When My Heart Is Overwhelmed — Jenny Daniel

My word to share, Father, from Thy heart, that, O dear God, thank You for speaking so clearly to us this morning. And we pray that Thou might continue to speak to us as I share from Thy word, Lord. Speak to us.

May we behold anew today the wondrous encouragement, the wondrous things that are there for each one of us in Thy word. May we hear Thy voice, Lord, and may we obey in Jesus' name, amen. Well, when I was praying about what to share with you, the Lord very clearly burdened me to speak about one word again.

The Overwhelmed Heart and God’s Higher Rock

And this time, the word is the word overwhelmed. Overwhelmed is a word that I believe every woman has been and has experienced during her life. Down the ages, up to the present day, women have cried out, I cannot cope, this is too much.

Lord, please give me another path to go. It may be disappointment, it may be sorrow, it may be neglect, it may be an unloving husband, an understanding father, brother, it may be sickness, it may be tragedy, it may be mental numbness, it may even just be the daily grind and the common task that make the woman cry out, Lord, my heart is overwhelmed, I cannot cope.

But God, who knoweth our frame, who remembers that we are just dust, looks down, in 3 David, he wrote these words. In Psalm 61, verse 2, Lord, and then he says, Lord, when my heart is overwhelmed, lead me to the rock that is higher than I.

The verse actually says, from the end of the earth will I cry unto thee, from wherever we are. When my heart is overwhelmed, lead me to the rock that is higher than I. Who is the rock that is higher than I?

There are many verses in scripture, but I've just highlighted a few where it speaks about the rock. Deuteronomy 32, verse 3 and 4 says, he is the rock, his work is perfect, for all his ways are judgment, a God of truth, and without iniquity, just and right is he.

Verse 18 in Deuteronomy 32 says, the rock that begat thee, the God that formed thee. 1 Samuel 2, verse 2 says, neither is there any rock like our God. Psalm 18, verse 31 and 32 says, for who is God save our God, or who is a rock save our God?

It is God who guided me with strength, and maketh my feet perfect. Psalm 40, verse 2, you all know, he brought me up also out of a horrible pit, and out of the miry clay, and he set my foot upon a rock, and established my going.

Psalm 27, verse 5 says, in the time of trouble, ye shall set me upon a rock. And then we get back to Psalm 61, verse 2, from the end of the earth will I cry unto thee. When my heart is overwhelmed, lead me to the rock that is higher than I.

God is the rock that is higher than I, and it is only in him that we can cope, and be lifted above our overwhelmed state. Now first of all and foremost, we always have to start at the beginning, he has to become for us the rock of our salvation.

Christ as the Rock of Salvation

God has to be to us the rock of our salvation. Our feet have to be firmly planted on the rock. The Lord Jesus said, the wise man built his house upon the rock, and that rock was Christ. And when the storms came and the floods came, that house, that person was able to stand because his feet were on the rock.

You may be in a Christian home, you may be known to others to be Christian, to have a wonderful life, but perhaps, without anybody knowing, between you and God, you are overwhelmed by a sense of your lost state, by a guilt of sin, by a conviction of sin, by a need for forgiveness.

Your life has not reached up to the rock that is higher than you. You are not on the rock of salvation. That Psalm 40 verse 2 says so beautifully, he brought me up also out of a horrible pit, out of the mighty clay, and set my foot upon a rock and established my going.

So first of all, God has to become for you and I the rock of your salvation. And only then will you be able to face the storms of life. But as Christians, we also, and especially as women, we face many storms in life.

God as a Rock of Refuge in Grief

And the first thing about the rock that we are going to discuss today is that He can become to us a rock of refuge. A rock of refuge to take us out of reach of the devastating strength of the storms that come over our lives.

Psalm 27 verse 5 says, My God is the rock of my refuge. The boys and I went to visit a gentleman about a month before we came here. And this man had lost all his money. God spoke to him. He wouldn't listen to God's voice.

God called him into His service. So God sent calamities over his way until eventually he had no money. And he said, yes Lord. And he went and he worked in a little colored community. And he said he lived on practically nothing and he started obeying God.

And then eventually his wife became very ill. She had cancer. But she had it in such a way that she was suffering from pain. They had to give her morphine constantly. And he went through a long time of caring for her.

