Devotion for March 16 from Vicar Anand Darla, Good Shepherd South Asian Ministries:
Triune God is in full Control of Everything, but Evil feels Dominated the World
By Vicar Anand Darla GSSAM, Fremont
The most common question of any individual either women or men is that If God is good and the all-powerful Creator of the world, then why does evil exist in the world? It is the question of theodicy. So, how can we reconcile the evil world we live in with the good God who made it? Most of us have wrestled with that question at some point, in an usuall situations such as when we lost loved ones, or when we face threaten by severe illness, bad family breakup or when exchanged good with bad by your own or nearest or dearest ones or when faced with an unexplainable tragedy. We can’t make the problem of evil vanish by ignoring it, it is ubiquitous. None of us will make it through life unscathed.
We certainly need answers both for ourselves and also for those we evangelize like us. We need to have a biblical response available whenever we encounter those bearing the fresh wounds of a life tragedy. We need to be able to correct and connect to His eternal kingdom those are unfaithful or perishing souls, atheists who use the problem of evil to impugn God’s character. We need to be able to rebuke those who are self-righteous and can’t fathom why bad things happen to “good people.”
To visualize a God with limited or finite knowledge, to design a God with limited power, to design a God who is more concerned about the will of every single human being than His own will is to design a God that is not the biblical God. If God is not in total control of evil, if He has not ordained it, and if He does not have it under complete control at every millisecond of history, then this universe is out of control at the most crucial point. If God is not in control of this completely, then how and when will He get the knowledge and the power to get it under control? And I would ask you this. Would you rather have a God trying to get control of evil, or a God completely in control of it? Take your choice. But the God of the Bible is in complete control of evil for His own purposes. It is really heresy to say that the world is full of evil apart from a predetermined plan and purpose by God that is far above the willy-nilly choices of people. At the closing I would love to provide below scripture as God is in full control of everything. So, our God is eternal, infinite and Incomprehensible ,And trust and obey there is no other way. Amen!
Deuteronomy 32:39
‘See now that I, I am He,
And there is no god besides Me;
It is I who put to death and I who give life.
I have wounded, and it is I who heal,
And there is no one who can deliver from [the power of] My hand.
Isaiah 46:9-10
“Remember the former things of old: for I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like me, Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure:”
“I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.”
Proverbs 15:3
“The eyes of the LORD are in every place, beholding the evil and the good.”