Entertaining Evil

SCRIPTURE: Prov. 8:13 All who fear the Lord will hate evil.

OBSERVATION: Our world has a strange relationship with evil. Some forms of evil are reviled and despised (child abuse, terrorism or murder for example) while others (using God's name in vain, drunkenness or sexual immorality for example) are not just tolerated but celebrated as something to make light of and to enjoy. When we fear God, a characteristic our world has little of, we hate what He hates and He hates evil. It is a constant struggle to "renew our minds" so we don't start looking like the world but, instead, look like Him.

APPLICATION/CONFESSION: Too often I find myself, in my mind, simply going with the flow in regards to evil. I don't indulge but I also don't hate it. In fact, I can find myself intrigued by it, entertained by it instead of disgusted by it. I must continually renew my mind in God's Word and learn, more and more, what it means to fear Him.

PRAYER: Dear Lord, I do fear you. I want to fear you more rightly and deeply. Please help me and help me to hate evil--to see it the way You see it. Reveal to me the utter evilness of evil so that I don't just see the pretty wrapping Satan has put on it, but its ugly, awful reality that destroys lives and sends people to hell.