Do You Really Know What’s Good for You

How can we tell the difference between good and evil?  Good, for example, can be the job promotion, the new girlfriend/boyfriend or the cool new friend that seems so spontaneous.  Meanwhile, evil can be seen in the form of the friend that abandons us, being overlooked or rejected at the job and the breakup from a significant other.  We can easily limit our definition to these two entities (good and evil) according to our everyday situations and circumstances.    Sometimes we think that the two can be identified without a doubt.  If we are honest, sometimes we have a hard time looking back in our lives and seeing the good and saying so and looking at the evil and truly saying it was “evil.”   The two may not be able to be seen as black and white; because our thoughts and hearts are tainted with past pain, hurt or disappointments.

After choosing to serve God, many usually discover that some of the views and perspectives they held were now challenged by seeing thing with new eyes.  Priorities and needs have shifted and, in many cases things, were important before make room for new goals and life choices.  In accepting a life that follows Christ, many of us have had to look at ourselves and see what needed to be worked on or developed.  In believing, that in God all things are “good”, we are forced to look at what lines up with the ways God has laid out us verses what may be “evil”.   Scripture teaches that our thoughts are not God’s thoughts; our ways are not his ways.  For many, if not properly taught after salvation, it can become confusing on where the line is between good and evil on the foundation of their Christian walk. After all how do we fight evil if we don’t know what evil looks; the lens of good and evil is blurred.  Likewise, how do we know when good is when the results don’t seem good?

So what would it look like if good and evil had a conversation?  How would that go?  For me, I think it would look something like this…

Can You Tell Them Apart?

Evil: (Looks at Good with disgust) You know, the two of us are not that much different.

Good:  How do you figure (Perplexed)?

Evil: You speak as if you don’t know.  You and me are practically brothers.  I mean it’s like as if we were twins at war with each other in a woman’s womb.  Come on!   We grew on the same tree for goodness sake.  We were both in the garden together watching everything unfold.

Good:  I don’t care what you think of me, I am nothing like you.

Evil: Oh really (sarcastically).  You speak as if you are better than me, but you and I are so identical that people sometimes can’t even tell us apart.  People call me “Good” while calling you “Evil”.  Don’t you see?  (waits for a response).  I can do something so wicked and dark like bombing a group of people that everyone hates and they will call it good.  I can bring death to a rapist or murder and people will celebrate calling it justice.  I can set traps and raise up strongholds in peoples and yet they call my deeds good.  While you (laughing) give life, expose my deeds and try to build and rebuild what I have destroyed; they label you as evil.  That must stink for you.  It’s funny how people quote the scripture, “what you meant for evil God meant it for Good.”  Well guess what, I do that every day and switch it on them.  I take what was meant for good and turn it around for my desire day in and day out and they fall for it.

Good: (starting to get upset) Who you are, and who I am is not dependent on the definition of man.  My identity is not based on what YOU think of me nor is it based on what man thinks of what defines me.

Evil: Ha ha ha…You speak as if you are humble but let’s speak candidly.  No one is listening.  Don’t we thrive on the same emotions, love and hate?  We push them to love what we love and hate what we hate.  We both manipulate them because we grow when they do as WE desire.  You see you appear to be selfless but you are just as selfish as I am.  It hurts you just as much as it hurts me, when they resist us.

Good: How so?

Evil:  We both become stronger and more powerful when humans indulge in what we represent.  Come on admit it.

Good: (says nothing)

Evil: You see your silence speaks loudly.  (Evil walks around to the other side of Good)  There is one last thing.  I know you don’t want to admit it because it will show your weakness.  We both have a sick secret that is hidden well.  You refuse to speak the truth but why don’t you just say it.

Good: Say what?

Evil: Come on.  Just say it.

Good: I have no idea what you’re talking about.

Evil: Oh you want me to come out and say it.

Good: (Silence)

Evil: Okay…I’ll say it then.  (With a voice like a slithering snake) You need me (He whispers).

