Are you feeling overwhelmed? Worried? Stressed out? In a society that glorifies busyness and overcommitment, we are seeing a trend of more people who are depressed, overwhelmed, and simply worn out. I saw Perry Noble’s latest book Overwhelmed: Winning the War Against Worry available for free on Kindle and decided to pick it up. Honestly, I’m not feeling overwhelmed, but I know that it comes and goes…honestly, I’m mostly overwhelmed on behalf of others that are feeling down and out with no place to turn. Perry and I both have a desire to point people to Jesus. He and I differ on some intricacies of theology and doctrine, but not on the major issues of salvation, grace, and love. We have enough that we can agree on that I’d love to point this book out as a great resource for people who are sick and tired of being worried and overwhelmed. In fact, I’ve already shared this book with a few friends that are walking through difficult situations.
I highlighted several things while reading and have posted my notes below…
- Are you willing to settle for being overwhelmed by circumstances forever, or do you want to step up and overcome whatever is robbing you of joy and life?
- What gets our attention ultimately determines our direction. If we are constantly focused on our circumstances, we will be overwhelmed.
- The best way to conquer feeling overwhelmed is to take our eyes off what’s consuming us and get a bigger picture of what’s really important.
- Daniel refused to allow his circumstances to shape his belief system but rather allowed his belief system to help him overcome his circumstances. The biggest lesson we can learn from Daniel’s life is that correct thinking leads to correct actions.
- The first step in winning the war against worry is understanding that God really is greater than whatever we are going through.
- All too often people who are in Christ run from things that they have power over.
- If you and I don’t want to be overwhelmed by our circumstances, then we can’t take on the identity of what used to enslave us.
- All too often when we get overwhelmed, we start believing that God is merely a “back then” God.
- Anytime you make up your mind that God is able, the world is going to put pressure on you to compromise.
- He is not threatened by our circumstances or situation—He is a grave-robbing, water-walking, miracle-working, death-defying God, and He’s able to pull you through anything you have to face in this life.
- I know enough about cars to know that you can’t keep it in the red for long before the engine completely breaks down. The same applies to our lives. If we go through life at Mach 2 with our hair on fire, eventually we’ll hit a wall, and it won’t be pretty.
- “The Bible calls those who will not work lazy, but it calls those who will not rest disobedient.”
- You can never move forward until you deal with the things you carry with you.
- We can experience a major shift in our perspective when instead of asking God to pull us out of something, we ask Him to lead us through.
- Isaiah 41:10: Don’t be afraid, for I am with you. Don’t be discouraged, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you. I will hold you up with my victorious right hand.
- Control is the greatest illusion in the universe.
- How would we know He’s a healer if we didn’t experience times when we needed to be healed? How would we know He’s a Savior if we didn’t experience things we needed to be saved from? How would we know He’s a provider if we didn’t experience times when we thought we weren’t going to make it?
- The smallest details in our lives are a big deal to the God who loves us.
- The smallest details in our lives are a big deal to the God who loves us.
- One of the greatest gifts God can give us is the revelation of our own sinfulness.
- Selfishness has a way of clouding our judgment so we can’t see what’s wrong with us and instead focus on other people’s problems.
- Followers of Jesus should be known not just by what we run from but also what we run to.
- Forgiveness is like putting a key in a prison door to release someone else, only to discover that the person you are releasing is yourself.
- Ephesians 4:32 says, “Be kind to each other, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God through Christ has forgiven you.”
- Don’t be afraid to let go of what God is trying to remove. Anytime He asks us to give up something, it’s because He wants to give us something even better.
- The devil doesn’t want to make you bad; he wants to make you busy. Because if he can make you busy, then eventually he can make you bad. Busyness always keeps us from recognizing Jesus.
- God is a promise maker and a promise keeper—always has been, always will be!
- When we see Jesus clearly, we will follow Him closely. But we will never do so until we slow down the pace in our lives and get to the place where we trust His promises more than our preferences.
- Love is determined by what we’re willing to seek out and what we’re willing to sacrifice for
- Religion says, “Clean up your mess!” Jesus says, “I cleaned up your mess!”
- I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord. ROMANS 8:38-39
- When we face tough times, one of the questions we must wrestle with is, Are we going to allow our circumstances to determine what we believe about God, or are we going to allow what we believe about God to determine how we handle our circumstances?
- I’m so glad God loves me enough to wound me when necessary in order to remove what would destroy me if left untouched. And I’m so glad He has been teaching me to define His goodness based on who He is, not on my own limited understanding of Him.
- That is why we never give up. Though our bodies are dying, our spirits are being renewed every day. For our present troubles are small and won’t last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever! So we don’t look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever. 2 CORINTHIANS 4:16-18