What to Do When You're Overwhelmed
“Pause, rest, trust…bring it to God.”
Have you ever felt overwhelmed or unsure of yourself in the face of life’s challenges and difficult situations? Maybe you’re in the middle of one right now. Often these circumstances overwhelm us as we scramble for answers and solutions.
If you are anything like me, your first response to unexpected tragedy, turmoil, and pain isn’t always praise and faith. When we find ourselves in the depths of despair, it’s easy to lose sight of our spiritual foundation. We want to have faith and pursue God in every situation, but hard circumstances have a way of giving us spiritual amnesia. We lose sight of God, his promises and his prior faithfulness to us.
This was the story of Hezekiah. (2 Kings 18:13-19:37) Hezekiah was a righteous king known for his faith and religious reforms, who reigned from approximately 715 to 686 BC. His story is found in 2 Kings, 2 Chronicles, and Isaiah. Hezekiah loved the Lord and had a deep walk with Him. Nevertheless, he found himself in real difficulty when he heard that Sennacherib and his million-man Assyrian army were marching towards Jerusalem.
The Assyrians had been unbeatable in battle, and unparalleled in brutality. They invented the siege strategy, the battering ram and death by crucifixion. Beyond the torture, murder and cruelty afflicted on their victims, they would often stockpile their victims’ bodies at the entrance of their defeated cities as a way of inflicting psychological torment. The Assyrian message was clear: “This is what we do. This is who we are. You are next.”
Now imagine being Hezekiah and this unstoppable force is at your doorstep. What do you do? It’s often the same dilemma and fear we are faced with when cancer, unemployment, death, bad diagnoses, wayward children, depression, anxiety and creditors are at our doorstep. What do we do? How do we respond?
The first thing Hezekiah does is try to solve his problem financially by attempting to bribe Sennacherib with the gold that was in the Temple. His plan, of course, backfired because the sight of the gold only increased Sennacherib’s determination to plunder Jerusalem. Hezekiah’s next plan was to build an alliance with Egypt. “You guys have horses and soldiers, and military might at your disposal,” he said. “Ally with us because if Sennacherib beats us, you’ll be next.”
At that moment, Isaiah the prophet comes on the scene and gives a poignant prophecy to Hezekiah: “Woe to the obstinate children,” declares the Lord, “to those who carry out plans that are not mine, forming an alliance, but not by my Spirit, heaping sin upon sin; who go down to Egypt without consulting me; who look for help to Pharaoh’s protection, to Egypt’s shade for refuge. This is what the Sovereign Lord, the Holy One of Israel, says: “In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength, but you would have none of it. (Isaiah 30:1-2, 15)
In other words, “What God wants from you in this crisis, in this hour of need is to return to Him, wait on Him and be quiet before Him.” (Psalm 46:10) In times of uncertainty, we long for strength and confidence; yet, we seldom pair them with quietness, rest and trust. But God told Hezekiah, strength and confidence come when we press pause, step back and get clarity.
Maybe you’re facing a difficult and challenging season. What “saviors” are you looking to for strength and support? Is it money? Allegiances with certain people? Your own ingenuity and cleverness? I wonder if today you’re screaming out to these things saying, “Help me!” “Save me!” When all along the Lord would say, “Pause, rest, trust… Come to Me.”
The Apostle Paul tells us something very similar in Philippians 4:6, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.” “Prayer” refers to general communion with God; “petition” refers to specific requests. In essence, Paul is saying, “Be anxious about nothing. Pray about everything. Give thanks for anything. Pause, rest, trust…bring it to God.”
After realizing his own resources were futile, Hezekiah receives a threatening letter from Sennacherib which gives him no other option. Hezekiah goes to the temple to pray to God and he lays out the letter before God as an act of surrender, trust and faith.
