Fighting the feeling of being overwhelmed

A feeling of being overwhelmed can make us feel like we're in a canyon looking up

There are times when I feel as if I am living in a state of constant stress and on the verge of being completely overwhelmed. I think most feel the same. It is easy today, especially when society is as fragmented as it is today, people are angry, some are depressed, many have just become mean. Our politicians don’t respect the rule of law and seem to be guided by their every whim and evil desire. There isn’t enough time in the day to do everything. People want more and more of our time and energy; the pressure of life has become unrelenting; we are becoming more and more overwhelmed.

Eventually we begin to feel emotionally drained, and unable to meet the constant demands placed upon us. As the stress continues to build, we begin to lose interest; we are no longer motivated to do anything.

Eventually, we feel like we have nothing more to give and we feel helpless, hopeless, cynical, and resentful; we overwhelmed by the demands of the world. If we are unable to overcome the feeling of being overwhelmed, the result can be devastating to our families, and our mental and physical health.

Today I want to look at specific steps we can take when we are feeling overwhelmed.

Before I get into it, join me in a prayer — Dear Heavenly Father, I know that you are in charge of the Universe. I know that you have a grand plan for us. I believe that you sent your Son, my Lord, and Savior Jesus Christ to live and walk among us and to die for us. I believe that you raised Him from the grave and that He sits at your right hand. Father, I ask that in those occasions when I am feeling overwhelmed by the pressures of the world that you send the Holy Spirit into my life to help me find the best way to deal with my feelings and in a manner that produces positive results that give glory to you. I ask that you grant me the peace and serenity that I need to continue doing your work and to live life as a true Christian. Thank you – Amen.

Now, let’s talk about what we do when we begin to feel overwhelmed by the world. I am going to start with what to do when we are feeling mentally or spiritually overwhelmed.

The first step is to turn to God’s social media platform.

Every time I look at Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or check my email, look at my text messages; someone has felt it necessary to share some negative angry story about something. After a while, just seeing all those headlines makes me feel like I am being flooded with wave after wave of bad and/or hateful news and it is overwhelming.

When I do reach the point where I don’t want to read or see any of it I turn to the words in Psalm 119 verse 143; “Trouble and anguish have come upon me, Yet Your commandments are my delight.” But how can that help? Simple, when we spend more of our time reading the Bible, studying God’s word and less time clicking on links, reading hateful articles, then we find our lives become fuller, more complete, and MORE PEACEFUL.

We will not be arguing with people we do not even know. Honestly, if we ask ourselves a simple question, such as how many of our Facebook, Instagram, or snapchat friends do we actually know in person; we’ll find the answer is most likely very few; and yet, we allow people we hardly know to control our feelings, our emotions and make us feel overwhelmed by what is going on in the world.

I know God on a far more intimate basis than I know 95% of my Facebook friends. I discovered that it helps to stop reading most of the things posted. When we find ourselves feeling overwhelmed turn off the world’s social media for a while and turn on God’s social media platform.

Once we have turned off the world’s social media for a while and turned on God’s social media, and began to read His postings, which by the way have lasted over 2,000 years which is much longer than any worldly post will last; now what.

The next step is to respond to His posts and the way to do that is with prayer, especially when we are overwhelmed and fearful.

For instance, there are often many posts that seem to be from Chicken Little, those are the, ‘the sky is falling, the sky is falling’ types of articles; or they are like ‘the boy who cried wolf’. Their only purpose is to frighten or anger us and sadly, it works more often than not.

When we begin to feel ourselves giving in to fear try to take the advice found in Psalm 116 verses 3 and 4; “The cords of death encompassed me And the terrors of Sheol came upon me; I found distress and sorrow. Then I called upon the name of the Lord: “O Lord, I beseech You, save my life!”.

The writer feels like he is going to die, and that hell is waiting, and he saw what hell was like, so he was in terror. So, he did what we should do, when we have those feelings, he cried out to God.

It is incredibly easy to talk with God, we do not need a cell phone, no email account, and there is no cost, no fuss, and no muss. We talk with Him through prayer; it is free and direct, and honestly talking and listening to God, keeps us in touch with the one whose help we need the most.

