HOW TO PRAY

WHEN

YOU ARE OVERWHELMED

By Clinton White

The dictionary definition of overwhelm is "to cover over completely, as by a great wave; to submerge; to overpower or crush." Many of you know this well. Life has been a roaring wave that has curled up over your head and come thundering down upon you. Life has engulfed you with a ponderous weight of problems--crushing you--submerging you beneath a churning, turbulent sea of troubles. Overwhelmed is not a vague word in the dictionary to you. It is a real experience. You know all too well what it means. You have tried to pray, but it has seemed too hopeless. The waves have seemed too towering, and your prayers too feeble. Your problems have seemed so mighty, and your prayers so weak. Something inside of you has said, "Oh, what's the use?" Every time you go to pray about your problems, you feel like a man trying to move a mountain with a teaspoon. You are frustrated to the point of agony and bewildered to the point of bitter tears. You are indeed overwhelmed!

Dear child of God, there is help for you! It doesn't seem like it, but really, there is, and that help is within your own reach. God has made a provision, a provision which will enable you to swim up, swim up through the turbulence of your dilemma, to rise to the surface and to stand, yes, to walk on the waters, to walk victorious on the very waves that threaten to drown you! God has made a provision, and it is called prayer. You can pray, and you can pray with power. Learn well the Bible lesson on how to pray when you are overwhelmed.

David was overwhelmed. He said so. He cried out to God. But David knew how to pray when he was overwhelmed. You and I can benefit from this knowledge. This is why the Heavenly Father has placed this knowledge in His Book. In the 142nd Psalm we see David praying. We see a man crushed and weighed down, "I cried unto the Lord with my voice; with my voice unto the Lord did I make my supplication. I poured out my complaint before Him; I showed Him my trouble when my spirit was overwhelmed within me."

The first thing David did was to pray out loud. He told God his troubles verbally. He voiced his dilemma. This is important. The enemy of your life, which is Satan, will attempt to seal your lips. He will try to make you crawl deep down inside yourself and lick your wounds. He wants you to cower beneath his blows and suffer in silence. This is the first step into spiritual isolation. Don't take that step! Verbalize your prayer. Speak to God out loud. Tell Him your problems in your own words, "God, please help me! This thing has got me by the throat." Tell Him exactly what it is that has you in its grip. Be specific. This is a very necessary rule of prayer.

Remember when blind Bartimaeus cried out to Jesus? He shouted, and the people all around him said, "Be still, Jesus won't hear you. He won't answer your cry. Just be still." This is what Satan tries to do with you. He will speak to your heart and say, "Be still." He wants to quench your prayer, to stamp out your supplication. Blind Bartimaeus did not listen to this voice. The Bible says he shouted all the louder and finally Jesus answered--If you keep asking, Jesus will answer you.

The Bible says, "You have not because you ask not" (James 4:2). Jesus said, "Ask, and it shall be given you" (Matthew 7:7). When Jesus answer- ed Bartimaeus He said, "What do you want Me to do for you?" Jesus could see him groping about. Jesus could see he was stone blind, but still He said, "What do you want Me to do for you?" He wanted Bartimaeus to be specific about his need. The man said, "I want to receive my sight." Jesus touched him. He opened his eyes, and the beggar was healed (Matthew 10:51).

Lesson number one, verbalize your prayers. Lesson number two, be specific in your requests. Lesson number three, finish in faith.

Let David show you how to finish in faith. He began this Psalm by showing God his trouble. He ended it by saying, "Thou shalt deal bountifully with me." He began by confessing his trouble, and he finished by confessing his faith.

It is important to verbalize your problem to God--not to a lot of other people, but to God. It is extremely important to verbalize your faith. I cannot put enough emphasis on this. Scripture continually emphasizes this prayer lesson that I am trying to teach you. The Bible says, "Let us hold fast the confession of our faith without wavering, for He is faithful that promised" (Hebrews 10:23). The Bible says, "With the mouth confession is made unto salvation" (Romans 10:10). This is not speaking about the confession of your sins, but the profession, or confession of your faith. You want to overcome instead of being overwhelmed! Read Revelations, chapter 12, verse 11: "And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony." Confess what God has done for you. Confess His promises! Say His Word! Speak right out loud what you believe that He will do.