“And Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the messengers and read it; and Hezekiah went up to the house of the Lord, and spread it before the Lord. Then Hezekiah prayed before the Lord, and said: “O Lord God of Israel, the One who dwells between the cherubim, You are God, You alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth. Incline Your ear, O Lord, and hear; open Your eyes, O Lord, and see; and hear the words of Sennacherib, which he has sent to reproach the living God. Truly, Lord, the kings of Assyria have laid waste the nations and their lands and have cast their gods into the fire; for they were not gods, but the work of men’s hands—wood and stone. Therefore, they destroyed them. Now therefore, O Lord our God, I pray, save us from his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that You are the Lord God, You alone.” (2 kings 19:14-19 NKJV)
Hezekiah's actions were a demonstration of trust that God was the one who could save Jerusalem from the Assyrian army. Not the king, or the temple itself, or certain allegiances, or clever strategy. By spreading the letter in the temple, Hezekiah was laying the matter in the hands of a mighty capable God.
“Seek the Lord,” Isaiah said, and Hezekiah did just that. As Sennacherib continued to march, things looked ominous when suddenly, “That night the angel of the Lord went out to the Assyrian camp and killed 185,000 Assyrian soldiers. When the surviving Assyrians woke up the next morning, they found corpses everywhere. Then King Sennacherib of Assyria broke camp and returned to his own land. He went home to his capital of Nineveh and stayed there. (2 Kings 19:35-36)
What do we learn from Hezekiah? We can approach God in the same way during our need for deliverance. Hezekiah’s strength was found when he did not hesitate to take his needs to the Lord. Our greatest strength is when we take things to God. Whatever you may be facing, be encouraged! He heard Hezekiah; he heard Samuel and Paul and Moses—and He hears us too.
Psalm 34:4 says, “I sought the Lord, and he answered me; he delivered me from all my fears.”
Being delivered “from all my fears” does not imply that challenges and threats cease to exist. God delivering me from all my fears is not merely about escaping danger but about experiencing a divine sense of calm that surpasses human understanding. But to achieve deliverance from fear requires total reliance on God. Make this your testimony today! “I sought the Lord, and he answered me; he delivered me from all my fears.”
Have you ever felt overwhelmed or unsure of yourself in the face of life’s challenges and difficult situations? Maybe you’re in the middle of one right now. Often these circumstances overwhelm us as we scramble for answers and solutions.
If you are anything like me, your first response to unexpected tragedy, turmoil, and pain isn’t always praise and faith. When we find ourselves in the depths of despair, it’s easy to lose sight of our spiritual foundation. We want to have faith and pursue God in every situation, but hard circumstances have a way of giving us spiritual amnesia. We lose sight of God, his promises and his prior faithfulness to us.
This was the story of Hezekiah. (2 Kings 18:13-19:37) Hezekiah was a righteous king known for his faith and religious reforms, who reigned from approximately 715 to 686 BC. His story is found in 2 Kings, 2 Chronicles, and Isaiah. Hezekiah loved the Lord and had a deep walk with Him. Nevertheless, he found himself in real difficulty when he heard that Sennacherib and his million-man Assyrian army were marching towards Jerusalem.
The Assyrians had been unbeatable in battle, and unparalleled in brutality. They invented the siege strategy, the battering ram and death by crucifixion. Beyond the torture, murder and cruelty afflicted on their victims, they would often stockpile their victims’ bodies at the entrance of their defeated cities as a way of inflicting psychological torment. The Assyrian message was clear: “This is what we do. This is who we are. You are next.”
Now imagine being Hezekiah and this unstoppable force is at your doorstep. What do you do? It’s often the same dilemma and fear we are faced with when cancer, unemployment, death, bad diagnoses, wayward children, depression, anxiety and creditors are at our doorstep. What do we do? How do we respond?
The first thing Hezekiah does is try to solve his problem financially by attempting to bribe Sennacherib with the gold that was in the Temple. His plan, of course, backfired because the sight of the gold only increased Sennacherib’s determination to plunder Jerusalem. Hezekiah’s next plan was to build an alliance with Egypt. “You guys have horses and soldiers, and military might at your disposal,” he said. “Ally with us because if Sennacherib beats us, you’ll be next.”
