Comfortable with the evil around us. Guest Writer today! So thankful God speaks to others to bless us here at Hope in the Healing. I am praying 2017 is a better year for me in this role but I decided a long time ago that I would only share it if I felt God had given it. It doesn’t matter if three read it or 1,000, He knows who it is for and I am so content with that. You will be blessed today by my friend and SIL, Sue Elkins. She writes from the heart!
Having trouble fighting evil thoughts? Is evil abounding everywhere? Has the evilness of people become worse?
In prayer, I was talking to the Lord about the evil that seems to be everywhere today. Two scriptures came to mind:
“Evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse…” 2 Timothy 3:13.
“Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound.” Romans 5:20.
I don’t know if evil is worse or if the number of people committing those evils has become worse. Of course, the speed at which we can now know about those evils is much quicker! The age of technology is good and bad. It has made our lives easier but the bad news gets to us much faster. And it seems that bad news is all there is these days. We seem to be loaded daily with evil, so much so that I fear our minds have become used to evil.
It is all around us!
- Another police office killed in the line of duty
- Another school shooting
- Another terrorist attack
These are all things that just 20 years ago were not common, every day occurrences. Has evil become common? Have we accepted evil as just another news event? And if so, perhaps this everyday bombardment of bad has made us lax in concern for the world around us.
Whoa!
In a world where Christians are trying to decide which evil will be worse in the White House, have we become accustomed to evil as a normal way of life? Everyone does it, so it’s not a big deal.
I am reminded of the water dripping on the rock…if it drips long enough it will make a crevice and change the rock! Seems unbelievable but it is true.
We have been pounded so long with evil that we need to be careful that we don’t accept it as just the norm. We need to check our thinking patterns and see if we view some evils differently than we did years ago. If so, why?
Have we been forced by the pounding of outside influences to decide that some evil is just normal or acceptable?
Wouldn’t the adversary be happy with that….God forbid!
I know one Rock that will not change, no matter how much evil is pounded against it! Jesus Christ, thou art my Rock. He alone is my Rock, the Rock of my salvation, blessed be my Rock!
Yes, lead me to the Rock that is higher than I because I am changeable, but Lord, You are not. I must be established in You so that no matter what force of evil comes against me I do not change in my determination to stand for You!
In Paul’s letter to Timothy, he was warning of things to come and yet I don’t want to leave my opening scripture at verse 13 of 2 Timothy 3. That could seem like a defeated, depressing place to be left, so let’s read on…
“Continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them; And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.” 2 Timothy 3:14-17.
Thank you, Paul! You gave Timothy and all of us hope! If we continue in the faith which we know is TRUE, the faith that was taught to us by our spiritual leaders and elders; if we allow the scriptures to make us wise against the evil and bring us salvation; if we remember that GOD GAVE US the scriptures for our good, to guide us, correct us, bring us instruction…then we can be perfect in Christ Jesus. Not in ourselves, but in Him!
Oh Lord, let me read more of Your Word, let me study it and hide it in my heart, let me not take the evil of this world into my world, but fight harder to overcome it and therefore be able to help others to overcome it too.
Let me end with this thought and one of my favorite passages of scripture. NOTHING, NOTHING, NOTHING can separate us from God unless we allow it to.
“In all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 8:37-39.
Sue is a mother of four, a grandmother of three, a long time Broker/Associate with Re/Max Realty Professionals, and was a pastor’s wife for many years. She and her husband, Dexter, are still very active in their church, aptly teaching, ministering and being helpers as the Bible calls us to be. She keeps the highways busy traveling to see her grandbabies as often as she can.
Sharing with Living Proverbs 31, Moments of Hope, Modest Mondays
Great post! Yes, evil will continue to abound but our God brings His hope and love as we continue to seek Him through His Word. Grateful for every word you have shared. Blessings!
Great post.
I think that what we often miss is the ‘ordinariness’ of evil; we are looking for Carols the Jackal, when we can find evil next door in the neighbour who delights in shooting cats.
C.S. Lewis described this vividly in “Perelandra”, and the chap who captured Adolf Eichmann coined the phrase ‘the banality of evil’.
We’re used to it because we see its face every day, and in trying to be ‘nice and understanding’ to our cat-murdering neighbour we spawn a generation of Eichmanns.