you are. Your soul is the inner man, the person that breathes and thinks with the mind and makes choices and has desires, makes connections with other humans. Your soul is deeply affected by the things of this world and is in need of salvation, transformation and the sanctification of Jesus Christ. Your soul becomes tied and imprinted upon by the experiences it has in the world. If your soul is overwhelmed, you’re going to have a hard time functioning in faith, but also in the world around you. You may struggle with depression or anxiety or feel worthless or useless or rejected or defeated as the world’s pressures bear down on you.

As the Bible shows, when the soul is overwhelmed, it is a reflections of choices we have made. The solution to becoming shipwrecked by your choices is to cry out to the Lord. He will rescue you and your response is to worship Him! When God’s people “wandered in the wilderness on a deserted path”, they became overwhelmed, hungry and thirsty, but “Then they cried unto the Lord in their trouble, and He delivered them out of their distresses. He led them on a level road.” (Psalm 107:1-9)

When Jonah was trapped in the belly of the great fish, he was a victim of his own choices. He wrote, “The waters encompassed me; even to my soul the deep surrounded me…When my soul was overwhelmed within me, I remembered the Lord; and my prayer came to You, into Your holy temple.” (Jonah 2:1-9) Seek the Lord for the root that grew within your soul, influenced your decisions and brought you to where you are. CRY OUT to Him. He will come for you! WORSHIP while you wait. Don’t let the enemy make you think that you’ve done “too much” or “gone too far” – God knows where to find you. CRY OUT! He’ll hear you.

Let the Lord Minister to Your Weakness so You can be Strong in Him:

• “The Testing of Your Faith Proves God is Faithful”
• VIDEO DEVOTIONAL: “How to Face the Fire With Your Faith”
• “Call 9-1-1 to Cry Out for the Lord’s Help”
• “Win in the Battle Against… Yourself”

Don’t forget to pick up a copy of The Way of the Worshipper on Amazon – and AVAILABLE NOW you can also purchase The Way of the Worshipper: A Devotional Workbook for deeper study, personal examination and spiritual growth!