You don’t have to live long to end up wondering why God doesn’t use His power to thwart the plans of evil. When three young adult men open fire on innocent people in one week, it gives you reason to consider: Where was God?  It hard to comprehend how evil plans can be conceived and completed. Pure evil that effects not just a few but hundreds of thousands of people seems worse somehow.   

This question has been asked since the beginning of time and is contained throughout God’s Word. Psalm 79:5-7 could be the cry of many hearts over many horrific crimes that we are experiencing right now. 

“How long, Lord? Will you be angry forever? How long will your jealousy burn like fire? Pour out your wrath on the nations that do not acknowledge you, on the kingdoms that do not call on your name; for they have devoured Jacob and devastated his homeland.”

You need only to substitute who you are asking God to pour out His wrath on and who is the victim to have a perfect prayer about the latest devastation in our country.  

The question remains from generation to generation. Why would our God not snuff out all the wickedness we become aware of on the earth? Why are the plans of pure evil so easily carried out?  

No one person had a better standing for asking this question of God than Job. Job didn’t directly question God for all the evil that God allowed to happen in his life, but he did the same thing by wanting to explain to God that He had somehow made a mistake against His own righteous character. God knew what was on Job’s heart so He answered His question by describing His power and glory in creation. When God was finished, Job had the answer he needed. Scripture does not tell us that Job ever found out what readers are told at the beginning of the story—Satan had asked God for permission to torment Job. However, Job concluded about God something we all need to believe to receive the answer about our most current catastrophe.  

Job 42:2 says: 

“I know that you can do all things; no purpose of yours can be thwarted.” 

God has purposes that we cannot comprehend is the best answer I can come up with. I also believe that He wants me to keep praying and keep looking to the one answer that trumps all others—Jesus Christ.

God’s answer to evil—all evil of all time—is Judgment but not without a chance to be spared by faith in Jesus Christ. God’s plan for defeating evil is set.  It will not change. God will send Jesus to judge all the evil. The blaring evil that breaks our hearts and stirs our emotions will be judged. The secret evil in our hearts that we don’t even pay attention to will be judged. None of us can stand in the judgment of Jesus because we all have a tinge of evil in our souls. God knows that too. That is why He sent Jesus the first time to live and die and be resurrected as a payment for all the evil of all mankind for all time. Those who face the judgment of evil in Christ will be saved; all other evil will be destroyed once and for all.  

I pray along with others against all the evil that we see. I pray for God to thwart the plans of evil in wars and sex trafficking. Now I am praying more for these young men who allow an evil plan to grow in their hearts. I pray their plans will be thwarted. It is God’s will that I pray against evil in the world and against the evil that is in my own heart.

In the end the spiritual life is about trusting in God’s plans. This trust cannot be received without wrestling with God about the evil that goes seemingly unpunished. God invites our questions and our struggles because they bring us back to relationship with Him. God has a plan for defeating evil; and it doesn’t always make sense to me, but I will trust it.