And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.  ~Matthew 6:13

This past week, a man that we used to attend church with was murdered. This has brought up the age-old discussion of, If God could have stopped it, why didn’t He? There are things we will never understand while on earth, but I know that the answer is not to cave into fear as tempting as that is. God is still good no matter what bad thing happens to us or our loved ones, and He can still be trusted.

The Freemans sang a song that said:

He won’t keep you from the fire
But He’ll sure keep you through

There have been times that I wasn’t sure about this, but God has kept me through every trial I’ve gone through, and I don’t anticipate that He will stop now.

As much as I like to pray, “God, protect me from evil,” we should also pray that God will remove the evil from our own hearts–those feelings of hatred and anger and malice that make us no better than murderers in God’s sight. We need to make sure that our hearts are pure and ready to meet God however that happens.

I would imagine that no professing Christian really sees himself as evil, but I encourage you to examine your heart and make sure that there is nothing hidden that you would not want to be exposed one day. Hebrews 12:15 tells us that even a root of bitterness will grow and defile many. I’ve seen it happen so I know that to be true. We cannot judge the world if we act like them so let’s keep studying the Word and learning how to become more like Christ so that we can truly have the victory in Jesus that we desire.