And then eventually she died at the beginning of this year. So we went out to visit him and to encourage him. And the moment you got into the house you could see he was definitely a man that wasn't independent.

He obviously had been very dependent on his wife. You could just see there wasn't a woman in the house. It was a little bit chaotic. But as he began to share with us how God had dealt with him through his life and share with us a little bit about his loneliness without his wife, a little bit about his inability, humanly speaking, to cope alone.

He started talking about what God became to him in his sorrow and in his loss. How in every little detail of life he was referring to God. He was asking God for help. Asking God for advice. Leaning on him.

Taking his refuge in God. God became to him a refuge in his sorrow. And even though he was weeping as he was sharing with us, he had the peace of God in his heart. He had joy in the midst of his tears.

God became to him a refuge despite what he had gone through. And he told us that another man phoned him and said to him, I've just lost my wife. I don't know how to cope. He said, how do you cope? And he was able to say to that man, I cope because I can turn to God continually.

I can lean on him. He is my refuge. Keith had to preach at a convention just before we came here. In fact, he finished preaching on Sunday and we left on Monday. And I drove out on Saturday to take my mother out.

My father was also preaching at the convention. I took my mother out just to be there for the day at the camp. And an elderly lady, a very godly lady, came and shared with us a little bit of what God's dealing in her life.

And she said that a few years ago her husband became ill and God revealed to her that God was going to take her husband away from her, that he was going to die. And just as this man was a very dependent man on his wife, she was very dependent on her husband.

She said he just used to go ahead and she used to follow. He paid the electricity bill. She didn't even know where to pay the electricity bill. She said he did everything. He did the banking. He just ran her life for her.

And she was comfortable in that position. And suddenly God seemed to say to her, I'm going to take your husband away. And she said when it became clear to her that this sickness that he had, it was also cancer, was going to end up in death, she knelt next to the bed and she just wept.

And she said, God, I cannot cope on my own. Others can cope on their own, but I cannot. I lean so heavily on my husband, not only on his practicality but on his godliness. I cannot cope on my own. And she said as she was weeping and calling and crying to God, God said to her, you have got a wonderful husband and I'm going to take him home, but he is a man and I am God.

When he isn't there to take care of you, I'm going to take care of you. And she said she felt so rebuked. And she said from that day she started leaning on God. And she said God took her step by step and undertook for everything.

Those things that she thought she couldn't cope with, that she couldn't do. I mean they had to sell the house, she had to go into a small place, then she had to move again. Lots of things came over her way.

But through it all, God carried her. He became to her a rock of refuge. A rock that was higher than she was. Perhaps you too have lost a loved one. Perhaps something has come across your way that you say, dear God, I cannot cope.

It's just too overwhelming. Dear Lord, is this the path that thou hast planned for me? So dark, I stop and question off the head I cannot see. It seems too dark to scale, dear Lord, another way for me.

And then I feel ashamed that I should doubt what comes from Thee. And so I lean more heavily on Thee for guidance clear. And thus I find that perfect love can cast out every fear. Now I actually am a farm girl.

I originally grew up in a farming valley. It was a beautiful valley where there were lots of farms, small farms, one farm next to each other. And we were all a very close knit community. And in that valley there was a family of farmers.

There was a father, a mother, and five sons. And they were an example as farmers. They were meticulous. They were enterprising. They just bought one farm after another. My mom used to always point to us as we rode past their farm.

My dad was a good farmer, but he wasn't quite as neat as they were. We used to ride past you to see these perfect rows. It seemed as if somebody had drawn a ruler the way they planted their trees. And they appeared in magazines, farmers' magazines as the farmer of the year or the farmers of the year.

They were just amazing. But one calamity after another came upon them in their farming. Now the father and mother openly confessed their faith in God. They loved God. They were a testimony in the valley.

But suddenly after one calamity after the other, they lost everything. They lost every single one of those farms. And the valley couldn't believe it. They said, but they're Christians. They're godly. How could they lose their farms?

They're such excellent farmers. It just didn't make sense to them. But the father and the mother, he was at retiring age already. He started bulldozing for a living at his age. He was well into his 70s.

