Thought of the Day !!

 Satan, who is the god of this world, has blinded the minds of those who don’t believe.

                                    2 Corinthians 4:4 (NLT)

Though God is ultimately in charge, He allows Satan to roam free…at least for a time.  One day Jesus will come back and Satan will get what he deserves for leading people astray.  But for now we must realize that evil persists in this world of ours. 

Satan tries to convince people to do evil things.  And those who don’t believe in a one true moral and holy and just God are prime targets for this.  Some examples of this include the Holocaust, genocide in places around the world including Bosnia, Sudan, Somalia, Cambodia and Rwanda, and the capture of children in places in Africa to be turned into soldiers who will kill innocent people and rape and kill women.

The devil isn’t satisfied with only convincing people who don’t know Jesus to do evil.  His ultimate goal is to come between God and us so he tries extra hard to lure us into evil as well.  In writing to early Christians Peter says in 1 Peter 5:8, “Stay alert! Watch out for your great enemy, the devil.  He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour.”

Are we capable of evil?  Yes.  We all have the capacity for evil in us.  We may not have it in us to do the horrific things that were mentioned earlier.  But anything that leads others and us away from God is evil.  It’s what we struggle with as the Holy Spirit battles our sinful nature. 

Evil might be things we do, but can also be seen when we do nothing and allow things to persist that are evil.  Maybe you’ve heard the quote by Edmund Burke, “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”

Either way, whether by what we do or what we don’t do, evil persists when we’re distracted and fall into the temptations of the devil.  Protect yourself from that by staying close to God constantly.  And always remember, no matter how much evil is in this world, Jesus has won the final battle against it. Eternity will be ruled by the King of kings, not Satan, the temporary god of this world.

In the love of Christ,

greg