Day 12: Wickedness

Luke 11:1-28; Genesis 19; Psalm 12

Lot’s story is one of compromise. He was willing to sacrifice his daughters to a lustful crowd to protect his guests, he barters with God’s will and complains about the expectations, and then his daughters compromise their purity by having sex with their father. All of these actions lead to destruction and consequences. Rather than just obeying God, sinfulness had clouded their judgment, despite the fact they had been blessed by God.

The first verse of this Psalm sounds like a cry I have uttered about our current world. Sometimes it feels like evil is everywhere. It is disheartening to hear people denounce God or show their frustration with Christians. There is so much evil, deception, malice, pride—how can things be made right? Where is the love and justice? Are there really Christians out there? And yet God says that he will protect the needy and the weak—sometimes it is hard to see it happening. I know that that is basically our fault for failing to be God's hands and feet because God is flawless and right and we are not. It hurts me to see people hurt by one another or to hear about the wickedness around the world. I wish that God would just use his strong and just hand to swiftly remove Satan and all his demons. I pray that God's anger would not burn too long and that evil hearts will turn into broken and humble ones, willing to accept him as their Lord. But, that is not the way God always works--he gives us a choice to love or not.  

I pray that evil sees destruction by the doing of good, and hate is diminished because of extreme love.