Progress on Overwhelm Talk

I thought I would use Jehoshaphat and his story of overwhelm in my talk. But it seems God has taken me yet a different direction. I needed to shorten it up a bit. So I've settled on Elijah. I'm looking forward to this as there is much to be learned from Elijah.

He was overwhelmed when Jezebel threatened his life after he had all the prophets of Baal killed. He ran for his life, then left his servant behind and ran yet another day's journey into the wilderness alone. He then dropped from exhaustion and asked God to take his life. Talk about overwhelm!

A number of things I want to bring out in my talk:

1. Elijah appears to have made the decision to run without consulting God and without God's command. We need to be careful not to make major decisions when we are overwhelmed. We need God's direction.

2. Elijah needed rest. God gave him rest. We need to take time to rest when we are overwhelmed.

3. God gave him nourishment and water. We need to be sure we are getting good food and water when we are under stress.

4. We need to take a look at why we are overwhelmed. Elijah had just been through some huge events and it's no wonder he wanted to die. We need to see what our stresses are and find ways to ease them if possible. ( at this point I plan to talk about practical ways to organize our time to help ease stress as well as some other things we can do to help)

I'm writing all this from memory, so there will be more that I will bring out as well as some handouts. I think it should be fun and helpful. But one thing I want everyone to know is that I am no expert at these things. I am a fellow Pilgrim who fails over and over at implementing these strategies for easing overwhelm.

Maybe later if I get a chance I will post my actual notes for this talk...I think I'll wait until after Jan 18th, though so I don't give it all away and my audience stays home because they will already know it all. LOL!