By David ReayMonday 30 Nov 2020LifeWords DevotionalsDevotionsReading Time: 2 minutes
Don’t let anyone under pressure to give in to evil say, “God is trying to trip me up.” God is impervious to evil, and puts evil in no one’s way. The temptation to give in to evil comes from us and only us. We have no one to blame but the leering, seducing flare-up of our own lust. Lust gets pregnant, and has a baby: sin! Sin grows up to adulthood, and becomes a real killer.
So, my very dear friends, don’t get thrown off course. Every desirable and beneficial gift comes out of heaven. The gifts are rivers of light cascading down from the Father of Light. There is nothing deceitful in God, nothing two-faced, nothing fickle. He brought us to life using the true Word, showing us off as the crown of all his creatures. (THE MESSAGE)
It can be tempting to blame God for whatever happens. Those who think God’s sovereignty means he causes all things to happen can be driven to that conclusion. But as our text observes, God is not the author of evil. He may allow evil to happen but neither causes it or approves of it. Not everything that happens in our world can be attributed to God.
He does not override our freedom as humans so as to make sin impossible. He does not so micro manage the world that he ensures no bad things happen. We may question this and even agonise over this, but it appears to be the reality we are to accept.
When I go wrong, it is my responsibility. My environment may affect me, but I am ultimately accountable for my actions. And I need to recognise my outward wrong actions spring from preceding inner actions. Which in turn arise out of my desire to go my own way and not the way of my Creator.
Rather than God being the source of evil, he is the source of all goodness. Any truly good and right thing we enjoy has its origins in God. The evil one cannot create goodness, only God can do that. We may understandably lament at all that is wrong in ourselves and our world. Blaming God for it is to shift the blame. Thanking God for the good is the better way to go.
Blessings
David