Evil In Me!Paul came out with an interesting statement in Romans 8:21: I find then the principle that evil is present in me, the one who wishes to do good.
I have come to the conclusion that I am in the same condition. Evil is always trying to rise up in me, in my speech and in my actions. Yet I have known the Lord for many years and tried to be faithful and obedient. I finally asked myself the question. Why is evil in me? What is its purpose? Then another question comes to mind. Why did God cast Satan down to the earth where His church is?
I believe that Satan was cast down to this earth to fulfill his purpose. Satan’s purpose is to serve God and God’s people. In spite of the fact that he waged war in heaven and was defeated, he still must fulfill his purpose. God does cause all things to work together for our good, and that includes evil. When Adam and Eve ate of the fruit from the tree of good and evil, evil became a part of them and has been a part of every one of us to this day. If you cannot see that evil is constantly trying to rise up in you and use you, you are indeed blind.
We look around us and see some people are constantly doing good and others doing many evil things. What is the difference between these people? Those doing good are refusing to allow the evil in them to rise up and control them. The others, are doing nothing to resist the evil that is in them and letting evil have its way in their life.
Evil is in us so that we can overcome it and defeat it. If you can defeat the evil in you, then you are truly a victorious person and you have defeated the evil in the world, in effect you have defeated Satan and all his evil spirits.
An interesting scripture in the Old Testament Genesis 4:5-7: But for Cain and his offering, He had no regard. So Cain became very angry and his countenance fell. Then the Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry? Why has your countenance fallen?If you do well, will not your countenance be lifted up? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door: and its desire is for you, but you must master it.”It is not the evil out there somewhere that defeats you. It is the evil in you that you do not master that defeats you We can have Christ in us and the baptism of the Holy Spirit and still live defeated day after day.Evil has a way of rising up in us so that it does not have the appearance of evil. We think of it as some small sin issue. And not only that, we make excuses for our sin which is really evil.
Is murder evil? Is coveting evil? Is gossip evil? Is uncontrolled anger and violence, sin or evil? Do these things make our countenance fall?
Who must master it? We do! God through Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit has given us everything we need to master evil and defeat it.