Prayer will help overcome whatever overwhelms us and as I said offering up a prayer to God does not even require any equipment other than our heart and mind. The other positive effect that prayer will have is that it will lead to our third step in getting over the feeling of being overwhelmed. We will develop a healthy daily relationship with God that put our overwhelming circumstances in perspective. A healthy relationship with God will overcome whatever overwhelms us.

Remember the words of Jesus in Matthew chapter 11 verses 28-29 when He said, “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” Jesus has issued an open-door invitation; all we have to do is accept it. The Gospels have example after example of who Jesus was, He said and did. Why do we today seem to have so much trouble believing it and yet we will believe every silly rumor that comes down the pike about stuff happening in the world. It is time we stopped believing in the lies the world tells and start believing the truth Jesus spoke.

So, the third step in overcoming our feelings of being overwhelmed is to make certain that we have a healthy relationship with God and that we trust Jesus to help lighten our load.

We have now logged on to God’s social media, we have started reading His posts, and we have begun to communicate with Him, now it is time for us to take the fourth step and that is to truly believe that He WANTS to help.

Jesus has invited us in, the Father takes it a step further, He loves to pick up those who have fallen. He waits with an open hand to satisfy our needs and offers strong support. We find in Isaiah chapter 43, verse 2 “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; And through the rivers, they will not overflow you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be scorched, Nor will the flame burn you.” Most of us have heard the term ‘fake news’, it seems to be all the rage today and the sheer volume of noise about it is overwhelming. I am here to say, that without a doubt, this is not ‘fake news’, this is the real honest truth, and it is the ONLY truth. God is there for us when we need Him, we have to insure that we keep Him in our lives all the time and He will indeed help us fight our feelings of being mentally, spiritually overwhelmed.

But what about those times when the pain in our lives become overwhelming?

It goes back to trust, trust in God. When we are standing at the bottom of the well looking up, remember the only way out is up, and God is there. In Psalm 55 verse 22, we find “Cast your burden upon the Lord and He will sustain you; He will never allow the righteous to be shaken.”. Not only do we have the invitation from Jesus in Matthew, here we read that the Father will be there for us. We are not alone; we do not have to try to overcome everything by ourselves. The Father has ‘really’ long arms, He will reach down for us and help us carry our loads, and we do not have to go through life overburdened.

Remember as it is written in Psalm 145 verse 14 “The Lord sustains all who fall And raises up all who are bowed down” why should we take on the world by ourselves when God is here to help us? Personally, I can be a wee bit stubborn at time, but eventually I even recognize that it is impossible to do everything and there are times when I need help. I definitely do not like to ask for help, after all, as I have said in previous messages, my parents raised me to be independent; but no man is an island. I have asked for help in the past and I will again in the future.

Finally, remember that we need to enjoy God’s peace; He is the only true source of peace. In John Chapter 16 verse 33, Jesus tells us “These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation but take courage; I have overcome the world.” There is a lot of tribulation in the world today and frankly, it does seem to be getting worse, but we do not have to worry, Jesus tells us the He has overcome the world. We need to believe again, and we need to make certain that we share the story of Jesus with the world. It is time we started taking a break from the world, because if we do not then the feelings of negativity, anger, frustration, and stress will overwhelm us and if that happens Satan wins.

So, in closing, remember the easy steps to take once we recognize we are beginning to feel overwhelmed:

First open we need to open our Bible, God’s social media platform and read His posts especially the book of Proverb, the book of Ecclesiastes, and the Gospels. Those are the most important books you will find.
Respond to His posts and the way to do that is with prayer, especially when we are overwhelmed and fearful.
Then make certain we have a healthy relationship with God and that we trust Jesus to help lighten our load.
Truly believe that He WANTS to help.

Remember our starting prayer – Dear Heavenly Father, I know that you are in charge of the Universe. I know that you have a grand plan for us. I believe that you sent your Son, my Lord, and Savior Jesus Christ to live and walk among us and to die for us. I believe that you raised Him from the grave and that He sits at your right hand. Father, I ask that in those occasions when I am feeling overwhelmed by the pressures of the world that you send the Holy Spirit into my life to help me find the best way to deal with my feelings and in a manner that produces positive results that give glory to you. I ask that you grant me the peace and serenity that I need to continue doing your work and to live life as a true Christian. Thank you – Amen.