God is and forever will be in control.  Evil is and will forever be repaid with evil by God who loves and leads His People back to Him, to His best life for them, to His love, care, protection, and provisions all because God is forever faithful to us.  His love knows no bounds or limitations.  God created all so God can pump the breaks on his creation until evil is vanquished once and for all.  Read His Word, His Book, and you will see that God wins now and later.  His Son, Jesus, made it all possible for us to be victorious with Him.  That means those who cling to Him, believe, and follow in His ways will also win.

Evil isn’t winning now, although it seems like it at times.  It seems that evil has the upper hand, more control that he should have with power to make things happen in the lives of those he as lied to and has control of in this world.  But it is only temporary.  We are tested in our faith by the Tempter called Satan—the fallen angel.  The Tempter is working overtime these days to draw all of us away from God with one goal—to destroy us.  Since his powers are very limited, however, he keeps chipping away at what he thinks he can destroy—all that belongs to God.

“READ the book!” shouts Isaiah.  Isaiah prophesies of a time when there will be nothing to be seen at the final demise of evil and all that has been done by evil in the world. The Destroyer will be destroyed once and for all to see.  The Liar will no longer be allowed to do his deeds among God’s people.  Death will not be the victor.  Life and more life will come and take control—forever.  Read the Book!  Believers win in the end.  Our daily battles with evil are mere skirmishes because the war has already been won!  The Tempter is not convinced and never will be until the final battle is fought and won.  That is something to long for and look forward to—a time where evil is banned for eternity!

Isaiah 34, The Message

The Fires Burning Day and Night

Draw in close now, nations. Listen carefully,
    you people. Pay attention!
Earth, you, too, and everything in you.
    World, and all that comes from you.

^2-4 And here’s why: God is angry,
    good and angry with all the nations,
So blazingly angry at their arms and armies
    that he’s going to rid earth of them, wipe them out.
The corpses, thrown in a heap,
    will stink like the town dump in midsummer,
Their blood flowing off the mountains
    like creeks in spring runoff.
Stars will fall out of the sky
    like overripe, rotting fruit in the orchard,
And the sky itself will be folded up like a blanket
    and put away in a closet.
All that army of stars, shriveled to nothing,
    like leaves and fruit in autumn, dropping and rotting!

^5-7 “Once I’ve finished with earth and sky,
    I’ll start in on Edom.
I’ll come down hard on Edom,
    a people I’ve slated for total termination.”
God has a sword, thirsty for blood and more blood,
    a sword hungry for well-fed flesh,
Lamb and goat blood,
    the suet-rich kidneys of rams.
Yes, God has scheduled a sacrifice in Bozrah, the capital,
    the whole country of Edom a slaughterhouse.
A wholesale slaughter, wild animals
    and farm animals alike slaughtered.
The whole country soaked with blood,
    all the ground greasy with fat.

^8-15 It’s God’s scheduled time for vengeance,
    the year all Zion’s accounts are settled.
Edom’s streams will flow sluggish, thick with pollution,
    the soil sterile, poisoned with waste,
The whole country
    a smoking, stinking garbage dump—
The fires burning day and night,
    the skies black with endless smoke.
Generation after generation of wasteland—
    no more travelers through this country!
Vultures and skunks will police the streets;
    owls and crows will feel at home there.
God will reverse creation. Chaos!
    He will cancel fertility. Emptiness!
Leaders will have no one to lead.
    They’ll name it No Kingdom There,
A country where all kings
    and princes are unemployed.
Thistles will take over, covering the castles,
    fortresses conquered by weeds and thornbushes.
Wild dogs will prowl the ruins,
    ostriches have the run of the place.
Wildcats and hyenas will hunt together,
    demons and devils dance through the night.
The night-demon Lilith, evil and rapacious,
    will establish permanent quarters.
Scavenging carrion birds will breed and brood,
    infestations of ominous evil.

^16-17 Get and read God’s book:
    None of this is going away,
    this breeding, brooding evil.
God has personally commanded it all.
    His Spirit set it in motion.
God has assigned them their place,
    decreed their fate in detail.
This is permanent—
    generation after generation, the same old thing.

WHAT DO WE LEARN—HOW DO WE RESPOND?

When tempted and tried, shout out, “Not today, Satan!”  “In Jesus Name, not today!”

Do this all day long and into the night and see what happens.  We are calling on the full, limitless power that raised Jesus from death to life, to defeat our enemy.  It works every time.  Believe me, I’ve done it!  Be the victor with Jesus.  There are no regrets when we do.

Lord,

Thank you for reminding us of the power we have from you to fight our real and ever-present danger who lies, cheats, tests and tempts us and tries to steal our attention from You with goals to defeat and destroy our faith.  I trust in you, dear Jesus, for you have already defeated him.  Help me in the daily battle to avoid all evil’s schemes.  

And to you be all glory!

In Jesus Name, Amen

Why is God waiting? Because God “is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance” (2 Pet. 3:9). How much longer God will wait, nobody knows; so it would be a great idea for lost sinners to repent today and trust the Savior.