Evil? March 8, 2009
Posted by Cindy Beecher in Bible, Difficulty, ENOUGH!, Evil, God, Healing, Hope, Salvation, Sin.trackback
I recently had a conversation with several ladies about evil (Our Pastor gave a definition of evil as he was preaching through 2 Peter 1:1-11) and the conversation started by one saying she didn’t really agree with our Pastor’s definition.
Here is the definition our Pastor said: “Evil is living a life independent of God.” “Evil is living your life independent of God, it’s living your life as if God doesn’t exist. The creator of everything, the one to whom all glory is due and living your life like he doesn’t exist, that is evil.” “If you are living your life independent of God then you are living the evil desires of your life.”
I have to say that I was alarmed that godly church going folk did not see themselves as remotely evil, nor did they see some of their non-believing friends as evil.
But, as I look upon my life especially before knowing God all I can see is the evil that lived inside me. Still, even now, after knowing God for 26 years I battle against the old sin nature that desires to evil in the Lord’s sight.
God has cleansed me of every sin I ever committed or ever will commit when I trusted Jesus as my Savior. The old evil Cindy is dead, but the battle against that old sin nature continues today.
James 1:13-14 says: When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; but each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed.
Jesus was tempted just as we are but never sinned. He was the only sinless one who ever walked the face of the earth.
I am thankful that I know I can be tempted to do what is evil because of my own evil desires that come from my old sin nature. I believe that knowing my areas of weakness, is a good thing. Because when I am weak He is strong. As long as I turn to Him every time I am tempted, He will give me a way of escape. He is my strength.
I know that apart from God my heart would go straight to evil all the time. I know the depths from whence I came and I know that He alone can rescue me from the pit I would fall into without Him.
Thank you Father for rescuing my life from the pit. Thank you Father that your mercy and grace knows no end. Thank you that by the power of your Holy Spirit I am made strong in my weakness, because your strength is greater than my greatest weakness. How could I ever say thank you enough? I am looking forward to having all eternity to praise His name for all He has done and all He has yet to do!
Find your strength and hope in God alone.
In Him there is no weakness.
His strenght is MORE THAN ENOUGH!
I find this definition of evil to be right on target from all that I have observed over the past few years. I have been learning for some time that most of the things we think of as evil are really only symptoms of a much deeper problem, the problem of thinking that all we need is a little supernatural help and we can get it right.
I also believe that until we come to realize that each one of us is fully capable of nearly all the evil that we so readily condemn in others that we live in an illusionary world thinking that we are relatively “good”. When I began getting personally honest about the nature of the scenes running around in my head I began to realize that the evil inside my fallen nature was far more diabolical than I ever imagined possible. Then I also began to realize how important it was to trust fully in the righteousness of Jesus alone and disavow any credit or merit of my own making. I still struggle to believe that in my heart but it is becoming clearer all the time.