Fighting His Plan

This after a few hours of cleaning...

Chaos.

I avoid chaos like the plague. In fact I stay away from situations I cannot figure out. I prefer life with a pretty bow. Situations that turn out neatly tied up. I don’t like things I don’t understand, things I can’t offer a suggestion to help fix. I prefer to flee those situations. I prefer to call the chaos not God’s plan and find the quickest exit.

Yet God often brings us through chaos for His glorious purpose. Instead I flee chaos, messy things. I plant my faith in an idea of God not in who He really is. I dream of ways God could make a situation “right” in my eyes. I come up with improbable scenarios knowing God is able. Yet God does His perfect and right thing while chaos continues.

There are questions my human brain will never understand. Situations in which I pray for healing, but God allows sickness–diseases of hearts, bodies, and souls. Some illnesses rob folks of memories and sense. Sinful souls cling to what they know and struggle as life changes loom. Rough edges scrape and scar as we stumbling people interact.

God leads us through chaos. In Psalm 23 David tells us God leads us by still waters, but we also find He directs us to difficult places too. Psalm 23:4a says, “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me…”

God’s plan is in the chaos. Our struggle isn’t against the chaos. If we fight what God brings into our lives then we fight God’s plan. No our struggle is “against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” (Eph 6:12)

Instead of fighting the chaos as if God didn’t allow it in my life, I need to pray for God’s glory to be shown through the chaos. I need to struggle against the spiritual forces of evil, not against flesh and blood. I need to tell God my desires, but trust Him of the results. Thank Him for what He alone can do.