Advice for the Overwhelmed

You will answer me, God; I know you always will, like you always do as you listen with love to my every prayer. Psalm 17:6 TPT

I lay on my prayer mat, tears streaming from my eyes, sobs overtaking my body. I am fully surrendered to my feelings of overwhelm and confusion. I call to the Lord.

Have you ever been there? Maybe you are there right now. Maybe life is overwhelming for you. Maybe this transition you are in is confusing. Maybe you feel lost. If you can relate, this post is for you, my friend.

I was there this past summer. June in particular was a month of loss, overwhelm and confusion. When I feel lost, I go to the Lord who finds me. And so, there I was that June afternoon on my prayer mat broken before the Lord.

Did you know that the Lord collects our tears?

You’ve kept track of my wandering and my weeping. You’ve stored my many tears in your bottle-not one will be lost. For they are all recorded in your book of remembrance. Psalm 56:8 TPT

When we weep broken before the Lord, He listens. He is the Father of Compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles. 2 Corinthians 1:3 NIV. When we are hurting, He is full of compassion and offers us comfort.

One of the ways I find He comforts me or helps me change my focus is to ask me questions.

Recently, I had a difficult 24 hours. Things were up in the air and it looked like more change and transition was around the corner. I really don’t have the bandwidth for much more change. I found myself on my prayer mat again, asking the Lord, “What am I going to do?”

I felt that small still voice whipser to my soul, What has changed?

Immediately, I responded with, “Well, if this happens then that will happen and what will I do?”

He gently stopped me, What has changed?

“Nothing, right now, but tomorrow or the next day things could look different.”

Again He pressed, What has changed?

This time, I took a deep breath. “Nothing.” That was so freeing to say. The what if’s that had been running through my mind were silenced. Nothing had changed. And guess what, nothing did change. The big scary thing, well, it never happened.

And then I felt Him give me a word of hope, Stay the course. That statement didn’t need any further explanation. In order to be obedient, I just have to stay the course. I rose up from my prayer mat and found a piece of paper and scratched it down. Here’s a picture of it.

That piece of paper has found its home with my blessings journal. I read it everyday and what a great reminder.

As a mom, I have been known to say to my girls, “Go with what you know not what you think.” So often they would say to me, “I thought…” Isn’t that what Holy Spirit was saying to me? What I knew was nothing had changed even though I thought things might.

My Advice

To circle back to the title, Advice for the Overwhelmed, here’s my advice to you and honestly to me too.

1. Go to the Lord. Call out to Him. Allow Him to collect your tears. Accept His comfort. Feel His compassion. As our verse for today tells us, He loves to hear our prayers.
2. Ask yourself, “What has changed?” Or remind yourself to go with what you know not what you think.
3. And finally, this last piece of advice comes from Emily P. Freeman’s podcast Do The Next Right Thing episode 109: wait until the morning to make a decision. Don’t make a big decision at night. Sleep on it. If you’d like to hear this episode, click here.
4. And a bonus piece of advice, start listening to The Next Right Thing Podcast. It’s amazing!

My prayer for you is that you will run to Jesus when your lost or scared or overwhelmed or confused. He’s there for you, friend. And the truth is…He’s running toward you.

If you have other advice to share with the Living Bellissima community, please add it to the comments below.