As I read my Bible and devotionals this morning, my mind kept returning to all of the chaos and evil in the world. I sought God’s help in understanding and the hope that only comes from knowing and believing His Word.

Fear tries to overtake my heart because of all of the rampant evil. But God continually reminds me that He is trustworthy and I need not be afraid.

God will always protect me from the evil that surrounds me. I can count on Him to be with me in the middle of the storm.

Our hope lies in the cross where Jesus stated, “It is finished.” He completed the sacrifice for me so that I can be with the Lord forever. Victory is assured…I just have to get through to the end of this present evil age.

It’s a scary thing to contemplate that the God of justice will judge our nations for their wickedness. Refusing to acknowledge God won’t end in anything good for those who turn their backs on Him. I’m blessed to be on the winning side but I am sad for those who flaunt their evil ways and taunt God with their worship of self.

God does not want to destroy nations or the wicked. He prefers that everyone join in accepting His free gift of salvation and come to Him as victorious servants, not continue to be seemingly free evil doers. The second death is the final and ultimate death, the one that determines whether we end up in the lake of fire with Satan or in Heaven with God for eternity. God prefers that we repent but He will not force us to do so.

God gets a lot of the blame for what happens on earth. My thoughts are that people get the consequences that they deserve for their foolish choices. Being angry with God is worthless because in the end, the one who is destroyed is the one who refuses to be wise and repent.

Out of all of my verses this morning, this is the one that stood out to me most and made my heart leap, not necessarily with joy, but with recognition of truth. One day, there will be justice. God’s final judgment will mete out justice to all. The godly will be rejoicing but the evil will be terrified. Sounds fitting to me…and a hope to look forward to. When I was growing up and didn’t know God as Lord, I was frequently bullied. Since I did believe in a higher power, I would pray that one day God would “give them what they had coming to them.” Little did I know that the final judgment is exactly what that will be…God has the final word, so fearing the Lord before judgment day is a must if you want to be in the group that is rejoicing.

Praise the Lord that the victory is already His!