Psalm 142:3 –
When I am overwhelmed, you alone know the way I should turn. Wherever I go, my enemies have set traps for me.
Once again this Psalm of David hit the nail on the head on how I feel almost every day. Verse 4 even drives the request home, where I look for help, but cannot find it. Oh yes this is another “woe is me” thought, but I am glad to see David was frequently in the same position. Granted he led the nation who’s in God’s favor, so I am sure God would respond to his requests over that of an under-employed engineer struggling to raise a small family. Sure we all have the same access through Jesus, but the millions of prayers for say a lottery win cannot all be granted.
I focused on this verse because of the overwhelmed feeling David got. Granted he was dealing with a nation who was constantly being attacked for their beliefs and I am just dealing with my own issues. Not to minimize it, but we all feel overwhelmed most of our lives. We get ourselves into it most of the time, trying to do more than what is possible and assume others doing the same will jump in to help. At the same time we try to help others and that just pushes our “stuff” further behind. Then we expect others to help like we did and the spiral into despair continues.
My tasks are simple, my financial hole is still deep, but way less than 2 years ago. My traps are set by myself, where David had actually enemies going after him and his nation. “I have met the enemy and he is I” comes to mind, which is a paraphrase of a quote from Commodore Perry and a 1970’s cartoon Pogo. The key point here is when we feel overwhelmed we should go to God in prayer. He may not answer the way we want, but He will be our guide through the rough times.