Psalm 92:15 NLT 
They will declare, “The Lord is just! He is my rock! There is no evil in him!”
Who do you blame, when things go wrong? And why do we feel we need to do so? Non-Christians often say that God, if he exists, can only be evil, because of life’s tragic moments. For evil is the antithesis of the good, and what good God could countenance evil? This, however, still leaves the problem of who to blame for the unpalatable aspects of life. If, as the psalmist claims, there is no evil in God, then how might we account for the troubles we experience and see around the world?  
And what about the evil we find in ourselves? All of us have evil thoughts. These usually seek to ensure our own benefit at the expense of another. So we can conclude evil is not some external force but one that exercises influence from within every person. Some give in to its charms, hence the repeated crimes across society. For me, evil’s the residue of my wilfulness; a wilfulness that seeks to stray from God. I lie, I cheat, I misrepresent; all evil actions that promote my interests, while damaging another’s. This residue is in process of being cleaned up. Like a chemical spill, the problem has been identified, the solution enacted. All that’s required is time to complete the task. So God identified our problem, sin, identified the solution and enacted it, the incarnate life and ministry of Christ. Now we simply await Christ’s return, knowing the consequences of the original problem have been adequately dealt with and we are no longer subject to its consequences. 
Crisis, as we have so recently seen, challenges the comfortable basis of our daily lives. Even within sophisticated societies, planning cannot prevent crises. It is through them that we discover who we are, and what we truly want.  
QUESTION: How far do you find yourself misrepresenting others, when a crisis occurs? 
PRAYER: Whatever evil I meet today, Lord, may I emerge wiser and stronger.  

Released on 4 Sep 2020