Today I want to speak to believers who are overwhelmed by accumulating afflictions. You are not alone. In the psalms, David tells of being nearly crushed by unbearable troubles. “My heart is severely pained within me, and the terrors of death have fallen upon me. Fearfulness and trembling have come upon me, and horror has overwhelmed me” (Psalm 55:4-5, NKJV).
Search the scriptures, and you will not find anyone who speaks more than David about trusting God. No one opened up more about seeking and waiting on the Lord for strength in times of need.
However, a series of deep and painful distresses fell upon David that shook his faith. At one low point, he cried, “All men are liars!” He was speaking from a place of overwhelming pain. At that moment he was filled with despair, and words of encouragement alone weren’t working. He was buckling under an all-out attack on his faith and was looking for an escape. “Oh, that I had wings like a dove! I would fly away and be at rest. Indeed, I would wander far off, and remain in the wilderness” (Psalm 55:6-7).
When I speak about being overwhelmed, I know what I speak of. At one point in my life, our daughter Debi had just been operated on for cancer, and our 29-year-old grandson Brandon was undergoing chemotherapy for Stage 4 cancer. David was right when he wrote, “Fearfulness and trembling have come upon me.”
What does the believing child of God do in these overwhelming hours? We do as David did.
“As for me, I will call upon God, and the Lord shall save me. Evening and morning and at noon I will pray, and cry aloud, and he shall hear my voice. He has redeemed my soul in peace from the battle that was against me, for there were many against me” (Psalm 55:16-18).
Go to prayer and get into the Lord’s presence. Even if you do it quietly, cry out your pain and ask for peace to come upon you. We must do more than trust. We must stay in God’s Word and pray the promises back to him. Through every trial, my family and I have walked in faith and relied on God’s promises. He is good!