when i'm overwhelmed

 You're not overwhelmed. You're just not praying. I know what it feels like to be overwhelmed, so I wanna walk you through how I deal with it. I hope this blesses you so many periods of my life. Life feels like it's hitting peak pressure: family, ministry, work, marriage, all of it. If this were seven years ago, I know exactly how I deal with it.

Substances and pleasures and things that would just only feed my flesh and not my spirit. Now I take the advice of David in

Psalm 61:1-2

Hear my cry. Oh God, attend to my prayer. From the end of the earth, I will cry to you. When my heart is overwhelmed, lead me to the rock that is higher than I.

We've been talking about prayer a lot this season, so let's keep that going. David wants God to hear his cry, to attend to his prayer, no matter where he is in the world, no matter what situation, whether he's in the throne room or the battlefield. Wherever he is. When he gets overwhelmed, he asks that God leads him to the rock that is higher than I.

That is the rock of salvation, the rock on which the church is built upon, that the gates of hell cannot prevail against it. That is what you stand on when you get overwhelmed. You begin to realize that you are only overwhelmed because you think you are the one doing it. If God is doing it through you, there's no way that God can be overwhelmed.

So the first thing that I do when I'm feeling overwhelmed is take a step back. The second thing that I do when I'm overwhelmed is to pray. Prayer is the solution. To anxiety. When I'm overwhelmed, my soul is looking for an outlet. It wants to express something, but the busyness of life chokes it out. My soul is seeking rest.

It's seeking peace, is seeking east, but struggles to find them all. So I step back and step inside my prayer closet. David, in the same place, turned to prayer. Not just any prayer, a prayer that God hears. Now, I want to caution you, there's a process to prayer.

John 9:31 reads,

Now we know that God does not hear sinners, but if anyone is a worshiper of God and does his will, he hears him.

So as you step back and step into prayer, don't forget to step into repentance. Allow God to hear you by worshiping him and doing his will. Scripture tells us two things. There are prayers that God hears and there prayers that he doesn't. So when David asked God to hear him his cry, his will, his thoughts in that moment, his worship is seeking the will of God.

I like to believe that anxiety is introducing the lives of men. When there's an absence of God's will, you won't be anxious about what you're already expecting. God hears prayer when it's in his will. God's will is in his word, and his word is in his will. The fourth thing that I do is I step back and step into prayer, and then repent is to pray prayers that align with his word.

When you pray in alignment with his word, he will always hear it. Think of this: if I sign a contract promising to give you a thousand dollars and then you ask me for that thousand dollars, I've already promised it to you. So I'm already prepared to give it. And in fact, because I made a promise, I'm obligated to give it.

That's what happens when you ask for what God promises. God's intention towards you is for good. When you ground your petitions in his word, he will answer. So here's what I'm saying. When I'm overwhelmed, I step back. I step into prayer, I repent, and I align to his will that is being led to the rock that is higher than I, the rock of salvation, the rock on which he built his church, the Rock on which his will is done.

1 Timothy 2:3-4

For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God, our savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.

It's a powerful reality that we can pray God's will into existence. The next question is, how do I know God's will for me in this season? I'll let you know in the next letter.

God bless you,
PO.