JANUARY  22, 2020

Adapted from 2015

"I pray not that Thou shouldest take them out of the world,

but that Thou shouldest keep them from the evil."

John 17:15

So, how's it going, God keeping you from the evil in the world?  Sometimes it feels like it is pressing in a little too closely.  One time I was eight months pregnant in an elevator.  Strangers were pressing in too closely. They kept coming, packing in like sardines.  I had one hand on my belly and one held out to protect the one I carried within the womb signaling, "Don't come any closer."

Jesus prayed to the Father that He would keep us from evil.  Remember His prayer, "Deliver us from evil..."?    Yeah, that one.  God has His strong arm out to protect us, to deliver us.

It has made me think that those who have looked away from God sometime will be forced to see the face of evil.  Eventually, it will be as if a giant hand has squeezed their cheeks to turn them to face it.  Suddenly, the bite out of the apple won't taste so good.  It is one or the other, God or the devil, good vs evil.  Though we are in the world, we are in His hand to keep us from evil. 

So, how do we live?  John Wesley in his "A Plain Account of Christian Perfection," writes, 
"His one intention at all times and in all places is, not to please himself, but Him whom his soul loveth.  He hath a single eye; and because his 'eye is single, his whole body is full of light.  The whole is light, as when the bright shining of a candle doth enlighten the house.'  God reigns alone; all that is in the soul is holiness to the Lord.' "

"Darkness cannot drive out darkness; 

only light can do that."

MLK