Evil: February 17, 2011

TODAYS WORD FOR THURSDAY FEBRUARY 17, 2011.

EVIL

DEFINITION:

Immoral; wicked; harmful; a violation of moral principles; improper conduct.

SCRIPTURE:

Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. Romans 12:21.

KNOWLEDGE AND EXPERIENCE:

When we consider the evil in our world today, it is so bad that sometimes you might ask, “Is there any good at all in our world?” You can look at the newspapers, read the news magazines, listen to the radio or watch television and all you will hear is the bad (evil) things in our world.

The victim of evil is goodness. The goodness we are talking about is the goodness that God designed for us when He created our world for everyone to enjoy.

You can talk to friends and neighbors and you will find no shortage of opinions as to what is wrong in our world. From the day that Adam and Eve ate the fruit of the “tree of the knowledge of good and evil,” we have had to contend with evil. Beginning in the book of Genesis the Bible traces the ongoing struggle between good and evil in the lives of the fallen human race.

God alone is good. Psalm 94:15 declares that “The Lord is upright; there is no wickedness in Him.” Satan is God’s enemy and adversary. He is completely evil. Satan is called the evil one, the deceiver, a murderer, a liar, the tempter and the ruler of demons.

Sometimes it seems that Satan has the upper hand and we are powerless. When the terrorists brought down the world trade center on 9/11 we felt paralyzed and helpless. We could only watch the TV coverage in unbelief.

But those of us that have our faith in the Lord do not feel powerless in times of evil. Most of us feel evil on a smaller, more personal scale. In Romans 12:21 the apostle Paul tells us the proper response we should have to evil when he says that we are to abhor evil and not to repay it with more evil and more important not to be overcome by evil.

Evil gets all the headlines in today’s world but as believers we must remember that the goodness of God is stronger and He wants us to use it on His behalf to overcome His enemy which is evil. Just as light will overcome darkness, goodness will overcome evil.

Paul admonishes us to abhor evil and not repay evil with evil. He advises us in Romans 12:21 to “not be overcome with evil, but overcome evil with good.”

LEARNING:
Our memory verse for this week is found in Psalm 100:4.

Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise. Be thankful to Him, and bless His name.

PRAYER:

Thank You for the promise that You give me when You say for me to bless those who persecute me and that I need to rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those that weep. Help me to overcome evil in my own life and help me to be a positive example of Your goodness as I walk daily with You.