I am sure you are all aware of the mass killing that happened this week in a Texas school. I don’t want to make this incident any more important than the many other events and times we have had mass killings across our nation. We hurt when we remember the first incident, and we hurt now. It seems we have a sickness that cannot be treated or healed.
So, in the face of what seems like constant hurt and pain that is all around, what can we do for ourselves and for others? There is no easy answer. But first, we must understand what is happening in our land. We are living in a land and in a time with many more nonbelievers than believers. And we live in a land and in a time where some believers live more by their feelings than by God’s feelings.
There are many who believe there is an answer to every question, a solution to every problem, and a good ending to every bad story. But I’m not sure that is true. Sometimes bad things will happen because bad things exist. And sometimes, bad things will keep good from happening.
So why are we here, and why is the land so sick? Well, there may be lots of reasons, but I believe we live in a world of wickedness now more than ever. To be wicked is to do things that are harmful towards others in a very intentional way. To be wicked is to decide on your own moral sense of right and wrong. To be wicked is to hate others and to even hate yourself.
Psalm 7:9 says, “Oh, let the wickedness of the wicked come to an end. But establish the Just; For the righteous God tests the hearts and minds.” We must understand that we have wickedness in the world because we have wicked people among us. The word wicked sounds really bad. We are probably very hesitant to refer to anyone as wicked.
The wicked live by their feelings. They live by their own sense of right and wrong, their own sense of moral and immoral. They do not accept that there is a higher sense of right and wrong different from what they believe is right for themselves. They do not care about themselves, so they are unable to care about you or me.
The wicked corrupt the deepest and most vulnerable parts of who we are. It will make us believe we can have all we want in the way that we want. It will make us think we do not have to change things about us to make things around us better. The wicked make us learn to live with wickedness as the norm. Wickedness will make us unable to care about what we should care about, and it will make us care for what we should reject.
But this is all the work of wickedness. This work will keep us sick in our souls, so our land will be sick. But there is something we can all do to stop the wickedness around us. We must understand that wickedness in people is what destroys other people.
We need to do something about how easily it seems that people can get their hands on a gun. But we must understand that if we took all the guns away, a wicked person would find another way to do their wicked things.
Guns do not cause a wicked person to do wicked things. Wickedness in the heart causes a wicked person to do wicked things. Wickedness is not a mental problem as much as it is simply a heart problem.
So lets join in prayer and ask the Lord to bring the wicked works of the wicked people to an end.
Let’s ask the Lord to reestablish the Just, the way we lead and the way we follow.
Let’s ask the Lord to test the hearts and minds of us all and reveal any lurking wickedness deep down in our souls.
Let’s ask the Lord to focus the believers on having upright hearts more than judging hearts. Upright according to His ways, not our own.
It is not enough to just think the opposite from those around us; we must think in just ways for the people around us.
God is Just. He will heal our land and deliver us from this sickness when we accept that much of our ways are morally right for humans but wrong for Him.
Lord, please heal our land. And start first with me.
If I have any wickedness towards others lurking in me, please root it out and replace it with Your Love.
Live a Delivered Life. Love you.
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