Chaos Is From Sin; Peace Is From God
Word-Of-The-Day: ‘For God is not a God of disorder but of peace…’ (1 Corinthians 14:33a)
Today being 11 September, the 24th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks using hijacked airliners to destroy the World Trade Center towers and one side of the Pentagon, those of us who remember that day in 2001 remember the chaos in the days and years that ensued. While that has subsided, we still have chaos occurring two decades later; just yesterday, a Godly young man, Charlie Kirk, was killed by an assassin for simply speaking the Truth.
We have the propensity to react with feelings; at first shock, then anger. Perhaps the thought of a form of vengeance – an ‘eye for an eye’, especially for those who openly were glee and full of vitriol that this young man was shot down, or for those who celebrated 3,000 Americans were killed that fateful day a quarter century ago.
But then, especially for the Christian, the Truth should have kicked in. The fact that though God was not surprised by these events, he did not orchestrate them – Satan did. Chaos comes from sin, not from Godliness. The mitigation of chaos is Righteousness through the abiding of God’s Truth.
The first half of 1 Corinthians 14:33 comes within the context of behavior, within the behavior of worship, but we can apply this to everyday occurrences as well. If God is not a God of disorder, then he must be a God of order, and structure. There is an order to how God has things in nature all laid out.
The python does not belong in the Everglades, and monkeys do not belong up in Silver Springs. Yet somebody in their infinite wisdom thought bringing these in as pets or attractions was a great idea and later not wanting them anymore but not wanting to kill them, released them into the wilds of Florida. Good intentions, with bad consequences.
The balance and order of Florida’s nature, the ‘Circle of Life’ with it’s checks and balances, gets thrown off when there is a strange, foreign and new creature that comes in, taking resources away from the native creatures. Or it eats the native creatures and the exotic animal does not have a natural predator to keep them in check.
Monkeys eat food the deer would eat, so the deer starve; pythons have been eating turtles, alligators and the eggs of native birds causing those species to diminish. Fortunately, Florida is a big place, but there has been a measure of disorder thrown into the natural order of life here.
In our personal lives, God “has plans for us, not to harm us but to give us a hope and future.” (Jeremiah 29:11). In order for God’s plans to work in our lives, we must be disciplined to get our lives in order, and structured toward God’s plan, as stated in Jeremiah 29:12-14 to get us out of the ‘exile’ of chaos and back to our ‘homeland’ of peace.
There is an order of precedence in life, for example; Love and worship God first, love and take care of your family second, and then it is fulfilling your work and community commitments third, in order to avoid or mitigate chaos in your personal life.
In other words, you should always be structured to attend to worshipping the Lord in all that you do, you should always be looking out to protect your families and loved ones, and you should be willing to accomplish the duties and responsibilities of citizenship (voting, paying taxes), provided God and family are taken care of. Sometimes there will be things unexpected that come up (a business trip, an illness, etc.) but the Lord knows these things occur.
Don’t add to that stress by ignoring the normal and routine things around you. A deeper dive would be ensuring your schedule always takes into account attending Sunday services, ensuring your home is stocked with food and necessary items, and that you vote when there is an election.
If, for example, on Sunday morning you find you’re out of toilet paper and you decide to skip Sunday services to make a run to the store, you probably need to reorganize your priorities and ensure you free up time earlier in the week to go shopping. I’ve mentioned hurricane prepping; the day before the hurricane hits is not the time to start thinking what you need, please take the time do think about what you need and act upon it before the next hurricane hits.
If you’re disorganized and discombobulated, and don’t know what to do next, pray to the Lord to place order and peace in your life. Ask Him to help prepare you for what you know, as often the preparations and organization you do for what you know can occur, often help in when those things you don’t know will occur.
