How To Bring Order To The Chaos In Your Life

We experience so much chaos in our lives on a daily basis that we get used to it — and think it’s normal.

Each of us deals with inner struggles, confusion, overwhelming responsibilities, unmet expectations, unclear communication. And we all have to navigate outward struggles too — from difficult relationships and poor leadership down to clutter and general lack of organization. If you are human, you are familiar with chaos.

God’s nature is to put things in order.

From the first word He spoke at Creation, He has been ordering our universe into recognizable patterns: day and night, rotation and orbit of the planets in our solar system, phases of the moon, tides, seasons, all the way down to the fabric of the atoms in our physical reality. If we just look for them, we can see patterns of God’s design everywhere. He actually wired our human brains to search for, recognize and replicate patterns as a part of who we are. God creates order, and so can we.

After God created Adam and Eve, He put them in charge of the earth. Look at His weighty words to them in Genesis 1:

So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” –Genesis 1:27-28 NKJV

The word “subdue” in this verse is from a Hebrew word meaning “to bring under control.” God actually tasked Adam and Eve with bringing the earth under control! The words “have dominion” mean “to rule, to reign”— God handed the earth to His kids and told them to rule over it. From the beginning, God’s intention was for mankind to bring Creation into order and make it function properly.

When Adam and Eve sinned, trusting their own false knowledge more than trusting what God told them, they forfeited their ability to rule over and subdue the earth. Satan tricked them into handing over their authority.

Jesus came to restore order.  

Fast-forward to when Jesus came to earth thousands of years later. He came to restore our connection to God and restore dominion of the earth to His children. Now, as those who have been washed by Jesus’ blood and are filled with His Spirit, we have the inheritance of that authority once again. We were destined to reign with Christ — not just in heavenly eternity after we die — but now! This is precisely what we mean when we talk about “bringing heaven to earth.”

We have the capacity, the privilege and the destiny to put things in order in our inner worlds as well as in the world around us.

When chaos fills your mind, you have the authority in Christ to restore it to order.

For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.  –2 Timothy 1:7 NKJV

When you have emotions out of control, you can subdue them and have dominion over them.

The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me,
Because the Lord has anointed Me
To preach good tidings to the poor;
He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted,
To proclaim liberty to the captives,
And the opening of the prison to those who are bound;
To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord,
And the day of vengeance of our God;
To comfort all who mourn,
To console those who mourn in Zion,
To give them beauty for ashes,
The oil of joy for mourning,
The garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness;
That they may be called trees of righteousness,
The planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified.
–Isaiah 61:1-3 NKJV

Why, my soul, are you downcast?
Why so disturbed within me?
Put your hope in God,
for I will yet praise him,
my Savior and my God.
–Psalm 42:5 NIV

When your physical body is not functioning properly, you have the authority to command it back into order.

But he was pierced for our transgressions,
he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was on him,
and by his wounds we are healed.
–Isaiah 53:5 NIV

Praise the Lord, my soul;
all my inmost being, praise his holy name.
Praise the Lord, my soul,
and forget not all his benefits—
who forgives all your sins
and heals all your diseases,
who redeems your life from the pit
and crowns you with love and compassion,
who satisfies your desires with good things
so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.
               –Psalm 103:1-5 NIV

Alongside restoring order to yourself, you also have the authority and the privilege of bringing order to the world around you — shifting the feel of what is happening around you by putting it in order according to the Spirit.

The Holy Spirit does not work on His own; He works through YOU to accomplish God’s will on the earth. So when the “feel” in a place is off, or is dark and oppressive, you can actually establish the Kingdom of heaven there! Jesus modeled this for us by healing people (ordering the physical), calming storms (ordering nature), casting out demons (ordering the spiritual) and driving money changers out of the Temple (ordering the atmosphere).

Enforcing order is more than just a mental or spiritual assent. More than just commanding, “Order, in Jesus’ name!” It takes your cooperation, action and exertion.

If you have a revelation from God about a situation, that is your invitation to press in and find out how to put it in order. Sometimes, establishing order looks like folding clothes, picking up trash or sweeping the floor. Sometimes it means correcting a mistake, challenging your team or setting a goal. Sometimes it is simply sticking to the direction God gave you last and working at it with all your might. The Spirit will lead you, and He is not erratic or self-interrupting. He is orderly, and you will be able to follow Him.

Today, ask God to reveal an area in your life where He desires to bring order. And then partner with Him to enforce order in that place — it is your inheritance and your destiny.

Don’t settle for chaos as the norm! You are a world changer who brings things into agreement with the will of Father God.