Where Is God In All Of This?

I turn on the television news and immediately see that it’s another typical week of watching evil unfold around the world.  There’s continued uprising in Egypt, chemical attack in Syria upon their own people, a teenaged girl kidnapped but found in the mountains, a little child abducted from a playground and found in a shallow grave nearby, an attempted shooting at an elementary school in Georgia,  jihad declared upon Christians in Egypt for not following Islam.   The list goes on and on about evil around the globe today.  Evil reigns in the hearts of many.

The question then gets asked, usually by those who don’t know God personally: Where is a loving God in all of this?  The question is asked with accusation, and sometimes anger and bitterness.  To those of us who do know God personally, we know the answer:  Where is God when evil is hurting innocent people?  He’s right there doing as He has always done; He is offering the one and only way to a better world — He is offering Jesus who is “The way, the truth, and the life.”  (John 14:6)

Long ago, God gave His only Son to pay the death penalty for our sin.  When we accept what He has done for us, recognize it was our sin that put Him on the cross, and ask His forgiveness — He not only forgives us, but He makes us a new person.  He puts aside the past and sets us on a new path.  He gives us a cleaned up heart.  Like a car with an oil change we can run with hope along our journey in life, and leave behind the days of merely bumping along, wondering if we would really get to a good destination.

Today’s world is full of trouble, and intelligent people are asking, why?  They outlaw God from every element of society, forbid prayer in public places, refuse His commands for moral living, and then get all upset when, as they say, “God isn’t doing anything to help in evil situations.”

God has clearly said, “Whoever is not with me is against me.”  (Matthew 12:30) God is everything that is good and pure, lovely and beautiful.  It stands to reason that, if we are for Him and choose to follow His ways, we will see goodness and purity, loveliness and beauty, fill the hearts of mankind.  Such an outcome could only lead to goodness in the world.  Instead, governments and other judicial powers, declare that God is no longer allowed in certain public places.  They are against Him being the center; God is told to take a back seat.  By this very declaration, they put goodness and purity and love on the back seat, leaving everything that is opposite of God to reign.   Evil, then, takes a seat up front.

To every follower of Jesus, each one of us is only one person — or so we think.  We must never forget that — one plus God is a majority.  Never think that you cannot make a difference in the part of this world where God has placed you or where God sends you.  I encourage each of us, when evil raises it’s ugly head, be ready to always answer the question: Where is God in all of this?  “Be ready to give an answer to every man that asks you a reason for the hope that is in you.”  (I Peter 3:1)  When you walk in the light, and point to the light, you might be the very person to lead someone out of the darkness.