And each of the children, in God's mercy, got a little work for them and their families. So each one had their own work. And the valley started sitting back and saying, isn't it amazing how they've just picked up the pieces and they've gone on.

And it became a testimony to the whole valley that these people didn't give up. They didn't lose their faith in God, but they just went on. But then another tragedy happened. A grandson of these people, a lovely boy.

He was 16, 15, 16 years old. He loved God. And then he was killed in an accident, suddenly. A very unnecessary accident. In fact, an accident that shouldn't have happened. I can't explain all the circumstances, but that boy was a passenger in a car, and it shouldn't have happened, humanly speaking.

I sat with that grandfather and grandmother a few months ago, and they shared a little bit of the tragedy in their lives. The man said, losing the farms was awful, but it was nothing compared to the loss of this child.

He said, oh, it just devastated us. But they didn't turn their back on God. They trusted that somehow God knew what they did not know, and that His ways were perfect. And in their sorrow, in their weeping, they clung to God in the midst of it all.

And they still are a testament in that valley of people that don't turn their back on God when things go wrong, when they are overwhelmed, but rather cling to Him. He knows best. Storms gather, skies darken, Hope's light grows dim, Timid I step ahead, leaning on Him, Tender.

His voice whispers sweet in my ear, Dear sinking child of mine, Hark! I am here. Weak, fragile, spent, serene, When storms are dressed, slowly I comprehend, He knows best. He can be a rock of refuge in the midst of your grief.

God as a Rock of Strength in Illness

But the rock is not only a rock of refuge from grief, but it can also become a support and stay for those suffering from illness. In other words, it can become to you a rock of strength. Psalm 18 verse 2 says, The Lord is my rock, my strength.

Isaiah 17 verse 10 says, Thou hast forgotten the rock of thy salvation, and hast not been mindful of the rock of thy strength. Now years ago, my mom and I visited a lady in hospital in Port Elizabeth.

We knew this lady was near her end. They told us that she was going to die. It wouldn't be long before she died. So we went to visit her, hoping to encourage her, having a little prayer with her, and feeling very sorry for her because she was right at the end.

And when we arrived in the hospital, we walked down the passage and we entered the room. And there she was, fragile, weak, but beaming. Her face just shone. And she just couldn't stop talking to us about God's goodness, His love.

She couldn't wait to go to heaven. Instead of us encouraging her, she was encouraging us. And when we left the hospital, I said to my mom, Well, mommy, hasn't she been a blessing? And she died soon afterwards, but she couldn't wait to go.

God was to her a rock of strength, despite her illness. And she became a blessing to everybody. About a month before I came here, we got a letter from a lady. I've mislaid that letter, so I don't know the lady's name.

But she spoke about her suffering. She had an incurable disease. It affected her muscles. And she wrote in the letter how it moves slowly through her body and affects one part of the body after the other, and how she'd become crippled.

And the pain that she has gone through and the difficulty to walk. But she said the one thing that still gave her joy was despite her weaknesses, despite her difficulty in moving and whatever, she was still able to witness for the Lord.

And she said, You know, I could witness, she wrote. And that was my only joy, was that I could witness for the Lord. But then the disease spread further, and it affected her vocal cords. And she said she was so devastated, so devastated by the fact that the one thing that she could do, the one thing she felt her life was still worth living for, was witnessing, was taken away from her.

And she became so devastated that the devil started whispering to her, Your life isn't worth anything anymore. What's the use of living? You're just living in pain. What is your life? Why don't you take your life?

And she said, You know, she has to admit with shame that she was tempted to commit suicide in her despair. But she said then God gave her a way of escape, and she began writing God's goodness, her testimony and everything.

And she said just the fact that she could write down what God was doing in her life became to her such a joy that God had not forsaken her, that she took hope in you. And God became to her a rock of strength despite her illness.

And it was so wonderful to read to the end of the letter. It started with all the pain, the sickness, everything. But the letter ended full of joy and full of hope in the Lord. I was thinking of people who go through such deep waters years ago, and I thought it's just like as if one is climbing a steep mountain, a precipice, and you have to go upwards.

You can't go downwards. And if you look down, it's just a drop. It seems my feet have wandered on an awesome precipice, yet the winding path leads upwards and my footsteps dare not miss. There are looming clouds of darkness.

