How the Unbeliever and the Believer Handles Evil in Their Lives

Often men will be heard question God and why He allows evil. They find it strange that the believer should praise the Lord when so much evil is in the world, even in their own lives. Awful things happen, and we are at a loss as to why.  Health, accidents, death, divorce, strife, deprivation and many other things attend our lives. Yet the believer praises the Lord. He praises the Lord even though things are “bad.” Has it occurred to you and I that the same things happen to all men and women? Let the believer stop rejoicing in the Lord in the midst of life’s troubles. What then shall he do? Does not the man and woman of the world realize that without God they have the same troubles and calamities we have as believers? I think the world thinks that somehow that our praising and rejoicing in the Lord in the midst of bad things somehow makes God responsible for the bad. What they don’t realize is the same things are happening to them. The difference is how they explain them and find help in the midst of them. The world explains bad things as bad luck and tries to handles it by at the best hoping for better things to come tomorrow. The believer handles it by recognizing the Lord is over seeing all these events (good or bad) and even using them to do the believer good in the end. That is the difference, and what a large difference! One has no hope other than in chance. The other has hope in a God who knows all things, has power over all things and is using all things to our good. That is why we praise the Lord in the midst of extreme opposition and bad in our lives. Not praising God will not take away the evil. Becoming an atheist doesn’t take away the heart breaks of life. It rather leaves men and women without hope, living is a world of chance, trying to keep their chin up. Praising God does not take away the evil. But it is the result of understanding evil’s limited place in this fallen world. It is the result of knowing there is a God who “doeth all things well.” It results in testifying as Nebuchadnezzar that God “does according to his will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth: and none can stay his hand or say unto him “What doest thou?” Brethren, two family members often illustrate this. One child looks at his parents as unfair and directly or indirectly complains of all the trouble in his life as some how rooted in them as faulty.  The other child, though, looks at his parents as beneficial and good to them. Even though they suffer troubles, they are thankful to parents, knowing they are doing “their best.” How much more does our Heavenly Father do perfectly! We can praise Him without hesitation. So in many ways it is how the world views God that shows up in their disdain for our praise to Him even in trouble. Don’t then think it strange that we would praise Him in the midst of trouble. All have trouble. We, though, have the right view point of things. The result in a perpetual stream of praise for His abundant goodness in the worst of life’s circumstances.