Overwhelmed? Sigh of a Song

By Bill RevealMarch 14, 2022

Romans 8:26-39

I was having a bad day. Just came out of a stressful meeting, my motorcycle was giving me fits and I was riding down a very busy 8 lane freeway feeling like no one saw me and was sure to be squashed like a bug. I was totally overwhelmed. What happened next, even 30+ years later, surprises me. It started out as a sigh, “Oh Lord” but turned into a song, one that had to have come from the Holy Spirit. “Oh Lord my God, how majestic is your name…” I don’t write songs… although my wife can tell you I will produce random notes that make no sense, especially playing on a recorder. But there, on that motorcycle, with semi-trucks surrounding me, no escape, overwhelmed with everything, I sighed out to the Lord and by the Holy Spirit began praying in a new song.

When overwhelmed we need to turn to God. When we confide in Him with all our frustrations, fears, and defeats, He will overwhelm us with His love, His grace, His mercy. Paul tells us in Romans 8 that when we are overwhelmed, “the Spirit helps us in our weakness.” Even when we aren’t sure what or how to pray, the Spirit does. I love how Paul describes it, “through wordless groans”. That is exactly how I feel when overwhelmed, a lot of wordless groans. But when we turn to God, the Spirit takes wordless groans and lifts them up to the Father and intercedes for us according to God’s will. Those wordless groans become something wonderful before God. “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him.” (Romans 8:28)

I don’t remember what happened the rest of the day. It didn’t matter, God was victorious. In times of feeling overwhelmed, I haven’t always turned to God. In those times, I have been defeated. It is hard to do the right thing. But when we turn everything over to God–be it in a sigh of a song, through prayer, with help from another Christian friend–when we totally surrender to Him, God turns the situation into something good.

Challenge

• Start a journal or use some other device to record the times you are overwhelmed. Each time you write in the device, turn what you are writing over to God, asking Him to turn the situation into something good. And then record what marvelous things God has done.
• Write your own song of prayer or pick one that you know, a song that you can sing as a prayer when you are overwhelmed. And “I can’t sing” isn’t an excuse, God doesn’t care how bad you sing, as long as you give Him your all, all He will hear is beautiful.

Oh Lord, our God
    How majestic is your name.
Oh Lord, our God
    How wonderful is your name.
Be exalted,
    Be lifted up in our praise.
Oh Lord, our God
    How majestic is your name. -Sigh of a Song