There are wailing cries of woe, yet the winding step leads upwards, and I know I there must go. I can hear the Saved Ones singing of their journey here below. I can hear the Master calling, for His voice I surely know.

Thus I place my foot more firmly and I lean on Him alone, for I know that He'll uphold me till my pathway reaches home. He can be to us a rock of refuge. He can be to us a rock of strength. But He can also become to us a rock of consolation in the midst of utter desolation.

God as a Rock of Consolation in Desolation

He can be to us a rock of consolation in the midst of utter desolation. Psalm 27 verse 5 says, In the time of trouble He will set me upon a rock. In the time of trouble He will set me upon a rock. I'm going to share with you something that happened in our family.

My aunt and uncle also lived near to us in the valley, and she was very sickly with sugar diabetes. She was a very sickly lady. And she had one boy. And the doctor said to her, It's such a miracle that you've lived through the pregnancy and the birth of this child.

You mustn't have any more children. But a few years later she was expecting again. And so she went to the doctor. And the doctor said, Lady, you cannot have this child. If you have this child, the child's life is in danger, your life is in danger.

You have to terminate the pregnancy. But she couldn't do that. And so she had the baby. And it was life and death in the operating room when she had the child. And a beautiful little baby girl was born to her.

I can still picture the child when she was about two. She had a little pointed chin, little heart-shaped face, red gold hair, and the most unusual eyes. They were turquoise. They weren't blue. They weren't navy.

They were turquoise. Big eyes. Can you imagine the delight that this little girl was to them? God had done a miracle in giving them this little girl. And they loved her and cherished her. Their brother loved her.

He was quite a bit older than her. She was about four years old when she, in a childlike way, gave her life to the Lord Jesus Christ and prayed and asked the Lord Jesus into her life. But one day at about that stage, her mother had to go and help out at the hospital.

Her father had to work on the land. And there was a lady helping in the house who was supposed to check that this child didn't go down to the land. But the lady somehow slipped up. And this child went to the land and she stood at the side of the land and she said, Daddy, pick me up, put me on the tractor.

So my uncle put her on the tractor. He put her next to him on the tractor. And as he drove with her next to him, he said he suddenly felt as if he went over a little hump. In the ground. And he looked to the left and the child was gone.

And he looked down and he had to run and pick up the child. And she was just a broken mess. But she was still alive. So he ran to the house with her, put her in the van and they rushed, driving terribly fast to get to the hospital because she was still breathing.

And the police stopped him because he was racing. And then the police rode in front of him with sirens. And just before that child died, she said, Daddy, why did you ride over me? And she died. So it was really utter desolation.

Why did the child go down to the land? The mother could say, Why wasn't I at home that day? Why did I have to help out at the hospital? Father, why did I put her on the tractor? Why wasn't I holding her hand?

So many questions. But you know, despite the grief, despite the horror that happened, they didn't turn their back on God. They rather clung to Him more than they've ever done before. It's many years since that happened.

But that mother still looks at young girls that are the age that hers would be. And she said, Well, I wonder if that's what my daughter would look like today. She hasn't forgotten. That grief is with her still.

And yet, they have such a trust and leaning on God. God is such a refuge to them. They have the joy of the Lord. They have the peace that passes all understanding as they rest in Him and His will knowing that they will see her again when they get to heaven.

Finding Consolation After Abandonment

Roy has a Bible college. There are two students at Bible college with him that I feel are really a testimony of what God can be to somebody whose husband leaves them. There was a lady in South Africa whose husband left her with three children, two boys and a girl.

And they were very small. And he left her for another lady. And he lived far away from them. And he turned his back on them as a family. Now, to survive, this mother was a teacher, which was God was good.

And she was able to teach to keep them alive and to cope. And she took them to school and she came back from school with them. But you know that she never lost her faith in God. She never lost her trust in God, her hope in God, her belief in God.

So much so that all three of those children are grown up now. They are 19, 23 and 25. Two of her children are at Bible college. They want to serve God. And the oldest one is finishing his studies and he also wants to serve God.

So despite the fact that she didn't have a husband to stand there as the head of the house for them to look up, she rested in God. She found God as her refuge to such a degree that she was able to lead those children not only to find God as Savior, but to want to serve Him with every breath of their being.

