When you feel overwhelmed this week, remember this

Originally published Thursday, 24 December 2015.

Who else has held the oceans in his hand?

    Who has measured off the heavens with his fingers?

Who else knows the weight of the earth

    or has weighed the mountains and hills on a scale?

Isaiah 40:12 (NLT)

Some days, I wake up and feel overwhelmed by the calendar ahead of me. 

I look at everything I have to do and feel anxious about what I need to get done. And even whether I can do it. 

I’m having one of those days. 

I'm not really sure what it is but I know that I’ve found comfort in this verse:

Who else has held the oceans in his hand?

I stumbled across this verse on pinterest last week. I’d read it before, but this time it meant something to me. This time it reminded me of what it feels like to be held by God. 

Shortly, after Xylon was diagnosed with cancer in 2012, there was only way for me to describe God’s presence in my life. I chose to use the word “Held”. 

I didn’t really know how to describe the feeling of being “held by God”. I still don’t. 

My best attempt still falls short: an overwhelming, undergirding, engulfing feeling of being held. Of being safe in the arms of the one who created me, who breathed life into me, who knew me before I was born, before cancer, before...

The last 10 days every time I’ve felt overwhelmed I’ve pulled this bible verse out as a lifeline and reminded myself that if God can hold the oceans in his hands, he won’t let go of me. (tweet this)

When nothing makes sense and life feels hard, the God who knows the hair on my head and the beginning from the end, somehow presses me to his heart, and lets me know it’s going to be okay, and that he has been me holding fast.

Sometimes I think the storms of life can dislodge me from his hands but I’m coming to realise that God even holds the storms of life in his palms. He is that big!

Being held by God hasn’t magically made everything better better but when I’ve cried out for help, I’ve been held, by arms strong enough to hold the ocean. 

Ponder: What bible verses do you cling to you when you feel overwhelmed?

Prayer: God, hold me like you hold the oceans. Amen.(tweet this)

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- This was orginally published on my site in October 2015. To read more devotionals like this go to ilovedevotionals.com

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