This is our fourth study in the series "Help for Overloaded Lives." Many find themselves overloaded by the pace, pressures and pain of life. But Jesus invites us to come to Him for rest and refreshment. We talked about our need for a Sabbath, a time we set aside every week for rest, recreation and reverence. Last week we talked about our need for a sanctuary, a place where we can get away for some solitude, silence and stillness.

Today, in keeping with the "s" alliteration, we're going to address our need for sustenance and supplication. That's a fancy way of saying that we need to invest time reading the Bible and praying. We have a lot of ground to cover; so let's jump in.

First, you need sustenance. In other words, if you want to overcome overload, you must spend time reading and studying God's Word.

Last summer I watched the blockbuster hit Aviator, the story of Howard Hughes. When he died in 1981, he was one of the wealthiest people in the world. He had fifteen personal attendants and three doctors who cared for him around the clock. He had the best health care anyone could imagine. Yet he died of malnutrition. How could that be? Hughes was a germ freak. He was obsessed about eating or drinking anything that might have impurities in it. I guess he overlooked the fact that a person dies when he gets no nourishment at all.

The same is true in the spiritual realm as well. You must feed your soul if you expect to have a healthy walk with Jesus Christ. Sustenance from God's Word is a matter of life and death. Jesus said, "Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God" (Matthew 4:4). Food for the Christian comes from the Word of God.

Are you suffering from overload? What priority is often sacrificed when you're pushed for time? It's your time in God's Word. Isn't that the truth? We get so overloaded we might go for days and weeks without opening the Bible to allow God to feed us. And that is why churches today are filled with members who are spiritually malnourished.

We live in a fast-food world. Some of us eat more meals in our cars than we do at home. And it is becoming clearer and clearer that fast food is killing Americans. The combination of putting too much unhealthy food into our stomachs along with not eating enough healthy food creates has created an epidemic of diseases.

What we feed our bodies is critical. Even more important is what we feed our souls. We feed our minds and hearts with spiritual junk food. Anita and I enjoy watching a good movie. And there's nothing wrong with that. But too many people fill their lives with spiritual junk food from non-stop movies, television programs, internet chat rooms and video games. Doing so leaves no room for God. We're at a critical crossroads. It is imperative that believers start feeding their souls with healthy food. The only thing that will nourish your soul is the Word of God.

How is your spiritual diet? If you're not constantly feeding on the Scriptures, you will not have the strength you need to win the spiritual battles that will certainly come your way. The Bible uses many images to refer to the Word of God. It is a two-edged sword. It is like a mirror that reveals our true condition. It is a lamp that shines its light in the darkness. It is the sword of the Spirit, the rock, and the seed.

My favorite images of the Bible are those that refer to it as food. "Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk" (1 Peter 2:2). Other images include solid food and sweeter than honey. Jesus is the bread of life and living water.

How many Bibles do you have in your house? Ponder all the Bibles in American households. Combine that with the ever-growing number of Christian radio and television programming, Bible conferences, and Christian bookstores. Yet so many believers are dying of spiritual starvation. It doesn't make sense. Why is this so? Because we are allowing our overloaded lives to swallow up any significant time reading God's Word. We simply don't take the time for God to nourish our souls. We need sustenance.

While preparing this message, I glanced up at one of my office bookshelves and counted 37 Bibles. That number would have astonished William Hunter who was burned at the stake in 1555 at the age of fifteen. William had a passionate hunger for God's Word. But in 1555 England ordinary people did not have access to the Bible. Only the priests did. The only Bible in town was the one in the village church. And it was chained to the pulpit. This was a period of great spiritual darkness in England. The Roman Catholic Church didn't want people reading the Bible. But William's hunger for the Word compelled him to walk into the church, open the Bible and begin reading it. A church official scolded him, and he was arrested later. They wrapped him in chains and threw him in a dungeon for nine months. At his trial, the official gave him the opportunity to recant from his evil deed, but he refused. They lit the fire and young William Hunter was burned at the stake for reading the Bible.

If he were living today, William would be shocked to learn that most Christians have multiple copies of the Bible, that they have complete freedom to read it, yet they do not take advantage of so great an opportunity. That's precisely what many Christians have done.

King Josiah rose to the throne of Judah when he was only eight years old. Imagine that! His story is told in 2 Kings 22-23 and 2 Chronicles 34-35. His grandfather Manasseh was probably the most-wicked king ever to rule over Judah. He led the nation to engage in immoral sexual activity, to kill God's prophets, and even to sacrifice children to pagan idols. He repented later in life, but not before the nation was in terrible condition. After his death, his son Amon took the throne. Someone assassinated him after serving only two years. That's when 8-year-old Josiah took the throne.

