Hope In Chaos

Chaos: a complete state of total confusion, disorder, and lack of organization. This is sometimes how anxiety feels. The sense that everything is out of control. Thus creating a fear of the future. There is so much in this world that appears to us as chaotic. Society seems to be disorganized, messy. When the external chaos begins to creep into our lives we get anxious. It starts to upset our equilibrium, and we either get depressed, anxious, or both. Depression and anxiety are partners. They usually live together, walking hand in hand. Deal with one, you’ll more than likely deal with both. There are many ways to deal with these two cohabitators. Medication, therapy, relaxation techniques are a few. But there is one that many fail to recognize. The one many people fail to see is in plain sight in the Bible.

“Show me your ways, Lord, teach me your paths. Guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my Savior, and my hope is in you all day long” (Psalm 25:4-5). Chaos tends to come when we seek our own way separate from God. Nothing about God and His ways is chaotic. God is organized and lacks confusion. The Psalmist asks God to show him His ways and to teach him the path of God. God’s ways and His path lack confusion. In our anxiety we need to be asking God to reveal to us His ways and to show us the path out of our anxiety. In a chaotic world we can find peace and hope in the ways of God. It won’t take away the external chaos, but it will help us in not internalizing it. By doing so we can reduce our anxiety, and our depression.

Society has lost truth, which explains much of the confusing and chaotic mess we find ourselves in. Many people are doing their own thing, believing whatever they want. Much of which is based on lies. The catch phrase of today seems to be “follow the science.” So why do people believe in something that science doesn’t support? Lies have replaced the truth of God. So we should be like the Psalmist and ask God to guide us in His truth. Anxiety is mostly fear based and is mostly based on exaggerated fear. Anxiety then is based on lies. How do we combat lies? With truth! Truth is found in God. To relieve our anxiety we need God to teach us His truth. Truth will always conquer lies. John 8:32 says, “Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” If we want freedom from anxiety we need to know the truth of God. God’s truth will set us free from our anxiety.

God is our Savior, not the things of this world. When we see God as our Savior, we no longer hope in this world, and there is nothing to fear. When fear dies, our anxiety dies. So we say with the Psalmist, “my hope is in You all day long.” We need to replace fear with hope, lies with truth. How do we combat our anxiety? By learning the ways of God and walking in the path of His truth. Once we do this our fears are replaced with truth, and truth will cancel out our fear based anxiety. The hope we are looking for is found in God.