5 Things to Do When Feeling Overwhelmed

LORD, how my enemies have increased! Many are rising up against me. Many are saying of my soul, “There is no salvation for him in God.” Selah

But You, LORD, are a shield around me, My glory, and the One who lifts my head. I was crying out to the LORD with my voice, And He answered me from His holy mountain. Selah I lay down and slept; I awoke, for the LORD sustains me. I will not be afraid of ten thousands of people Who have set themselves against me all around.

Arise, LORD; save me, my God! For You have struck all my enemies on the cheek; You have shattered the teeth of the wicked. Salvation belongs to the LORD; May Your blessing be upon Your people! Selah

Psalm 3:1-8 NASB

What I love about the Psalms, and the Bible, is how it normalizes every aspect of the human condition. No matter what challenges we face in life, the feelings we experience, or the thoughts we wrestle with, you can always find an example in the Bible of someone who has gone through the same or similar experiences. This is such a blessing, because often when we are in the depths of life’s challenges, we tend to feel alone, unique in our experience, helpless, hopeless, and burdened with the idea that no one understands. Yet, in the Psalms, and the Bible, we constantly see that this is not true, and we always have God, and He understands everything we are going through.

King David understood this all too well. Like us, he too felt overwhelmed by life’s challenges. He felt overwhelmed during family crises, relationship issues, problems at work, the loss of a loved one, and many others. He also found His ability to navigate these issues significantly impacted by the overwhelming thoughts and emotions he felt during these situations.

In this Psalm, David is overwhelmed by one of the most challenging moments of his life. His Son Absalom is currently inciting rebellion and taking control of his kingdom, his most trusted allies have abandoned him, and many are beginning to doubt if even God could help him.

What David does next is an amazing testimony of his faith in God and is incredibly helpful for us to do when we are feeling overwhelmed by our circumstances. Below are the 5 things we can all do when feeling overwhelmed.

1. Prayerfully Discuss Your Situation with God

When David felt overwhelmed, the first thing he did was prayerfully discuss it with God. He poured out to God everything that was happening in his life and the thoughts and feelings he was experiencing. He made no requests, he didn’t ask any questions, he simply poured out his heart and soul to God.

Sometimes, unburdening our hearts and minds is the necessary first step to dealing with an overwhelming situation in our lives, because it provides us clarity regarding the situation.

Often, I find with myself and others, that immediately after sharing a problem with someone, clarity ensues, self-reflection begins, and solutions begin to appear.

We see this occur for David. After he pours out his situation to God, he receives clarity and begins to remember who God is and how he has helped him in the past.

2. Remember That God Is Our Protector and Empowers Us

David recalls how God has been a shield for him previously and will be so again. Shields not only protect us from enemy attacks, but they also allow us to parry them and pivot from defense to offense. They are a means of both protection and empowerment. Remembering that God is our protector during overwhelming situations helps us to pivot from a sense of helplessness and hopelessness, to one of strength and empowerment. This allows us to move from problems to solutions, from inaction to action, and from feeling overwhelmed to victorious.

3. Remember That God is Present and Restores Us

David then begins to recall that God is his glory and the One who lifts his head.

As the Israelites wandered the wilderness in search of the promised land, God’s glory was present with them as a cloud by day, and a pillar of fire by night. Because of this God’s glory was their glory.

The lifting of someone’s head can symbolize restoration. In Genesis 40, Joseph interprets the dreams of Pharoah’s chief cup bearer and baker. As Joseph interprets the chief cup bearer’s dream, he informs him that Pharoah will lift his head and restore him to his office. Later in Genesis 41, the cup bearer mentions Joseph’s dream interpretation and that Pharoah restored him to the office of chief cup bearer.

When David recalls that God is his glory and the One who lifts his head, he reminds himself that God is present and restoring him. Because when we forget these truths, we tend to turn towards other things for both glory and restoration. This is because when we are overwhelmed by our circumstances and the thoughts and feelings we are experiencing, we often seek to escape them through a variety of strategies.

One strategy is to seek glory through the recognition, affirmation, or approval of others, or by throwing ourselves into our work, ministry, or hobbies and using them as a source of fulfilment and distraction. Another is to seek restoration by immersing ourselves in computer games, comfort food, alcohol and other substances, exercise, reading, writing, and other creative outlets, or any number of other activities.

It is important to note that, recognition, affirmation, approval, work, ministry, hobbies, and the various activities listed above can all be good when done intermittently and in moderation, as they can refresh and restore us, enabling us to managing life and overwhelming situations.

