Feeling Overwhelmed?
Are you feeling overwhelmed? Steph Nickel talks about Jesus’ teachings from John 14, where He says “in my Father’s house are may rooms.” Steph points out that Jesus is there for the big questions in our lives.
When You Are Troubled And Feeling Overwhelmed
John 14: 1-11 (ESV) reads,
“Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. And you know the way to where I am going.’ Thomas said to him, ‘Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?’ Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.’ Philip said to him, ‘Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, “Show us the Father’? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else believe on account of the works themselves.’”
When we’re in the midst of an overwhelming situation, it’s hard to see the forest for the trees, as the saying goes. It’s hard to get the big picture when we’re struggling with the hurdles and challenges right in front of us.
And what may one day seem like obvious answers may, at the time, go completely unnoticed or, at least, cause us confusion.
Facing Big Questions
While Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life, we often don’t see how that applies when we lose our job, deal with rebellious teenagers, or get a bad prognosis from the doctor. And what about Christians who fear for their very lives and the lives of their children?
And let’s be honest, even as committed followers of Jesus Christ, sometimes we come face to face with big questions we can’t adequately answer. We are sometimes challenged by someone who is hurting or someone who simply wants to pick a fight. At other times, those questions arise as we process things in our own minds.
There are days it’s tempting to pull the covers over our heads and leave it all up to someone else to deal with. But that won’t do us—or anyone else—any good.
Jesus, The Disciples And Perseverance
We can learn a lot from Jesus’ disciples about perseverance. Even when they didn’t understand what the Lord was saying, it appears every one of them—except Judas Iscariot, who would later betray Jesus—came to the same conclusion as Peter. When asked if they, too, wanted to walk away when faced with difficult teaching, Peter said in John 6:68-69,
“Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.”
John 6:68-69
There are so many horrific and controversial things going on all around us. And the challenges we face in our own lives are not to be trivialized or ignored either. But there is a bigger truth, something even more real.
Bank Tellers And Counterfeit Currency
Many of you have heard the story of how they train bank tellers to identify counterfeit currency. They place new employees in a room with the real thing. They handle it, look at it, and maybe even smell it. They get so familiar with it that they instantly know when a forgery comes across the counter.
It’s the same way with God. We can get bogged down by watching the evening news, reading the newspaper, and surfing the Internet. Going through our regular routine day in and day out puts us face to face with what seems like a futile effort to get ahead. There is always more to do, always more hurdles to overcome. We keep thinking, “If only . . .”
But we must turn our eyes on Jesus, as the old song goes. We must “be still and know that He is God,” as it says in Psalm 46:10 (ESV).
We will continue to have questions that seem to go unanswered—when we look at the conditions around the globe, in our own families, and in our own lives. We must continue digging into God’s Word. We must add to our knowledge of who Jesus is by reading and studying the Bible. And when that knowledge conflicts with what we discern with our five senses, we must trust that we will understand someday—when the time is right. That’s faith.
Are you feeling overwhelmed? We would love to hear from you. Comment below or contact us at HopeStreamRadio.
Steph Nickel
Steph Beth Nickel is eclectically interested and eclectically involved. In all she does, Steph seeks to nurture and inspire. She is currently working on the first book in a nonfiction series. Nurture and Inspire LOVE is a compilation of the first devotionals she wrote for HopeStreamRadio.
Steph is a freelance writer and editor. She is the coauthor of Paralympian Deb Willows’ award-winning memoir, Living Beyond My Circumstances, published by Castle Quay Books. Deb and Steph are working on a follow-up book.
You can visit her website, stephbethnickel.com, to learn more about her.
Visit Steph’s contributor’s page or at Steph Nickel’s Eclectic Interests.
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