Jentezen Franklin - Overcoming When You Feel Overwhelmed: 5 Steps to Surviving the Chaos of Life

Have you felt like giving up lately? I have. Our struggles may look different, but Im sure you have endured a trying season in your life, as I have. Or maybe you are in the thick of one now. Maybe thoughts like these have constantly crossed your mind: How did I get here ? How can this be happening to our family ? You and I have different lives, but one thing we all have in common would be the overwhelming feelings that come from things like heartbreak, betrayal, addiction, mental illness, division, lies, deception, tears, sorrow, discouragement, fear, legal battles, shame, guilt, depression and the spiritual warfare we never even knew existed.

Are you sure you want to keep reading this book? I dont mean to trigger you, but its only fair that I warn youthis book is not all about fairy tales and roses. Its a book about real life, real marriages, real families and a real Savior who loves us more than we can ever comprehend and who is still writing the script of our lives through every page of pain and confusion.

It feels as if our changing, challenging times have left a lot of people with a busted nest. That home, once a nice, cozy place to retreat to and rest in, has been dismantled piece by piece. God will sometimes allow our nest to be dismantled in order to teach us how to fly. What seems cruel can also be beneficial.

Many Christians have folded their wings and developed the nesting syndrome: a tendency toward stasis. The nest has become their security. But there comes a time when the momma eagle starts to disturb the nest so the eaglets can fulfill their potential (see Deuteronomy 32:1112). What a nest of security could not do, a good stirring of the nest can. You are pregnant with promises. But mounting up with wings as eagles requires that you get out of the nest and into the air.

Is God disturbing your nest? You are not born to live and die in your nest. You are destined for higher ground. You have a heavenly calling.

Many churches have become nester churches, where comfort is valued above all else. But remember this: Its better to fail trying to fly than to sit in the nest and die. In Job 29:18, we find Job crying out. He says (paraphrasing), I wish it were like the days of old. I wish I could go back to how it used to be, when everything was cozy and comfortable. For I said, I will die in my nest . But God said, No, I didn t bless you to die in the nest. I m going to take you higher than the rest of the birds can fly .

I relate to Jobs cry. You may, too. Have you ever wondered how something so rightlike a great relationship, a meaningful vocation, a spiritual calling, a God-designed dreamcan turn out so wrong? The answer always is sin. It just creeps in through compromise, disobedience, rebellion, worldliness. Satan comes to steal, kill and destroy. And were learning now, like never before, how to keep holding onto broken pieces until God makes some kind of sense of it all. The spiritual battle taking place now is real. The attacks you and I have gone through, and are likely still going through, are part of a much larger attack.

The end-time battle for the minds and hearts of our families is upon us. The battle for the mind is raging. Satan, the prince and the power of the air, is making an all-out attempt to seize this generation. He is planting his thoughts of rebellion, lust, violence, drunkenness, depression, suicide, addiction and mayhem in the minds of millions. He is after our minds.

With the advancement of technology, Satan has issued new orders to corrupt the minds of this generation through the internet, movies, music and more. A constant diet of sensuality is being served. A barrage of evil thoughts assaults us daily. A deadly war between good and evil is raging. The battleground is not only in the heavens; its also being waged between your ears. These are the days when Christians are being pressed upon from every angle.