When we look at the world, we see immense suffering. Everywhere, the cry of a suffering humanity is ascending to heaven. But who is to be blamed for all of this misery? Do I personally play a part in the world's distress? In this post, we will take a brief look at how misery spreads and our individual role in it.
The Origin of Suffering In the beginning, God made humanity perfect; male and female He created them and placed them in a perfect garden. He gave them a simple commandment: do not eat from the forbidden tree. But the serpent came into the garden and tempted the woman. She was seduced, and after being overcome, she went on to tempt her husband to follow her into sin. The man ate of the forbidden fruit, and the rest is history—suffering is now widespread.
The Blame Game After sin came the "blame game." The man and the woman both blamed others for their own actions. The man blamed his wife, the wife blamed the serpent, and God judged them all. From that point on, misery became the norm in our world.
So, why is the world so evil? Why is there such misery in our homes, our workplaces, and our society? Is this suffering merely the result of "other" evil people doing bad things, or do I play a part? The truth is: I do.
How I Contribute to Human Misery I play a part in human misery whenever I allow myself to be overcome by evil individually and then pass that misery onto the life of another. Consider these examples:
Let’s say I had a stressful day at work; customers and co-workers made my day difficult. That is a temptation. If I come home and yell at my wife or speak unkind words to her, she feels hurt. I have just made the world a worse place. I allowed the burden of work to overcome me, and I was too weak to protect my wife from my frustration. Evil spreads when we are too weak to resist it.
If I am a parent who was disrespected or emotionally abused by my own parents, I know how much that hurts. But if I turn around and do the same to my child—yelling at them or abusing them emotionally—I have become a tool in the hands of the enemy to spread more misery. If I am not healed from my own wounds, I will use those wounds to hurt others.
Perhaps you were betrayed by someone you loved in the past. If your heart has hardened and you vow to hurt others in return—seducing and abandoning people—you are now an agent of evil. Whether it is a man using women for lust or a woman using men for money, these actions destroy lives and spread the devil's work.
Evil thrives when I am personally overcome. The devil knows that if he can defeat me, he can use me to lead someone else down with me. If I struggle with lust, anger, or addiction and do not go to God for the strength to overcome it, those very things will be used to bring misery into the lives of others.
There is no neutral ground. I am either a tool in the hand of God for good or a tool in the hand of the devil for evil. To make a positive impact, I must, by the grace of God, overcome the evils in my own heart. A truly strong person is one who allows himself to "suffer" the weight of his own emotions or urges so that others can be safe.
Becoming a Blessing Through Resistance When you resist taking your frustration out on others, you make their lives better. When you break the cycle of how your parents treated you, you protect your children. When you refuse to take advantage of someone else just because you were once taken advantage of, you bring light into the world.
To resist personal evil is an act of love and strength. You are like a person holding back falling debris so that the vulnerable can flee to safety. Evil thrives where weakness exists, but true strength protects.
We are all responsible for human suffering to some degree. As long as I keep my wounds and brokenness away from God, they can be weaponized against those I love. Eve was seduced and then unknowingly became an instrument for the ruin of her husband. If I allow the devil to tempt me into sin, I become his agent.
The only way to start making the world a better place is to "submit yourself unto God, resist the devil, and he will flee from you" (James 4:7). Let us ask God for the strength to resist the evil within so that we may truly do good for those around us.
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