God was to her a rock of consolation in the midst of her desolation. I can think of another lady who was also left by her husband. She was a missionary with her husband. They served the Lord together.

And they had a few children. And the Second World War broke out and this man went to serve in the war. And while he was in the war, he backslid. He backslid dreadfully. He backslid so much so that he left her to marry another lady.

And she knew suddenly that she was left with the children, that she would never be able to marry again, that she was going to be alone for the rest of her life. And she said, you know, Jenny, sometimes it got so much to me, the fact that I'd been deserted.

She said, my loneliness, the children, the responsibilities, it just seemed too much for me. And she said, you know what I used to do? And what I still do? And she's old now. The children are grown up.

They're married. You know what I still do, Jenny? I walk down to the sea and I sit at the sea at Fisher. And she said, I look over at the sea and I sit there for a whole hour about. And she said, as I watch the sea, I see the waves come again and again and again.

She said, the waves don't ever stop coming. They keep coming. And as I look at the waves, she said, it reminds me of God's faithfulness. His faithfulness will never fail. He will never desert me. Nothing can separate me from his love.

And she said, when I watch those waves for an hour, I get up and I've got courage to face life again. There's another lady, Natal, that also had many things that came across her path. She was a young mother, a very young mother.

She married very young. In fact, she was so young when she was married that she said she still loved climbing trees. So when she was married, she didn't want her husband to watch her. So when she was married, she used to wave goodbye to him from the veranda.

And when he was out of sight, there was a big tree in the garden. She said she couldn't resist it. And she said, climb up to the top of the tree and sit and watch the world for a while and then go back and do her housework.

So she was a very young, joyful, spontaneous person. And God gave them five sons. And they were like any other married couple with the boys, farming, trying to serve God as best they could together. But then a Christian, or a so-called Christian man, cheated this man out of all of his money.

And they lost all their money. They lost everything. And she said that it was such a terrible shock to him that it could be a Christian man who'd done this to them, that he lost his reason. He went senile.

So there she was with five children and another child. Because she said the husband became an absolute child. She literally, you know, he's the role as the head of the family. And they continued farming with their five boys.

And during this time that he'd snapped out of it, another boy was born to them. Quite a distance. And oh, how they enjoyed and treasured this boy that was born to them. He was the delight of their home.

He was a lovely boy. We also knew him. That father worked so hard with his sons that eventually every son had his own little farm. And they stayed with this youngest son with them because he was going to get the farm they were living on.

But one day when this boy was 21 years of age, he swam across a dam. Now he was a strong swimmer. He even did, I don't know what you call it, that sky diving. He was a strong strapping young man. Tall young man.

But he swam across the dam and he must have got a cramp. He drowned. This darling of their heart. This 21 year old boy that was their delight. He drowned. She said she wouldn't leave the dam until they'd found him.

And it took hours for them to retrieve him. The helicopters had to come. It was devastation that God could have taken this boy from them. This boy that was their delight. And it affected the husband's brain again.

His brain was fragile. And this fact that this boy had died so affected him that he kept saying, I can't cope. I can't cope. And because he said that, this wife watched him all the time because she realized that there was a danger.

His brain, you know, he was in a bit of a state. But one day she was talking to somebody and she wasn't watching him. And he walked out and the son found him hours later. He'd taken his life. So there she sat in the funeral service.

Keith had to come and speak at the funeral. There she sat in the funeral service. And in the middle of the service, I don't know if it was in the middle or where in the service, the tears were running down her face.

But she lifted up her hands and she said, Though he slay me, yet will I trust him. Though he slay me, yet will I trust him. It's a few years later now. But that lady is an example unto the believers. Despite what she has gone through, she has such joy in the Lord.

She is a blessing to many, many people. She is the pivot around which her little families turn. They turn to her, the grandchildren, the children. She is a delight to them. She has clung to God and she has found her joy, her refuge, her consolation in God to such an extent that she actually just shines.

He's there within the darkest storm. He's there when you are tired and worn. He's there to take your cares from you. He's there to give you life anew. He does not take your loads away. He wants to bear them day by day.

So lean on Him with all your might that you might find the burden light. He's there for you as the rock within the darkest storm. We find in the Bible an example of a king that was extremely overwhelmed.

