There is a lot of grumbling about what God is allowing to take place around the world. Seeing the existence of evil around them, people quickly criticize or question God. People often question the existence, the love, the goodness or the power of God by saying something like, “If God is so loving and so kind, if His intentions are so good, and if He is all powerful, then why did He allow … to happen.” Out of frustration or disappointment we expect that God would have stepped in and made changes to what people were doing or to what they were failing to do. But what would it mean to have God step into our life’s situations? If God were to “Clean House” so that there was no evil left in the world, then how would He do that?
There are two scriptures that seem to give some indication of how God would go about cleaning up the messy world that we are living in. In Ezekiel chapter 9 we see that God was frustrated because of the evil that was within the nation of Israel. He then gives Ezekiel a vision of what was about to happen. God is about to clean up the mess and He says, “begin at my sanctuary” (Ez 9:6). Then in 1 Peter 4:17 we are told that “the time has come for judgment to begin at the house of God; and if it begins with us first, what will be the end of those who do not obey the gospel of God?”
These are frightening words. As Christians we want God to clean up all the evil, but fail to realize that the greatest expectation for people to do things right comes from God upon His own people. From God’s perspective, we should know better for we have the commands and direction of God written in the scriptures which are right before our eyes. The demands and standards upon God’s people are higher than upon the world which does not know the ways or the word of God.
Yes we want God to step in and clean up the messy world around us, but first take some time to ask our Lord to clean up our messy hearts and values.
Recent Comments