Good: What?!  That’s ludicrous.

Evil: Don’t act so surprised.  You know that the only way one can truly understand what is good, evil must be present for comparison.  Come on, when this world was created you were in everything made by God.  It is even spoken of in the Bible—after every different element was made by the creator, he said it was “good”.  I was nowhere to be found.  But man was not satisfied with you were they?  It wasn’t until they discovered me that they realized what they lost in having you.  When I was given life after that first bite, your value was really seen.  Destruction, pain, rampage, and devastation of lives made you really shined.  A person craved “good”, they want to be “good” but “evil” was so much easier.  No one would even know who you are unless I was present.  You would just be a way of life an everyday action and no one would even know of what you are, but with me around, I make you look… well, good.

Good:  Yes, you’re right.  We thrive on hate and love but it is what we hate and love that makes us so different.  I hate you.  I hate everything about you.

Evil: (Snickers)

Good:  Man may not be able to differentiate between you and I because man allowed you into their lives.

Evil:  They wanted me not you!  Every man wants to fulfill their most evil desires even if it’s birthed with you in mind.  They want “good” in their lives but still choose to find it in me!

Good:  Man has allowed you to distort their view of life calling good – evil and evil – good but there is one thing that is different between us.  There is line that drawn between you and I.

Evil:  What are you talking about? (sarcastic)

Good:  The reason you thrive so much is because you are birthed through lies and deception.  You are built on the backs of prideful beings that could not handle the power of truth.  Your roots come from one who allowed pride to make him believe that he was greater than the Creator.  Your master has lost everything that made him worth something and now uses you to make humans believe a lie.  It is there that the line between you and I is drawn.  My master, the Creator of all things doesn’t use me as yours does to you.  My master offers me as a weapon and as a means to show life and truth.  Choosing to do “good” will not always be easy for them, but the results will cause them to keep doing so.

We Are Victims of Evil or the Victors of Good

You and I are victims of evil’s need to grow in this dying world.  Victimized by evil, are we adequately identifying which part of our painful story is the work of our enemy and what part of it is the grace and mercy of good?

When I was in my 30’s I found a journal from when I was a teenager.  In it I read of a time where I could not see God because He was overshadowed by an umbrella of evil.   I got so emotional as I read my words.  I was recalling being about 8 years old trying to seduce a 18 year old man.  I went on to talk about a young kid who sexually assaulted me and the comfort I found in his attack; it was the only way I knew of affection.  I was desperate for love at such a young age that I did the unthinkable to fulfill my needs.  I was rejecting God while going after the things that were killing me.  I found comfort in turmoil while finding torment in peace.

When I gave my heart to the Lord there was a war that raged in me.  I remember laying my bed crying randomly because I was choosing the opposite of what I wanted.  I was ripping up my bed and clinching my fist because I had so much rage.   I was so confused because I had God in my life and I thought that He was all I needed, but I learned that giving my life to God was only one part of my battle.  It was the beginning of a war that I would not won overnight.  I needed to renounce the evil that I allowed to lead my decisions and ask God to help me to understand what good looked like.  You see I knew about how “good” God was so I wanted Him, but I still lived and behaved in evil ways.

The war between good and evil lies in us.  What God calls evil may be the very thing we want to hold on to and label good because it feeds the side of us that we think we need.  During the month of March, we will be focusing on the spiritual battle that lies within us because the other part of this walk is that we have a real enemy that is going to do everything he can to keep us in the pond of lies that we are swimming in.  He fights harder everyday to hide his deeds and schemes from us so that we can stay disillusioned and helpless but GOD has made a way for us.  Check out all the articles in this month’s topic.  Follow us on Instagram and Facebook @throughthewinters.com.

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We have worked really hard to talk about the war that Christians are in. We are meant to win every battle set before us but there are many times we get in our way.  What are some things we need to learn in order to never lose another spiritual battle again?  Buy our Book on Amazon to find out.