David knew how to pray, and this is why he could kill giants and put armies to flight. He cried to God, but he knew how to finish in faith. He knew the value of confessing his faith in prayer. "The Lord is the strength of my life" (Psalm 27:1). "The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want" (Psalm 23:1). He said, "Oh give thanks unto the Lord, for He is good, for His mercy endureth forever." David said, "Let Israel now say, that His mercy endureth forever. Let the House of Aaron now say, that His mercy endureth forever. Let them now that fear the Lord say, that His mercy endureth forever" (Psalm 118:1-4).

David was telling them what I am telling you. In the face of adversity confess faith. He was urging the people to open their mouths and say out loud what they believe. Say it now! SAY God is good. SAY God is merciful. SAY God will not ever forsake His people. Say it. Say it right out loud. This is what David told them, and this is what I am telling you, because it works.

It is not a magic formula that you do once and watch your troubles fade away. Don't think that is what I am telling you. This is a principle of prayer that you PRACTICE, that you continue to practice. As you do it day after day, week after week, finishing in faith, confessing your faith, then you will see it work for you. Then you will know why so many, many men of God who have power in prayer urge this type of prayer. You will know why they emphatically teach this type of prayer. If you will do it, you will find out for yourself.

Out of one hundred people reading this, perhaps one will change his prayer life to fit this pattern. Perhaps one will grasp the truth of what I am saying, and put it into practice. Many will see this truth, but perhaps one will begin to put it into practice--and that one will rise up and walk on the waters. That one will never be swallowed up by his troubles. That one will grow from a weak man in prayer to a tower of strength. People will seek out his prayers. When he prays, the room will take on a sense of power. Faith will charge the very atmosphere. People will say, "Who is that man who said that prayer? I felt something when he prayed."

Lesson number four is: Remember what kind of a God you have.

Another time, recorded in another Psalm, David was overwhelmed. He said, "In the day of my trouble I sought the Lord: my sore ran in the night, and ceased not: my soul refused to be comforted . . . my spirit was overwhelmed." This is the 77th Psalm. But David rose. He fought his way to the surface, and he ended up by walking on the waters that had engulfed him. Listen! He said, "I call to remembrance my song in the night: I commune with mine own heart: and my spirit made diligent search." And then after that diligent heart search, David asked himself a question, "Will the Lord cast off forever? And will He be favorable no more? Is His mercy clean gone forever? Doth His promise fail for evermore? Hath God forgotten to be gracious? Hath He in His anger shut up His tender mercies? And I said, this is my weakness, but I will remember the years of the right hand of the Most High. I will remember the works of the Lord: surely I will remember the wonders of old. I will meditate also of all Thy work, and talk of Thy doings. Who is so great a god as Our God?"

You can see right here what happened in David's heart. You can see his heart mount. First he was only conscious of his need, of his problem. Then he began to remember his God--the wonders of his God--the abilities of his God. He spoke of these things, and he recalled them to his mind, and his spirit grew wings and he soared above his doubts.

Oh child of God, remember your Heavenly Father. Remember what kind of a God you have. He is a mighty God! A mountain-moving God! A God of great power and awesome wonders! He has not forsaken you! He is not that kind of a God.

This is the kind of God you have. A faithful God. A loving God. A God of miracles. A God who actually hears and answers prayer. Not a God who is only interested in your religious exercises, but a Heavenly Father who is concerned about every aspect of your life. A God who opened the Red Sea to free His people. A God who provided manna in the wilderness and water from a rock. A Lord who broke a few loaves of bread and two fishes and multiplied them to feed a multitude. A living God who healed a wild, insane beast of a man, and sent him back to his family in his right mind, perfectly restored. A Lord who touched a woman and her back that was bent double for eighteen years was straightened instantly--Who turned water into wine. Who shouted into a tomb and a man dead for four days came leaping out. A Lord who hung on the cross for the sins of the world and said, "Father forgive them." This is the kind of God we have!

The Bible says, "Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and today and forever" (Hebrews 13:8). He is the same today. Remember this when you pray. He can open your Red Sea. He can provide all you need in that wilderness of poverty. Your life may be as flat and colorless as water, but He can change it into wine. He can put life and color into every day. This is the kind of God we have! A loving God. A forgiving God. A good and merciful God. Call upon His Name! Call upon His Name believing and expecting.

Already you can feel the pressures losing their grip, the weight falling away, the outlook brightening up. You are coming to the top. You are standing on your troubles. You are walking triumphantly upon the waters that threatened to destroy you. You were overwhelmed, now you are not! This is the power of prayer. Continue in this way. You will have your problems. Jesus said we will have tribulation, but you will not be overcome . . . not now. You know how to use the provision of prayer.