When My Heart Is Overwhelmed

I expect many people struggle with feelings of overwhelm at times. There is the pace and stress of family life, the unrealistic demands and expectations of others, who are often struggling too. There is the constant bombardment of bad news and negativity through the news media, TV, internet, and social media, the pressure from long established thought patterns, wrong beliefs, and emotional wounds from the past, spiritual pressures, the loss of a loved one, and other trauma. This is to say nothing of the pressure we load upon ourselves by taking on responsibilities or jobs that God is not asking of us! No doubt the list could go on.

‘Negative’ overwhelm is defined in the dictionary as: ‘to bury or drown beneath a huge mass of something, defeat completely, overpower, inundate, not be able to cope with’.  The effects of such overwhelm can be short-lived, but for some they can paralyse and be so debilitating that even coping with everyday life can be very difficult. I’ve been all too familiar with the strength of such feelings since childhood, leading to an overload of stress and anxiety and greater vulnerability to mental and physical health issues, as well as a struggle to be at peace and live in the joy of the Lord, even after being saved.

There are so many true stories in both the Old and New Testaments of men and women of God enduring and coming through the most overwhelming circumstances. There is Job’s extreme suffering and darkness for example, the seemingly impossible task that Moses was given, the opposition and personal struggles that David faced, which led him to cry out, “My spirit is overwhelmed within me; my heart is desolate within me” (Psalm 143:4, NASB).  But they did what we are all encouraged to do, and that is be real, cry out to God and trust Him. David said, in Psalm 61:2, ‘From the end of the earth I call to you when my heart is overwhelmed; lead me to the rock that is higher than I’.

These scriptures have helped me over many years, but it was a life-changing moment for me to see in the Bible that Jesus, in extreme distress, was overwhelmed, and that He defeated that overwhelm. In the Garden of Gethsemane, the disciples were overcome with sleep, probably not fully cognisant of the overwhelming emotional and spiritual weightiness of the circumstances which were unfolding before them. We read, ‘Then Jesus said to them, “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death”’ (Matthew 26:38). Jesus was overwhelmed in His spirit, soul, and body, by the enormity of what He was facing - bearing the full weight of all mankind’s sin, the deepest sorrow, and the prospect of a horrific death. He understands.

Jesus overcame all this pressure by crying out to God the Father and, in that unparalleled moment of extremis, choosing God’s will. God then sent an angel to strengthen Him, it says in Luke’s account, and in Hebrews 12:2, we read, ‘For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God’. Jesus defeated overwhelming thoughts, emotions, internal, and spiritual pressure which affected Him physically. He overcame for us, and was strengthened by the joy set before Him, even as He endured the cross. So, we can trust Him for His help when we cry out to God in faith in the midst of our overwhelm. He is with us, and He will help us, and give us what we need to overcome.

God never said it would be easy, but He is here for us, whatever sorrows or pressures we face. So, let us also ask for His wisdom and understanding, as we walk through this life on earth.