Confusion!

Confusion hinders the progress of any objective…

The businessperson has an objective and that is to reach their desired goal. The soccer sides at the Brazilian World Cup’s objective, is to hold up the trophy, they train hard for the possibility of this accomplishment, it is the greatest prize in soccer, which only comes around every four years. And if there is confusion on or off the field this will not stand them in good stead to fulfill their once in a lifetime dream to be branded world champions! This then is what they strive for, to go down in the history books as world champions!

How often have these types of goals been hindered by confusion? More times than I would care to mention; “confusion” is a tactic that if used correctly can have the hostile effect hindering the objective of a person or a group of people.

What ploy did Satan use with Eve in the Garden of Eden? Was it not a plot to confuse her understanding? It most certainly was! "Did God actually say”, was the approach he used when endeavouring to get her to sin. Deception and confusion have very similar intentions and that is to delude someone from reaching their required intention. In Eve’s case she was forbidden to eat from a particular tree, “the tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil”! Satan attained his objective through deception and she ate from the tree, in spite of God’s commandment!

Remember the account soon after the flood when the then known world was so unified that God felt the need to confuse them, to stop them from reaching their objective, which was to build a tower into the heavens; they wanted to make a name for themselves with unity as their goal. “Now the whole earth had one language and the same words. And as people migrated from the east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. And they said to one another, "Come, let us make bricks, and burn them thoroughly." And they had brick for stone, and bitumen for mortar. Then they said, "Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth."” (Genesis 11:1-4) – However because of the fall of man and the fact that sin was alive and well, God opposed their plot; “And the LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of man had built. And the LORD said, "Behold, they are one people, and they all have one language, and this is only the beginning of what they will do. And nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them. Come, let us go down and there confuse their language, so that they may not understand one another's speech." So the LORD dispersed them from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city.” (Genesis 11:5-8) – God through Confusion achieved His objective!

With that point now established why do we as Christians sometimes feel confused, sometimes we do not know for sure what we should do in any given circumstance; should we move, should we get married or not and so on. God is not the God of confusion! “For God is not a God of confusion but of peace. As in all the churches of the saints.” (1Corinthians 14:33) – It is obvious that God, our God has used confusion to hinder the plans of men who oppose Him, but it is clear to see that in the verse above “God is not a God of confusion but of peace.” His objective would never be to confuse His children! Satan on the other hand strives to achieve confusion amongst the saints of God!

Why then do Christians face confusion throughout varying times in their lives? I believe it is when we are all about “self” and when the will of God gets pushed aside; it is at these times in our lives that we open ourselves up to confusion.

Did you not know that the objective for maturing as a Christian is the “unity of the faith”? “until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.” (Ephesians 4:13-14)

There was no confusion in Christ, He was the perfect man, and He came to do the will of His Father. He was never confused! He may well have sweated drops of blood in the Garden of Gethsemane and cried “my God my God why hast thy forsaken me” when he hung on the cross, but He was never confused! He came to do all the will of His Father and He achieved this end with perfection, praise His name!

My conclusion then, the closer we align ourselves to the will of God for our lives the less “confusion” will play its part in it.

Signing off

Tyrone