EXHORTATIONS (PART 11)

Can I pray for you in any way?

Send any prayer requests to Gods4all@aol.com

In Christ, Mark

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

** Follow The Christian Walk on Twitter @ThChristianWalk

** Like posts and send friend requests to the author of The Christian Walk, Mark Cummings on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/mark.cummings.733?ref=tn_tnmn

** Become a Follower of The Christian Walk at http://the-christian-walk.blogspot.com

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

“Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”

Romans 12:21

This ends today’s reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

AUTHOR’S NOTE: This is the last of eleven devotions in the series, Exhortations. We conclude with the final verse in Romans 12. I will be taking a break through Advent and the Christmas/New Years Day holidays, sharing a special Advent/Christmas series with you. Once we enter 2022, I will resume my devotions from Romans and then continue to carry on through the New Testament through the year.

There is evil in the world.

You don’t need to look far to find it as it is within our towns and cities, no matter where we might go.

At its highest levels, evil makes its way into our local, national, and world news broadcasts and news publications, in print and online. We seem to be bombarded with the bad things that are happening around us to the point where we might think we live in a dark and hopeless world.

In other words, we can feel like evil has overcome us.

With this, let me ask you a question.

How many good news stories do you hear about on your news broadcasts or read about in your news publications?

They won’t be hard to count and therein is the disparity we need to always keep in mind. If we allow the press to dictate our local, national, and world views then we will feel like evil is taking over things. This is because good news is ignored more often than not.

Why is this happening?

Because Satan, our enemy, seeks to suppress the good work that God is doing in the world, both on His own and through His people. He never rests in his efforts to do this.

Don’t be deceived. God is working exponentially more good in our communities and our municipalities than Satan is manifesting evil. There is good all around us. We just need to open our eyes up to see it. When we do, good will overcome evil and do so in a big way as we see our final exhortation in this series come to life.

But there’s one other application here, one that is at a very personal level.

I say this because we all are sinners who have fallen short of God’s glory (Romans 3:23). It’s a truth we would rather not talk about but nonetheless it is the truth. We are all infected with a disease that reveals itself symptomatically through the committing of evil acts. Everyone has the potential to be off-the-charts evil.

Conversely, any one person has the potential to be incredibly good, off-the-charts good, but they will only get there if they deny Satan and the sin he leads them to, trading his ways for the Lord’s.

In other words, the only way to overcome evil with good on a personal level is to have a personal relationship with the God of perfect goodness. Devote yourself to Him fully and you will devote yourself to good in such a way that there is no space for evil.

This is my prayer for all of us as we get set to wrap up another year and have the chance to start fresh in 2022. Let’s all commit ourselves totally to our Lord and allow Him to do good through us in the new year.

Think about what a game changer that would be.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it.
Send any prayer requests to Gods4all@aol.com