At that moment, Isaiah the prophet comes on the scene and gives a poignant prophecy to Hezekiah: “Woe to the obstinate children,” declares the Lord, “to those who carry out plans that are not mine, forming an alliance, but not by my Spirit, heaping sin upon sin; who go down to Egypt without consulting me; who look for help to Pharaoh’s protection, to Egypt’s shade for refuge. This is what the Sovereign Lord, the Holy One of Israel, says: “In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength, but you would have none of it. (Isaiah 30:1-2, 15)
In other words, “What God wants from you in this crisis, in this hour of need is to return to Him, wait on Him and be quiet before Him.” (Psalm 46:10) In times of uncertainty, we long for strength and confidence; yet, we seldom pair them with quietness, rest and trust. But God told Hezekiah, strength and confidence come when we press pause, step back and get clarity.
Maybe you’re facing a difficult and challenging season. What “saviors” are you looking to for strength and support? Is it money? Allegiances with certain people? Your own ingenuity and cleverness? I wonder if today you’re screaming out to these things saying, “Help me!” “Save me!” When all along the Lord would say, “Pause, rest, trust… Come to Me.”
The Apostle Paul tells us something very similar in Philippians 4:6, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.” “Prayer” refers to general communion with God; “petition” refers to specific requests. In essence, Paul is saying, “Be anxious about nothing. Pray about everything. Give thanks for anything. Pause, rest, trust…bring it to God.”
After realizing his own resources were futile, Hezekiah receives a threatening letter from Sennacherib which gives him no other option. Hezekiah goes to the temple to pray to God and he lays out the letter before God as an act of surrender, trust and faith.
“And Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the messengers and read it; and Hezekiah went up to the house of the Lord, and spread it before the Lord. Then Hezekiah prayed before the Lord, and said: “O Lord God of Israel, the One who dwells between the cherubim, You are God, You alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth. Incline Your ear, O Lord, and hear; open Your eyes, O Lord, and see; and hear the words of Sennacherib, which he has sent to reproach the living God. Truly, Lord, the kings of Assyria have laid waste the nations and their lands and have cast their gods into the fire; for they were not gods, but the work of men’s hands—wood and stone. Therefore, they destroyed them. Now therefore, O Lord our God, I pray, save us from his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that You are the Lord God, You alone.” (2 kings 19:14-19 NKJV)
Hezekiah's actions were a demonstration of trust that God was the one who could save Jerusalem from the Assyrian army. Not the king, or the temple itself, or certain allegiances, or clever strategy. By spreading the letter in the temple, Hezekiah was laying the matter in the hands of a mighty capable God.
“Seek the Lord,” Isaiah said, and Hezekiah did just that. As Sennacherib continued to march, things looked ominous when suddenly, “That night the angel of the Lord went out to the Assyrian camp and killed 185,000 Assyrian soldiers. When the surviving Assyrians woke up the next morning, they found corpses everywhere. Then King Sennacherib of Assyria broke camp and returned to his own land. He went home to his capital of Nineveh and stayed there. (2 Kings 19:35-36)
What do we learn from Hezekiah? We can approach God in the same way during our need for deliverance. Hezekiah’s strength was found when he did not hesitate to take his needs to the Lord. Our greatest strength is when we take things to God. Whatever you may be facing, be encouraged! He heard Hezekiah; he heard Samuel and Paul and Moses—and He hears us too.
Psalm 34:4 says, “I sought the Lord, and he answered me; he delivered me from all my fears.”
Being delivered “from all my fears” does not imply that challenges and threats cease to exist. God delivering me from all my fears is not merely about escaping danger but about experiencing a divine sense of calm that surpasses human understanding. But to achieve deliverance from fear requires total reliance on God. Make this your testimony today! “I sought the Lord, and he answered me; he delivered me from all my fears.”
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As God does, he delivered this to me tonight with impeccable timing.
nPA, my life would not be the same without you-
nI love my church, church family.
n
nPrayers for you-