Strength for Chaotic Times: Five Simple Steps
Life will always have surprises—some good, some overwhelming. Just when things seem steady, chaos has a way of sneaking in and shaking up our routines, our confidence, and even our outlook on the future.
The question isn’t whether chaos will come, but how we can stay grounded when it does. What keeps us steady when the ground beneath us feels shaky? What helps us move from just getting through a season to actually growing stronger because of it?
Here are five powerful practices that can shift your perspective and give you strength even when times feel uncertain and overwhelming.
1. Choose What You Feed
In chaotic times, fear often grabs the microphone. News headlines, negative voices, and anxious thoughts can fill our minds until it feels like peace is impossible.
But what we dwell on shapes our perspective. When we keep feeding ourselves a flood of constant negativity, we only feel more and more anxious. It’s like pouring accelerant on an open flame.
On the other hand, filling our minds with life-giving words, uplifting music, and positive influences plants seeds that grow stronger each day and will eventually kill off those anxious roots.
📖 “Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.” – Romans 10:17
What we feed is what will grow. It’s up to us to choose wisely.
2. Strengthen Your Everyday Choices
The strongest foundations aren’t built in emergencies; they’re built one brick at a time. We have to start building now, not when we’re in the middle of the storm trying to figure out just how to keep standing.
When we pause to pray before a decision, take a breath instead of snapping in frustration, or approach the day with gratitude, we’re reinforcing steadiness in small but powerful ways.
📖 ”In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight.” – Proverbs 3:6
These little choices prepare us for the big ones. When chaos comes, the daily strength we’ve practiced will help carry us through.
3. Stay Close to Voices That Lift You Up
In stressful moments, it’s tempting to only listen to voices that feed into our negativity (you know, the ones that agree and tell us what we want to hear instead of what we need to hear). Or even worse, we pull back and isolate. But being alone with anxious thoughts only makes them louder.
Our circle of friends matters. We need to surround ourselves with people who bring fresh perspective, encouragement, and truth. The right voices remind us of what’s unchanging when everything else feels uncertain.
📖 ”Where there is no guidance, a people falls, but in an abundance of counselors, there is safety” – Proverbs 11:14
Hope is contagious, so we should make sure we’re catching it from the right people.
4. Say What You Need to Hear
When chaos presses in, our thoughts may spiral into “what ifs.” That’s when our words become a lifeline.
Speaking positive truths out loud—about who you are, what you believe, and where your strength comes from, (especially those rooted in scripture) —reshapes our mindset. Even if we don’t feel confident in the moment, declaring what’s true helps shift the atmosphere inside and out.
📖 “Let the weak say, ‘I am strong.’” – Joel 3:10
Sometimes the most powerful encouragement we’ll ever hear is our own voice.
5. Remember Where You’ve Been Carried Before
Looking back often gives the best perspective for moving forward.
Think of the times you’ve overcome something you didn’t think you could. Remember the moments that worked out when you couldn’t see a way. Write them down, tell the stories, keep a record of victories both big and small.
Those reminders become proof that we can face what’s ahead. If we were carried through before, we can trust we won’t be left stranded now.
📖 “He has delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will driver us again. On him we have set our hope that he will continue to deliver us,” – 2 Corinthians 1:10
Chaos may be loud, but your history tells a louder story.
Unshakeable Strength Starts Now
Strength for chaotic times doesn’t happen by accident. It’s built one choice at a time. And those choices don’t just help us survive uncertainty; they help us grow through it.
Start today:
✔️ Choose what you feed
✔️ Strengthen your daily habits
✔ ️ Stay close to uplifting people
✔️ Speak truth out loud
✔️ Remember the victories behind you
And if fear has been fighting for your attention, we’ve created a resource to help. These 10 Bible verses to memorize will give you the words to hold onto and declare over your circumstances when chaos feels loudest: