Overwhelmed

Have you ever felt overwhelmed? I remember one quarter during preaching school when we were given our syllabi and we looked at all the work that we had to do at that time. For those four months we had to read eight books, write maybe six or seven papers, take several tests, give some presentations for classes, and several other more minor things which when all put together absolutely overwhelmed all of us. With everything that is happening today, are you starting to feel overwhelmed by things that you may not have control of?

Let’s look at a person in the Bible who was overwhelmed with the number of things that he had to do. Moses in Exodus 18 is meeting with his father-in-law, Jethro when he sees all the things that Moses does for the people of Israel. Focusing on verse 18 Jethro brings up a good point for Moses to consider, “Both you and these people who are with you will surely wear yourselves out. For this thing is too much for you; you are not able to perform it by yourself.” He then tells Moses that he should choose men who can judge the people, and for them to help Moses in the things that he needs help in. Jethro could tell that Moses was overwhelmed with the things that he had to do and that he would eventually just break or burn out.

Thinking about ourselves now, do we have this issue where we try to do everything ourselves and not let others help us bear the burdens that we are carrying? Jethro told Moses to get some people to help him complete his job, and sometimes we need people’s help to accomplish the job that we are trying to do. It takes work in this life to stay accountable to God and to show others the way to Him. Life gets in the way more than we are willing to admit, but we must stay true to God, even if we have to ask for help from others.

One more story to share with you. Mr. Lee was someone who was a great encouragement in my life. He was older than my parents and basically unofficially adopted me at church. One day while I was talking with Mr. Lee, he asked me (I was about 14 at the time) to help him stay accountable and he said that he would do the same for me. I said sure, but I did not really understand what he meant at that time. Now that I am older (double that age) I am starting to understand why he asked me to do that, you can never have enough help to get to where God wants you.