Peace Surrounded by Chaosনমুনা

Peace Surrounded by Chaos

by

Rocky Fleming

Day Five– ACTION:  Replace the Thought

I grew up as a child, an athlete, and a businessman being taught the importance of positive thinking.  You would understand that a child, who is afraid he might be hit by a pitch, would not be able to stand in the batter’s box and hit a baseball?  A football player is ineffective if he is afraid he will get hurt. All golfers know that if you are afraid you will hit the golf ball out of bounds or in the water, there is a magical magnet that makes the ball go to the place you fear.  Fears such as this develop in just about every area of our life especially when chaos invades our sanctuary of peace.  I have observed a rule of behavior when this happens.  The rule is, “We try to control that which we fear the most.”  It is this fearful attempt at controlling an outcome of something we fear that often takes us to the place we dread.  But worse, our fear destroys our peace, and it keeps the most powerful resource that could be available for us out of our defenses.  So here is a rule for spiritual warfare:  Fear must be kept outside our sanctuary’s borders.

When chaos tries to invade your border, you must battle this invader by establishing the border guards I mentioned previously.  This line of defense is: Take Every Thought Captive (then) Make Every Need Known (then) Praise and Declare the Victory (then) Accept the Promise of God (and finally) Replace the Fearful Thought.  When you entrust that thing you fear to God, it is essential that you then release your grip on it.  Allow God’s complete sovereignty to overwhelm the problem in His own time and in His own way.  Then your soul will be at peace, even in the midst of chaos.