17 OCT 23 Tuesday: A Closer Walk Devotional

 17 OCT 23 Tuesday: A Closer Walk Devotional

“O God, you take no pleasure in wickedness; you cannot tolerate the sins of the wicked.  Therefore, the proud may not stand in your presence, for you hate all who do evil.” Psalm 5:4-5

When you turn on the news today, there is all kinds of evil in our world.  I think people are slow to acknowledge it, especially when they do evil or the people they associate with or like do evil.  We water it down to the point that we try to make evil appear good.  One simple one is lying and we play that down regularly to the point we don’t think it that bad. We justify ourselves and say, ‘Everyone does it’.  Does it make it good to do?

God says that lying is evil and all liars will have their part in the lake of fire.  As we get used to sinning, something happens to our hearts and minds.  If you are not a follower of Jesus, your heart is already hard and sin is what you do.  Jesus states the condition of your heart is hard, wicked, evil, and darkness.  As for Christians, our hearts can become hard if we make sin a habit and dabble in evil. The Lord can bring troubles into our lives to bring about change and repentance.  

We are told to hate what is evil and to cling to that which is good.  God detests sin, wickedness, and evil, and cannot be in its presence.  The passage from Pslam 5 states that he hates the people who do evil.  We sometimes hear people say, God hates sin and not the sinner, but the Word of God says differently.  Sin is not cast into hell and the person spared, but the sinful person is.  

The only way God’s hatred and wrath are satisfied is if the evil person receives his wages which is death or through the cross of Christ. (Rm 6:23)  Thankfully, God provided his son Jesus to take your death and exchange it for life.  How do we destroy sin, wickedness, and evil? By lovingly sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ, He will destroy it in the person and make them a new person.

Do you know how God destroys evil people? 

Reading Plan: Psalm 5,6; Jer. 36:27-37:2; 1 Cor. 14:1-12; Matt. 10:16-23