What to Do When Everything Feels Overwhelming at Once

Some years pile everything on at once. Aaron and Jennifer Smith called 2024 "whiplash." In this episode, discover what Psalm 55:22 says to the person who is overwhelmed and running out of their own resources.Aaron and Jennifer Smith went into 2024 as Christian podcasters and parents of 5 with more momentum than they'd had in years. By December 2023 Aaron's father was sick. Then his brother died.The grief bled into January and kept going. Their home church was struggling. Financial investments didn't go as planned. Jennifer found out she was pregnant with their sixth child and needed an emergency C-section midway through. The baby arrived healthy on September 14, but Jennifer spent the months that followed navigating postpartum anxiety and depression.Aaron called 2024 "whiplash."Most of us know something of that experience, when the pressure doesn't come from one direction. It stacks up from every angle at once and none of it is small enough to ignore and none of it is fully in your control. And feeling like you should be handling it better doesn't help. Nobody handles that gracefully. You just get through it.I know what it's like to feel overwhelmed by things piling up. There have been stretches in my own life when the pressure wasn't coming from one direction and I couldn't push through on my own.Psalm 55:22 is where David puts his answer. Give your burdens to the Lord, and He will take care of you. The word translated burdens there means your lot, your portion, the weight God has assigned to your life. David is saying give Him the weight and trust that He will sustain you under it. That's a different promise than relief. God is offering something that lasts longer: His presence in what you can't manage alone.Jennifer said, looking back on the year, that when you hit the wall of your own capacity, let it be a cue to pray. She was describing the experience of running completely out of your own resources and discovering that God's hadn't run out. Aaron said they came out the other side with one clear conclusion: they couldn't do any of it without Jesus. They stopped pretending they could.Through their story and Psalm 55:22, this episode makes the case that overwhelm is a cue, not a verdict. The weight is there. The God who can hold it is also there.BY THE TIME YOU FINISH LISTENING, YOU'LL DISCOVER:Why the pressure that comes from every direction at once is different from a single loss, and why that difference mattersWhat the Hebrew word for "burdens" in Psalm 55:22 reveals about what God is actually promising when He says He'll take care of youOne concrete practice you can start today to hand the weight to God before it buries youWhen you hit the wall of your own capacity, God's hasn't run out.Share This Episode:https://www.dailydevotionsforbusylives.com/246Need Prayer? Leave me a voicemail:https://www.dailydevotionsforbusylives.com/voicemailWant to keep these devotions coming? Please consider supporting this podcast.https://www.dailydevotionsforbusylives.com/support/Rate and Reviewhttps://www.dailydevotionsforbusylives.com/reviews/new/Connect with BartFacebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/dailydevotionsforbusylivesWebsite: https://www.dailydevotionsforbusylives.comFeeling spiritually drained? Start here. Download your free copy of my eBook Making Time for Jesus here.Mentioned in this episode:Join Our Private Facebook CommunityIf you're looking for a place to connect with other Daily Devotions listeners and pray for each other, I'd love for you to join our private Facebook community group. Come find us at https://www.dailydevotionsforbusylives.com/group