Felt overwhelmed recently? Me, too. Often we pray for God to give us strength, comfort, peace and all the things we need. This is the right way to pray but there is another way to pray too. We learn this from David, when he was greatly distressed, in the Bible.
David and his men, fighting men used to battle, arrived home to their entire town burned to the ground and their families members—wives, sons, daughters—gone. They had been kidnapped by the Amalekites.
This situation broke these hardened warriors: David and his men wept aloud until they had no strength left to weep (1 Samuel 30:4).
I am inclined to think they reached an emotional numbness, feeling so empty they felt disconnected from emotions, overwhelmed with a sense of hopelessness.
Perhaps you are familiar with those feelings. So defeated it’s like your body and mind shut down. And sometimes we prefer to feel numb so we don’t have to process the sadness we face.
David, whose two wives had been captured, faced additional stress. His men turned on him, believing the tragedy to be David’s fault, and planned to kill him.
David was greatly distressed because the men were talking of stoning him; each one was bitter in spirit because of his sons and daughters (1 Samuel 30:6).
I don’t know what distress you are facing in your life, but perhaps you can relate when a person or persons blame you for the trauma in their lives. It hurts deeply.
But David did something from which we can learn.
But David strengthened himself in the Lord his God (1 Samuel 30:6 ESV).
David found emotional strength from within himself. That strength though, was not based on his own feelings or knowledge, but what he knew about his God. Strength came from a personal relationship from God’s words, from his experience of God, and the covenant God had made with him.
It’s the same for us—when we are greatly distressed, we can draw up on the same three reassurances through our personal relationship with God.
God’s Word
David might not have had the written words of God as we have in the Bible, but he had the stories of God’s work handed down from Abraham and Moses. He would have been familiar with the rescue of God’s people from Egypt, the commandments given to Moses. David would have known from those stories that anything was possible with God.
He encouraged himself about God who had made himself known to his people.
What do you know about God from the Bible that will encourage you? What has spoken to you personally> Read those words regularly and learn them so you can recall them when you need to be encouraged in times of distress.
Personal experience
David had plenty of experience that God protected him—from a lion and a bear (1 Samuel 17:37), from Goliath the Philistine giant, and from the rage of Saul. God would be sure to protect him in this situation too.
What do you know from your experience about God that you can use to strengthen yourself? How has God saved you and protected you? Hold onto those instances. Write them down or tell others. Use those memories and truths to reassure yourself that God will do it again.
God’s covenant
God had made a covenant with David, a binding promise to establish a dynasty through David that would continue forever. David would be king. David could hold onto that truth and believe that his life would be spared.
God has made a covenant with you too through Jesus Christ, a descendant of David. We have an inheritance with God as his children through Jesus. We can hold onto that truth knowing that our lives are not only spared but we have a glorious future ahead of us.
Find strength in what you know personally about God. Use those truths where and where you feel overwhelmed.
Overcome the overwhelm with your God-given inner strength.
Pray
