On Saturday, I sat down for 5 minutes with a couple of good friends in the courtyard of our Church. I spent about 10 minutes with them when I realized, I had things to do! As I walked away though, I realized…..I should have just stayed there. I like doing it a lot…just sitting there. What’s with that???
The dictionary defines being overwhelmed as: ’to be submerged under the weight of something. To be overtaken by a superior force; to be overpowered by your thoughts and feelings.’
How many of you have ever felt overpowered and overwhelmed by all the stuff going on in your life?
We can be overwhelmed by any number of things. You have so much going on at work; so much going on at home; and so much on your plate that you literally feel submerged under the weight of it. You feel overpowered. Some of us are overwhelmed by fear; fear of rejection; fear of the future; or fear of what other people might be saying about us. We feel so overwhelmed with these feelings of fear that it is interfering with the quality of our Christian lives.
2 Chronicles 20: In this passage, God, thru example, is showing us what to do with this overwhelming situation.
Jehoshaphat is the king of Judah. He’s the ruler over the city of Jerusalem. And like his ancestor King David, he was a godly leader. In 2 Chronicles 19:6, He says "You’re not working for me. You’re working for the Lord. So make sure that you follow Him faithfully with all your heart."
A little bit after this, the king finds out that the country is under attack. These people have been enemies of Judah for hundreds of years. And now, they are joining forces forming a vast army. And their one unified purpose is to wipe the people of God off the face of the earth! To kill the Jewish people once and for all! (Sound familiar?)
When Jehoshaphat hears about this massive invasion, he is alarmed. Uh, no kidding right? There’s nothing wrong with being alarmed. Sometimes God wants us to be alarmed so that He might get our undivided attention. But sometimes, people respond by panicking. Sometimes we respond to overwhelming situations by trying to handle everything ourselves.
The way to handle overwhelming situations is to do what the king did. Verses 3 & 4 tell us that even though he is alarmed, he resolves to inquire of the Lord. He calls upon the entire nation to come together for a national day of prayer and fasting. In other words, the king is saying, "I am determined to hand this entire situation over to God! I am going to call upon the 1 person in the whole universe who can do something to change our circumstances!"
The king stands up in the courtyard of the temple. He’s got all the people praying with him. And he says, "Oh, Lord, you are the God of heaven. You rule over the kingdoms of the earth. Power and might are in your hand."
WOW!!!
When we start feeling overwhelmed by the worries of this life, we need to stop trying to fix everything ourselves. We need to stop fretting over the things that are out of our hands. And we need to put everything back into God’s hands.
While all this great stuff is going on, the Lord throws the invading armies into confusion. And they end up attacking each other instead of the people of God.
Again I say, WOW!!!
And in verse 24, the people of Judah arrive at the desert. They see all the dead bodies of the invading army. They are like…Praise the Lord! He did it! He saved us!!!" No Duh!!! He’s God!!! And they went down to gather up all the clothing and the equipment and the articles of value. And there was so much stuff down there that it took three days to gather everything up.
It’s important to Pray!!! Too many times, we tell ourselves, "I don’t need any help. I can handle this. I’m a grown person. I’m responsible." And we either end up falling flat on our faces. Or the stress associated with handling everything ourselves takes its toll on our well-being.
Whenever we pray, we can see the power of God on display in our lives:
• Giving us shelter from the storms of life.
• Giving us victory over our stresses and our circumstances.
• Giving us the capacity to praise His holy name even in the midst of adversity.
How many problems in your life have become worse than they need be because you didn’t hand them over to God in prayer?
How many times have you tried unsuccessfully to manipulate your circumstances when all you really needed to do was to give them over to the Lord?
Why wouldn’t we want Him to help us with the overwhelming challenges of life?
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