Overwhelmed?

What threatens to tip your proverbial sanity scale? Work, school, study, planning, preparing, responding, reacting, kids, friends, spouse, parents, athletic programs, dance, music, cooking, shopping, cleaning, traveling, church, responsibility, care-taking, leadership, time, demands, health? Maybe it’s simply waking up to yet another day of it all.

When you feel overwhelmed even unplanned blessings become burdens; you simply can’t take anymore! Emotional paralysis replaces cognitive thinking and as much as you try to rise above it, you feel as if you are falling into a bottomless, dizzying whirlwind - ALONE!

King David, one of the primary writers of the Book of Psalms, a man acquainted with the thrill of great victory and the desperate abandonment of defeat wrote the following passage:

“O GIVE THANKS to the Lord for he is good, for His mercy and loving-kindness endure for ever! Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom He has delivered from the hand of the adversary. And gathered them out of the lands, from the east and from the west, from the north and from the Red Sea in the south. Some wandered in the wilderness in a solitary desert track; they found not city for habitation. Hungry and thirsty they fainted; their life was near being extinguished. Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and He delivered them out of their distresses. He led them forth by the straight and right way, that they might go to a city where they might establish their homes. OH, THAT MEN WOULD PRAISE [and confess to] the Lord his goodness and loving-kindness, and His wonderful works to the children of Men! For He satisfies the longing soul, and fills the hungry soul with good. Some sat in darkness and in the shadows of death, being bound in affliction and in irons, because they rebelled against the words of God, and spurned the counsel of the Most High. Therefore He bowed down their heart with hard labor; they stumbled and fell down, and there was non to help. Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and He saved them out of their distresses. He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death, and broke apart the bonds that held them. OH, THAT MEN WOULD PRAISE [and confess to] the Lord His goodness and loving-kindness, and His wonderful works to the children of men! For He has broken the gates of bronze, and cut the bars of iron apart. Some are fools, made ill because of the way of their transgressions, and afflicted because of their iniquities; they loath every kind of food, they draw near to the gates of death. Then they cry to the Lord in their trouble, and He delivers them out of their distresses. He sends forth His word and heals them and rescues them from the pit and destruction. OH, THAT MEN WOULD PRAISE [and confess to] the Lord His goodness and loving-kindness, and His wonderful works to the children of men! And let them sacrifice the sacrifices of thanksgiving, and rehearse His deeds with shouts of joy and singing! Some go down to the sea and travel over it in ships, to do business in great waters; these see the works of the Lord, and His wonders in the deep. For He commands and raises the stormy wind, which lifts up the waves of the sea. Those aboard mount up to the heavens, they go down again to the deeps; their courage melts away because of their plight. They reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man, and are at their wit’s end - all their wisdom has come down to nothing. Then they cry to the Lord in their trouble, and He brings them out of their distresses. He hushes the storm to a calm, and to a gentle whisper, so that the waves of the sea are still. Then the men are glad because of the calm, and He brings them to their desired haven. OH, THAT MEN WOULD PRAISE [and confess to] the Lord His goodness and loving kindness, and his works to the children of men! Let them exalt Him also in the congregation of the people, and praise Him in the company of elders. He turns rivers into a wilderness, water springs into a thirsty ground, a fruitful land into barren, salt waste, because of the wickedness of those who dwell in it. He [also] turns a wilderness into into a pool of water, and dry ground into water springs. And there He makes the hungry to dwell, that they may prepare a city for habitation’ and sow fields, and plant vineyards, which may yield fruits of increase. He blesses them also, so that they are multiplied greatly and allows not their cattle to decrease. When they are diminished and bowed down through oppression, trouble and sorrow, He pours contempt upon princes, and causes them to wander in the waste places, where there is no road. YET, He raises the poor and needy from affliction, and makes them families like a flock. The upright shall see it and be glad, and all the iniquity shall shut her mouth. Whoso is wise [if there be any truly wise] will observe and heed these things; and they will diligently consider the mercy and loving kindness of the Lord.” - Psalms 107

OH, THAT MEN [AND WOMEN] WOULD PRAISE ... this phrase is repeated in this passage several times. It causes me to consider that perhaps my personal challenges, through which I have been carried, need not be solitary experiences of past defeats for which I am profoundly ashamed and would rather arrogantly deny, but conquering words of testimony and confession to the Lord His goodness and loving kindness, and His wonderful works to the children of men!

You see, as we are truthful with ourselves about our need, as we are truthful and transparent with others about our dependence upon a living and loving God, HE SPEAKS to their hearts in ways our counsel could never reveal.

Do you know someone in need today? OH, THAT MEN [AND WOMEN] WOULD PRAISE [and confess to] the Lord His goodness and loving kindness, and His works to the children of men!

Hearts are waiting to hear what He has done for you ...