Josiah became one of Judah's greatest kings. He obeyed God all through his years of leadership. When he was twenty, he completely abolished idol worship by destroying all the idols. At twenty-six, he remodeled the temple. Guess what workers discovered while working on this project. The Scriptures (most likely portions of Deuteronomy or even the first five books of the Bible). It's possible that Josiah didn't even know the Word of God existed because the Law most like disappeared during the reign of his grandfather Manasseh.

Rediscovering the Scriptures brought a much-needed light to the dark world. After reading the Word, Josiah instituted reforms which brought the people to wholehearted obedience to God. Look what the Bible says about him: "Never before had there been a king like Josiah, who turned to the LORD with all his heart and soul and strength, obeying all the laws of Moses. And there has never been a king like him since" (2 Kings 23:25, NLT).

The greatest day of Josiah's life was when the construction workers discovered the Word of God. Have you made the same discovery? God's Word will bring light when your days are dark. It can bring comfort to your troubled soul. It can lift your spirits when you're down. It can give you guidance when you're facing a tough decision. To help you overcome overload, you need sustenance. You find that sustenance when you read God's Word.

To overcome overload, you also need supplication. To supplicate means "to ask earnestly for." The term found often in the Bible. It basically means "prayer." So when I say you need supplication, I'm saying you need to pray. Prayer is like oxygen for the soul. Doing without prayer is like trying to live without breathing. Without prayer your spiritual life will flicker, fade and eventually die.

We must never see prayer as a magical wand or view God as a divine genie. Nor is prayer a means of getting what you want. We're commanded in the Bible to pray. But why? Certainly we aren't bringing something to God what He doesn't already know. Nor are we trying to get Him to change His mind about something.

Suppose you're in a rowboat, a mile from shore. As you start rowing toward shore, the land gets closer, right? Wrong. The land is not moving. You're moving toward the land. That's a picture of prayer. Prayer is for our benefit. Prayer pulls us closer to God. And the closer to the Lord you are, the more He works in your life. Prayer is not designed to change God; it is designed to change us. Prayer reminds us that we can't have it all, do it all or deserve it all. It reminds us that we need God and that He is in charge.

That's why we should pray. But how should we pray? To answer that question adequately would require a series of sermons. But let me share some insights that I hope will prompt you to increase the intensity level of your prayer habits.

First, pray with groups of believers. When one of our pastors or deacons leads the congregation in prayer, unite your heart with that person. In group prayer, one is vocalizing the words while everyone else is agreeing in spirit. Earlier in the service when I led the prayer time, how many were praying? It should have been 150-200 people praying. God is honored when groups of people approach His throne in prayer. The Bible says, "If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land" (2 Corinthians 7:14).

There is tremendous power when God's people pray. In your Sunday School classes and small groups, don't pray just as a formality that begins and concludes your meeting. Make it a time when you bring your praises and needs to God, all with one heart and unified in spirit.

Second, engage in concentrated private prayer. Last week we talked about your need for a sanctuary. Regardless of the location of your sanctuary, it is a place where you can pour out your heart to God. As much as we believe in the importance of private prayer, I think you will agree with me that this discipline is hard. It's hard because it involves the heart and not just the tongue. It's hard also because we encounter resistance. I promise you that Satan does not want you praying. You can make phone calls and send emails all day long. But try talking to God and you meet resistance.

The Bible says, "Draw near to God and He will draw near to you" (James 4:8). Sometimes it's hard to concentrate when we pray. Sometimes we feel that our prayers are unproductive. The key is to discover a way that you can focus on God. As you focus on Him, you're drawing near to Him, and He is drawing near to you.

Third, pray continually. Many have trouble understanding the verse that says, "Pray without ceasing" (1 Thessalonians 5:17). Certainly, it doesn't mean that we are to neglect our duties every hour of every day so that we can pray. What does it mean? It means that you talk to God all through the day. The best kind of continual prayer is the kind that grows out of vital private prayer life. To pray without ceasing is a life attitude, not just an impulse to talk with God when we are in trouble. "Evening and morning and at noon I will pray" (Psalm 55:17, NKJV). In other words, when I wake up, I talk to God. Throughout the day I talk to God. When I go to bed at night, I talk to God.

I know I've barely scratched the surface on these two topics. My prayer is that these thoughts will serve as a simple prompting for you to invest some time engaging in two disciplines that will help you overcome overload more than anything else—reading the Bible and talking to God. You need sustenance and you need supplication. You need to be in the Word and you need to spend time in prayer.

Reading the Bible and prayer—Is God pleased with the amount of time you spend with these two habits? To those of you who are overloaded, you will be amazed at how God will put your life in order in you take time to read the Bible and talk to Him throughout the day.

What a marvelous privilege we have! Jesus Christ died on the cross for our sins. He came back to life on the third day and now seats at the right hand of the throne of God in heaven. And we have the privilege of talking to Him. We have the privilege learning all about Him in the Bible. Don't let the Bibles in your home go unused. And get close enough to God that you're comfortable talking to Him all day long.