When my Heart is Overwhelmed

Aren’t you thankful than we don’t have to be prefect to serve Christ?  When we come to Christ, none of us are perfect, and after serving him for more than 35 years, I can assure you that I am still far from it.  Perfection is not a requirement to be a follower of Christ.  As a matter of fact, we are encouraged to daily go to the Father in prayer and ask him to forgive our trespasses, our shortcomings, in the prayer that Christ taught to his disciples. (The Lord’s Prayer Matthew 6:12)

We all go through trials in our lives.  I think too many of today’s “Christians” come to Christ under the prosperity teachings or under the guise that if you give your life to Jesus all your problems will suddenly disappear.  That, my friends, is simply not the truth.  When people are won to the Lord under those pretenses, it doesn’t take long for a problem to come along in their lives, and then they have no foundation to stand on to back up what they were told.

Jesus told us that we would have trouble in John 16:33, it’s not something he tried to hide from us, but what makes all the difference in the world is the last part of that verse where he tells us that we can be of good cheer, or to take heart, because He has overcome the world. Our hope doesn’t rest on this world being full of peace and us never having problems, it rests in the One who has already overcome and who has equipped us by his Spirit to be overcomers ourselves. Let me remind you today that you are more than a conqueror in Christ Jesus.  You are the head and not the tail.  You are a child of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. 

You’re going to have times in life when what’s going on around you or even within you will overwhelm you.  The diagnosis, the unrest, the phone call you’ve been dreading, the unknown of it all, if you allow it and let you mind stay in that place, it will completely consume you.  But we are not powerless.  No, we can’t control what other people do or say.  We can’t control disease and sickness or the economy.  We can take precautions and prepare best we can, but in the end, there are way more things in life that you have no control over than the very few things you think are under your control.  When David was crying out to God in Psalms 61, he used a key word in his prayer.  He didn’t say “if” my heart is overwhelmed, he said “when” my heart is overwhelmed.  There’s no if about it, life will overwhelm you.  But I am a firm believer that when my heart is overwhelmed, I can go to my Rock, my sure foundation, the lover of my soul, and He will speak peace in the midst of my circumstances. 

Sometimes Christ speaks peace and the circumstances change, the storm becomes still, like when the disciples were with him in the boat and he spoke to the sea (Matthew 8:26).  But there are other times when the storm will continue to rage all around, but He speaks with that gentle voice, that quiet spirit, right to the core of your heart, and the peace settles on you.  Not one thing outside of you has changed, but everything within you has, because the one who created you, and loves you beyond all imagination has spoken peace to your heart and mind. 

Prayer:

Father, I pray for the one who is reading this that is feeling overwhelmed.  I ask that you send your Holy Spirit to them right now.  I pray that you would speak peace to their heart and mind. Not peace that the world offers, peace that comes from you that no person or circumstance can steal.  Oh Lord, we ask you to speak peace to the storms going on around us, but if you choose to allow the storms around us to rage, we’ll trust you.  We know that you will keep us and carry us through the storms.  We can make it if you are with us, and your peace goes with us. We will overcome instead of being overwhelmed because you are with us.  In Jesus name, Amen!