Staying Calm in a Chaotic World
Dear Friend,
Staying calm in a chaotic world can at times prove to be a real challenge. Perhaps you are like me. When I have troubles coming at me from every direction, I have a tendency to get frustrated, upset, and anxious.
I think Paul had the same problem. That is why he says in Philippians 4:6 (NIV), “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.” Paul knew from personal experience how important it was to stay calm and trust God when troubles arise.
With each passing day I must remember when trouble arises to pray and not panic. As I trust God and bring my requests to Him, I will experience “the peace of God, which transcends all understanding” (v.7). It is this peace that will guard my “heart and mind in Christ Jesus.”
Ben Stein is quoted as saying, “Faith is not believing that God can, it is knowing that God will.” We can stay calm if we know that God will do what Proverbs 3:5-6 (NIV) tells us to do in the midst of our problems. It says, “trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to Him and He will make your paths straight.”
Paul gives further insight on how to stay calm and trust God when he declares in Philippians 4:8 (NIV), “whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable-if anything is excellent or praiseworthy-think about such things.”
In other words when trouble arises instead of thinking only about the problem, have faith in God and His love, power, and promises. Faith is Full Assurance In The Heart that God will help us in our time of need.
St. Augustine points out that “faith is to believe what we do not see, and the reward of this faith is to see what we believe.”
The secret to staying calm each day is to put our faith in God and not in the hopelessness that the problems of daily living can bring upon us. St. Thomas Aquinas said that “Faith has to do with things that are not seen, and hope with things that are not in hand.”
The secret to remaining calm in the midst of hopeless situations is to have faith in God. Hebrews 11:1 (NIV) explains that faith is “being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.”
It was by living a life of faith in God’s protection and provision that Paul was able to declare, “I have learned the secret of being content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do all this through Him who gives me strength” (Philippians 4:11-13 NIV).
Paul had learned that whether it was staying calm or being content, the secret for such, was anchored in the faith that it was Christ Jesus who gave him strength.
Each and every day you and I are given a choice as to how we are going to respond to the trials and tribulations that come at us. Are we going to choose to be anxious and filled with doubt or will we remain calm knowing God has everything under control.” Henry Ward Beecher put it this way, “Every tomorrow has two handles. We can take hold of it with the handle of anxiety, or with the handle of faith.”
Taking the handle of faith and staying calm involves believing that “the Lord will guide you continually and satisfy your needs in parched places and make your bones strong.” This promise is founded in Isaiah 58:11 (NIV). It goes on to promise further that as you stay calm and trust God, “You shall be (NIV) like a watered garden, like a spring of water, whose waters never fail.”
Martin Luther was convinced that staying calm was to live a life of faith in the reality of the love, power, and grace of God. He said, “faith is a living, daring confidence in God’s grace, so certain that a man could stake his life on it a thousand times.”
Instead of seeing every problem as a crisis, the person who has learned the secret of staying calm and responding by faith in God, sees these problems as opportunities. Rick Joyner explains this further by pointing out that, “The greatest faith of all, and the most effective, is to live day by day trusting Him. It is trusting Him so much that we look at every problem as an opportunity to see His work in our life”.
I know that the secret to staying calm is trusting God. But just knowing this isn’t enough. When a problem arises, I must confess that all too many times I want to fix it immediately. The trouble is my desire to fix the problem myself, rather than be patient and trust God to do it in His perfect timing.
Trying to fix a problem ourselves and running ahead of God can get us into all kinds of trouble like it did Abraham. Abraham and Sarah had been promised that they would have descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky. The problem is that with each passing day they were getting older and older, and Sarah could still not have children. She was now in her eighties and Abraham was in his nineties. Instead of staying calm and trusting God, Sarah tried to solve the problem by persuading Abraham to have a child with her servant Hagar.
Genesis 16 and Genesis 21 (NIV) describe the problems that this brought upon Abraham, Sarah, Hagar and Ishmael. But that is not the end of the story. Even today, the Arabs who descended from Ishmael, are fighting the Israelites who are descendants of Isaac, the promised son that God later gave to Sarah and Abraham.
We must never forget that the problems we create, when we refuse to remain calm and trust in the midst of adversities, end up being far worse than those we are trying to fix.
If we are going to stay calm, we need to remember what John R. Stott said about trusting God, “Faith is a reasoning trust, a trust which reckons thoughtfully and confidently upon the trust worthiness of God.”
By daily reading the word of God we learn to stay calm because we see how those who trusted God got through the struggles that life thrust at them.
As we study the scriptures, we see how God took Daniel out of the lion’s den, Peter out of prison, Jonah out of a whale’s belly, and Lazarus out of the grave. As we immerse ourselves in the scriptures daily, we will start seeing how we can remain calm. From the Bible we learn that God will take us through the valley of the shadow of death, Psalm 23 verse 4 (NIV).
We can stay calm because God has told us “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; but when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze. For I am the Lord you God”, Isaiah 43:2-3 (NIV). The secret to staying calm is knowing that God is with us when we pass through the troubled waters or the fires of adversity. Jesus has promised, “I will never leave you nor forsake you”, Hebrews 13:5 (NIV). Let us take God at His word and see every trial and tribulation as another opportunity to remain calm as we trust Him.
Now to summarize how to stay calm in a chaotic world let us take another look at Philippians 4:4-8 (NIV) and spell out the world calm. Philippians 4:4-8 (NIV) starts out by declaring, “Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!”
The first letter in the word calm, C reminds us to celebrate God’s goodness. In order to do this, we must turn our attention away from the problem and celebrate God. Psalm 121:1-2 (NIV) helps us do that, “I lift up my eyes to the mountains where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth.”
In Philippians 4:6 (NIV) we see the second letter in the word calm given to us. This letter A tells us to ask when it says, “Let your requests be made known to God.” In Matthew 7:7 (NIV) we are told to, “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.”
In Philippians 4:7 (NIV) we are told that when we leave that problem in the hands of God, “the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus”. The L in the word calm reminds us to leave it up to God to solve the problem.
2 Timothy 1:12 (NIV) also tells us, “That is why I am suffering as I am. Yet this is no cause for shame, because I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him until that day.”
Finally, the M in calm reminds us to meditate on good things. Philippians 4:8 (NIV) declares “Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy think about such things.” In this verse we are reminded not to let anxious, negative thoughts take over our minds. We can’t control the circumstances, but we can control what we think about them. For that reason, we must meditate on the positive, not the negative.
In order to stay calm in a chaotic world we must realize that life may give us lemons, but we don’t have to suck on them. Through the power of the word of God we can make lemonade out of those lemons of trials and tribulations. When we do that we will stay calm in a chaotic world.
Yours in Christ, Larry Rice
