Learning How To Be An Overcomer When You Feel Overtaken

by | Mar 26, 2015 | Encouragement, Guest Post

rbovercomer

I’ve entered a new waiting period this week. Waiting to get over the flu so I can get on with life in London.

As I lie in bed staring at the cracks in the ceiling and pray for people, I realize how the past nine months of waiting to get here have given me an inner peace about God’s timing. In the same way you can’t rush physical healing, waiting seasons require letting go of controlling outcomes into the hands of Jesus.

When waiting is God’s answer to your prayers about the future, uncertainty can be a taxing vulnerability in a world that functions on concrete answers. Silence during seasons of transition can threaten to swallow purpose and calling if we allow it.

Our ability to successfully survive a lengthy waiting period depends on mental perspective more than anything. While circumstances are not a true indicator of worth, sometimes we need help in quieting swirling thoughts to find peace in the process.

“Prayer is always foundational to wisdom,” writes Eugene Peterson. After that, there are a few practical things that have helped me.

Join me at Christianity Today’s, Gifted for Leadership, where I’m sharing some of the tactics I use to survive uncertainty . I would love to hear what has helped you become an overcomer when you feel overtaken. Join me here.

Subscribe for Shelly’s stories and free resources here: https://shellymillerwriter.com/free-resources/

7 Comments

  1. Nancy Smith

    Shelly, praying for you to get well soon! The picture above reminds me again why I hear the siren call of London over and over. Spring in Hyde Park walking between the rows of blooming saucer magnolias impressed me so much I planted one here. It’s blooming right now! I love your solutions for those dry waiting periods- and your comment about letting go during that season of waiting is timely for me. I think I’ll go read a good book! “The Silent Traveler in London” might be just the thing! thanks

    • Shelly Miller

      Sounds like a perfect thing to do Nancy. Curling up with a good story is never a bad idea! Thanks for the encouragement.

  2. Natalie

    What a lovely, timely, true, and helpful post, Shelly. Rest for the fatigue of the season. Story. A fresh rendering of words of Truth. Your words are a balm for hard times. So often I get to the end of a trying season and I tell myself that I’ve learned a thing or two through this and that if ever there is a next time, I will remember to . . . Filing your list will serve me well. Oh, and your title? Perfect.

    • Shelly Miller

      Thanks for your inspiring words to me Natalie. So glad this resonated with you.

  3. Leah

    Shelly,

    I am so happy to have found your blog through another blogger who posted on Five Minute Friday today.
    Your direct suggestions, many not that spiritual, look a lot like what I
    have been grasping on to this past winter, past couple of years really.
    Validation is a good thing.
    Your blog and words are, in themselves, very soothing in a direct clear-minded way.
    Cheers,
    Leah

    • Shelly Miller

      Lovely to meet you Leah and thanks for the follow. I would love to know your blog address so I can visit you and who it was that mentioned me in their post. If you have a minute, come back over and let me know.
      I had a pastor once a long time ago that used to say, “The natural precedes the spiritual.” In other words, sometimes we are hungry and thirsty and need to eat and drink when we blame our circumstances on a spiritual attack. I’m glad those practical ideas were a sacred echo for you.

      • Leah

        Wow! I am impressed at how you reply to each comment.
        I never do that.
        Anyway.
        I think if you click on my little picture or avitar, I think it is called, it will go to my blog, but here it is:
        leahbeecher.com.; in other words my domain is my name.
        The actual blog is called: many slices.
        The blogger that mentioned your Sabbath series which took me to your site was:
        http://thisiskatha.blogspot.de/
        Cheers,
        Leah

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