However, when we excessively seek or do them, they can become a real problem. The psychology term for this is experiential avoidance, because they help us to avoid the circumstances, and associated thoughts and emotions we are experiencing.

Excessive use of experiential avoidance strategies can lead to unhealthy habits, causing us to neglect important areas of our life, and prevent us from dealing with situations effectively. They also distract us from God, by providing us with an alternative source of glory and restoration. The biblical term for this is idolatry.

As Christians, the presence of God is always with us as the Holy Spirit dwells within us. Because of Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross and His death and resurrection, our relationship with God has been restored and our eternal destiny is secure. Jesus is glorified in heaven because of this, and as we are in Jesus, His glory is our glory, and His victory is our victory.

When we are overwhelmed by our circumstances, remembering that God is present and that he restores us helps us to turn towards him for help and not to other things to avoid them.

For David, this also brought him peace and reminded him that God is his provision.

4. Remember That God Brings Us Peace and Provision

Although David was overwhelmed by his circumstances, He continues to trust in God’s provision. His faith and trust in God brought him sufficient peace that he could sleep despite his circumstances. This is truly amazing, as not many people during a rebellion could find the time to sleep, and if they could, to then actually be able to sleep.

It is a testimony of the power of faith in God. Knowing that the God of creation, all powerful and all knowing, is our provider means we don’t need to overthink our situations, worry about possible outcomes, or burn ourselves out looking for solutions. Because not every problem in life can be resolved immediately; some require time and patience before the next step becomes clear.

We can instead take the time to rest peacefully knowing that God is at work in our lives and that His provision will come. Not necessarily according to our timing or expectations, but according to His timing and what He knows is best for us.

David’s faith and trust in God’s provision was so great, that not only did it bring him peace, but the boldness to faithfully and prayerfully declare that it would come.

5. Faithfully and Prayerfully Declare God’s Provision in Your Life

David not only faithfully and prayerfully declares God’s provision in his life, but he does so in quite specific and gory detail. It can be confronting to read a man after God’s own heart boldly declaring God’s provision in his life through violence. The reality is that for any side to be victorious during a rebellion, lives will more than likely be lost. It is therefore important to focus on the principle of Davids declaration of God’s provision in his life, and not the details of his declaration. Because the principle is something to be practiced.

Faithfully and prayerfully declaring God’s provision in our life, down to the very specifics, not only strengthens our faith, but it provides us with clarity, focus, and a path forward.

Because specific prayers lead to specific actions.

An organization can have a mission statement such as “To provide holistic health care to all patients”, but such a statement is more of a declaration of hope than intent. For there to be intent, clarity regarding the specific actions the organization will undertake to deliver holistic health care to all patients is required. Otherwise, the provision of holistic health care to all patients will remain something the organization hopes to see realized but never does.

So, it is with our prayers. For example, we can declare that God will deliver us from temptation, and potentially find ourselves succumbing to temptation once more, or we can boldly declare the very situations we want to be delivered from temptation and the specifics of what this deliverance looks like. Doing so brings us clarity and focus, helps us to be present with God during vulnerable moments where temptation occurs, and highlights for us the path forward through these moments with God.

When David awoke to a new day, he didn’t allow his circumstances to once again overwhelm him, he faithfully and prayerfully declared God’s provision in his life in specific detail. This allowed him to move beyond the multitude of problems before him, to focusing on what could be done today to improve his situation.

When we are overwhelmed, it is important to focus on what we can do today to help our situation and move forward with the knowledge that God is continually empowering us. Because any specific actions, no matter how small, is better than no actions at all. Simply getting out of bed even though we don’t feel like it, having a shower and making ourselves breakfast, can make all the difference to our day when we are overwhelmed by our circumstances. Sometimes faithfully and prayerfully praying for God’s provision for seemingly simple specifics like this in our life is the first step when we are overwhelmed by our circumstances.

Pray, Remember, and Declare

Whenever we feel overwhelmed by our circumstances, we need to do as David did, pray, remember, and declare.

We need to prayerfully bring our circumstances before God. We need to remember that He is our protector, and he empowers us, that He is always present and restores us, and that He brings us peace and provision. Because doing so draws us closer to God and strengthens our faith, allowing us to then boldly and specifically declare His provision upon our lives. Then we can move forward by tackling any challenging circumstances in our lives with him.