Where in your life do you feel overwhelmed?
Is it in the fact that the Christmas season was upon us before Halloween was over?
Is it in the things that are going on in this world?
Or is there something that is crushing you that very few people know about? Your heart is shattered, you have no idea what the future holds. You are scared.
We can come upon a verse like this and feel like we are failing. We ARE praying, we ARE in the word, we ARE seeking God; but still our circumstances don’t change or even more, they get worse. We look at a verse like this and think: I am perplexed, I am in despair, I feel forsaken and I am destroyed to my core.
I know this feeling. I have been living with circumstances like these. In my past and even very recently.
I am not a “platitude” Christian. In all of my years of teaching bible study and coaching, I have always been very careful about throwing verses at someone and expecting those verses to take away the devastating pain someone is feeling. Or worse yet, throwing a verse at them and then making them feel “less of a believer” because the verse didn’t magically correct what they were feeling.
No ~ I’ve lived through too many agonizing circumstances in my life, desperately clinging to Jesus and still shattered to my core wondering what was wrong with me, why my faith wasn’t strong enough, asking what God was trying to teach me and wondering why I wasn’t “getting it.”
As I’ve walked with Jesus, as I’ve grown in Him and taken Him at His word. As I have seen His faithfulness in my life ~ That is where I can take a verse and let it seep deep into my soul. This is where I can trust Him: because I’ve seen His hand on my life, because His word has never once failed me.
If you knew my story, the things that satan has used to try to destroy me: the things that God has allowed (because satan cannot touch any of us without it going through His hands first) you may wonder how I would continue to trust a God who would allow such things.
You may even be incredulous that God would allow satan access to us, that He would allow devastation that literally puts us on our faces on the ground crying out to Him for mercy. You may feel angry that you are serving Him, loving Him and “doing everything right” and yet He still allows “it” : the thing that shakes us to our core.
My friend, God does not promise a life of ease as we follow Him, quite the opposite actually. He says that we will have troubles in this fallen world, but for us to take heart, because He has overcome the world (John 16:33). He promises that He will never leave us or forsake us (Deuteronomy 31:8), that He has a plan for our lives (Jeremiah 29:11) (look this passage up and read the surrounding text ~ the Israelites were in captivity when He promised this)
I can stand on every promise of God’s word because I can tell you from personal experience that He has walked through every single one of those things with me. Satan tried to destroy me as a little girl, with things he has put my children through; he’s tried to destroy my marriage.
In all of these things, I have seen Him and I continue to see Him give me strength that is beyond my human ability to not be overcome. Do I hurt?, 100%, do I cry out to God for mercy? Absolutely. Does trusting Him take away the pain and my broken heart? No. Does He take the circumstances away? No.
But has He been with me every step of the way? Yes. Does He give me the grace I need each day to make it through the day? Yes. Am I falling more deeply in love with Him and trusting Him more in my life? Yes. Through every tear that falls, through every pleading prayer I lift to Him with my fractured heart, I can say ~ I am overwhelmed, but I am not overcome in these things.
I don’t know what you are going through today. But I do pray that by God’s grace, you will stop. Find a quiet place and pour your heart out to Jesus. Through tears, through anger. Allow Him to wash over you. Allow Him to speak to you in a way that maybe you’ve never allowed before. Feel His presence. Trust that He is sovereign and has a plan and is always there, walking with you every step of the way.
I don’t know what you are facing this season in your life but God does. And He cares. Fall into His capable hands.