Hezekiah Trusts God Against Assyria

I'm sure you know who I'm talking about. I'm talking about Hezekiah. Do you remember in the Bible about Hezekiah? There they were in Jerusalem and around them was the might of Assyria. Little Hezekiah's people in Jerusalem and this enormous multitude surrounding Jerusalem.

They were not only surrounding Jerusalem but they were mocking their inability to fight against them and speaking about their weakness. So much so that they shouted to the people on the walls of Jerusalem saying, what is your God that He should save you?

And comparing God, almighty God, to the gods of the heathen nations around them. But Hezekiah said to the people on the wall in 2 Chronicles 32 verse 7, He says, Be strong and courageous, be not afraid, nor dismayed for the king of Assyria, nor for the multitude that is with him, for there is more with us than is with him.

With him is the arm of flesh, but with us is the Lord our God to help us and to fight our battles. And the people rested themselves upon the words of Hezekiah king of Judah. So Hezekiah strengthened himself in the Lord.

But then a letter came, a letter from this Assyrian. And when the letter came, he was overwhelmed and he took this letter and he did what you and I need to do when we are overwhelmed. He took the letter into the house of God and he placed it there on the altar and he said, God, look at what they are saying.

Your name is at stake. And what did God do? He did what no man could do. He came and destroyed that whole army by the angel of death. I love that poem about the Sennacherib, the Assyrian, where it describes how the angel of death spread his wings on the blast and breathed on the face of the foe as he passed and as it goes on.

And the might of the Gentile, untouched by the sword, had melted like snow in the glance of the Lord. We serve an almighty God and He's wonderful. But we need to, like Hezekiah, in our desperation, in our overwhelmed state, we need to turn to God who is our rock.

Overcoming Criticism Through Spiritual Warfare

A lady once came to me for counseling. She was a dear little Christian lady. She was a testimony to many people around her. But she was baffling and overwhelmed by the criticism that came to her from Christians.

In fact, it was actually Christians in her family. Not her immediate family, but relatives and in-laws were criticizing her. So much so that she didn't know how to cope with it. It wasn't the might of Assyria against her.

It was the might of the tongue. And she shared with me that she was becoming bitter, that she was starting to have feelings against these people, that she was overwhelmed by their criticism and she just couldn't cope.

So I said to her that she should rather feel compassion for those people because they were allowing themselves to be used by Satan to hurt her. And instead of looking at them with bitterness and anger, she should rather look at them with love and compassion that they were allowing themselves to be used by Satan.

For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world. And you know this lady was able to suddenly look at these people that were hurting her, that were unkind to her, and look at them with compassion.

And she was able to pray for them. And it lifted her onto a level which she couldn't get in her own strength, into the rock that was higher than her. And she's in heaven now, but I really believe that God lifted her out of that depressed and bitter state that she had got in.

I need thee, Lord, to steer my craft amid life's stormy sea, to safely reach that higher destiny where sorrows cease and loved ones wait ashore. Dark clouds ahead, the lighthouse dim to me. Uncertain, scared, I give this craft to thee.

Thou long ago life's sorrows braved and safely crossed each towering wave. In thy scarred hand the craft is saved. We are safe in Him. There's somebody else that I know that really went through deep waters.

Finding God Through Terminal Illness

A friend of mine from school, in fact she actually got saved when I was at boarding school. Husband, we knew while we were in the town. They were a lovely couple. He was a nice Christian, but in those days I wouldn't have thought of him as a deep Christian.

He was just a Christian. And they went up to Zambia to serve the Lord there. They actually helped with a Christian school for white people and black in Zambia, a more British type of school. And they were there for a few years when suddenly he developed headaches.

And he came down. At first they thought it was tick fever, but then he had a bit of convulsions. And they did further tests. And then the doctor said to him bluntly, he said, Neil, you've got three months to live.

Just like that. He didn't say it gently. He just said, you've got a tumor on your brain. There's nothing we can do. You've got three months to live. Now his parents helped with the operation that he was able to live for about ten months further.

But he said the utter desolation that he was going to die in a few months' time. And he had a wife and he had two boys. He just couldn't believe that a God of love could do this to him. And he said he was one night in hospital.