What To Do When Evil Seems to Win

4 You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. 5 Or do you think that the Scripture speaks to no purpose: "He jealously desires the Spirit which He has made to dwell in us"? 6 But He gives a greater grace. Therefore it says, "GOD IS OPPOSED TO THE PROUD, BUT GIVES GRACE TO THE HUMBLE." 7 Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. 8 Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded.

The words from the Scripture above are potent and tend to impact my spirit. I certainly understand that in order to not have fellowship with worldliness, which God detests, is a two-fold process. 

(1) Resist the Devil with Intention - We want to see him run from us as we resist him by declaring our absolute commitment to our Lord. We intentionally resist him. Satan has no power where he is not welcome. And he is never welcome in a Christian heart, life, or home that has been dedicated to the Lord Jesus.  Satan will run from those environments.

(2) Draw Near to God in Submission - Each day as we dedicate ourselves in purity and spiritual cleanliness we not only draw closer to the Lord, but He draws closer to us (vs 7 above). As the writer of Hebrews 10:22 stated:

"let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water."

I am sure that you know these truths as well. But what happens when you make such commitments but the actions of others or when circumstances that are seemingly beyond your control allow Satan to settle in and do the  damage he desires to do? What happens when the first half of John 10:10 is allowed to rule? "The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy ..." What happens when evil wins? What do you do?

What to Do When Evil Wins | Never Compromise God's Word

Truth is one of the Christian's most potent weapons. We shall know the truth and it will set us free. Jesus disarmed his opponents by speaking His Father's truths to them. We also have this same power. We simply confront the situation with the truth of God's word and trust the results to God:

14 As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming;15 but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ ... (Ephesians 4)

These words from Ephesians tell us to remain steady. No matter how crafty and deceitful Satan is, we don't waver. Even when Satan can influence a solid Christian to compromise his or her values, we don't waver. Even if the efforts of Satan are stealing the joy, killing the relationship, and destroying something beautiful and good; we don't waver. We don't fall for the craftiness of lost or evil men. We don't allow ourselves to be drawn into deceitfulness or scheming. We stand firm on the TRUTH of God's word and speak it in the authority of the Holy Spirit and in the power of the name of Jesus. We are not child-like in our faith. We are mature and strong. We don't waver! Our weapon is truth and we use it to the glory of God! We show grace and love to those we speak truth to, but we speak truth without compromise.

What to Do When Evil Wins | Trust the Situation to God

James 1: 2-4 reads as follows:

2 Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, 3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. 4 And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

There are times when God allows our faith to be tested. The testing referred to in James 1 is the process of purifying gold. Rough gold would be melted under intense heat and as the metal liquified the impurities would rise to the top. Those impurities would be scrapped off and the gold would be allowed to harden. That process would be repeated until no more impurities rose to the top. This is what causes gold to be considered pure. 

When it seems that evil is winning or even has won, you and I simply have to trust the situation to God. We need to view it as a test of faith. God has allowed us to be thrown into the fire and we need to stand firm in the heat. We need to endure it. We need to allow God to use the situation to make us better, stronger, more faithful, and pure in His eyes.

When evil wins, it hurts. Especially if the evil has destroyed a faithful Christian heart, a beautiful and loving marriage, a church, a business, or a friendship. But we have to trust the situation to our loving Lord. We can only pray for wisdom (James 1:5), speak the truth in love, and then simply see how God may use even the evil for His ultimate purposes (Romans 8:28).

I trust these words have been a blessing to you. 

Tony Guthrie, PhD.
tguthriebiz@gmail.com
404-933-041