In life, there are times when you are running out of breath and it becomes so difficult to keep standing. Your knees quiver in place as tears begin to water in your eyes. You don’t know why, and everything around you is spinning around, and you’re so frustrated, and you just. want. to. stop. Stop the whole world and just lie down.
So stop. Take a deep breath, lie down, cry if you have to. Just pray and most importantly, trust in God.
In the world that we live in, it is so easy to let the negativity around us pull us down. You become overwhelmed for no particular reason, and it’s so frustrating because you are never like this. It happens to everyone because we are only human. I’ve felt this way before. I was unusually down and at a loss for motivation. However, I’ve learned that, when you have found your song again and have emerged from the end of a dark tunnel, the light and joy that you experience afterwards feels more genuine. Afterwards, you truly appreciate the things that bring joy to your life.
A few weeks ago, my pastor gave a sermon on “What do you do when everything around you is falling apart?”. I jotted down some notes, not knowing that I would eventually be needing to hear it again. I hope that his message will be a blessing to you as it has been to me.
So, what do we do when we feel like we have reached the end?
Never lose hope.
Paul writes in Philippians 1:6, “Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ”. We must remember that God did not bring us this far in life to just abandon us. He has a plan for every individual, and we must trust and have confidence in Him. If ever we lose hope in ourselves, our relatives, or humanity, we must never lose hope in God.
Stay positive.
Once you have cried it out and have taken that breath, pray that you’d be able to see the positivity around you. Then, open your eyes. The world has more good in it than bad. Look for it! Try to find the positive aspects in your life and list the reasons why you should be happy. Don’t dwell on the negativity and just look forward.
“Live with an inner joy that comes from above.”
My pastor said “Happiness is external, while joy is internal”. Thinking about it now, he is right! Usually, happiness is associated with our features, like smiling or laughing. We can see when someone is happy, but we never really know if that person is feeling happy in the inside. Joy, however, is that warm feeling inside when the heart is happy. It is genuine.
In order to overcome being overwhelmed, we have to live each day knowing that purest form of joy comes from God. If nothing else gives us joy and when we can’t seem to find our melody, we can always turn to the Lord.
Joshua 1:9
