God Uses the Wicked
When we don’t understand what God is doing and why, His ways can seem perplexing. The times when ungodly people seem to triumph over the righteous make us scratch our heads and wonder why the Lord doesn’t intervene. But the truth is, He often uses the wicked to accomplish His purpose.
Joseph faced one hard – hearted individual after another during his years in exile. His brothers shipped him off to Egypt. His boss’s wife accused him of an unspeakable crime. And even those he helped, like Pharaoh’s cupbearer, forgot about him. The actions (or seeming inactions) of God make little sense at this point.
But once the story of Joseph’s life was written in full, it was clear that everyone who harmed or neglected the young man contributed to God’s plan. The Lord uses numerus people across several years to bring a humbled young Hebrew unexpectedly to power at the right moment to spare his family – who were the Messiah’s ancestors—from the effects of famine. In our circumstances, we can see God’s actions only from the limited vantage point of our humanness. We experience the events He has allowed or caused but can’t discern what He is thinking. Often the Lord’s goals and purposes are hidden from us until His plans come to fruition.
God is sovereign over all the earth. We may wonder at the strange or even terrifying turns our lives take, but we can be certain that He is in control and at work. The wicked may triumph for a season, but the final, eternal victory belongs to Christ and His righteous followers.
So what make Christians different from anyone else in the world? One Christian might say he is different from his non – Christian friends because he belongs to a church. Another might reply that he or she is different because they know they has been forgiven of their sins and is going to Heaven. Someone else might say Christians are different because of what they believe: that the Bible is the Word of God, Jesus was the divine Son of God who died for our sins. Still others might suggest that what makes Christians different is the way they live (although a cynic might respond that he or she doesn’t see anything different about the Christians he or she knows).
The complete answer is that the difference in Christians – followers of Jesus – is that God Himself lives within them by His Holy Spirit who does a transforming work in the life of every true believer.
When we come to Christ ad give our lives to Him, God actually takes up residence within us. We may not always feel different or be aware of His presence, but Jesus’ promise to His disciples was fulfilled; for He sent a Counselor to be with us forever, and that is God’s Holy Spirit.
The Bible clearly tells us that if we have given our lives to Jesus Christ by receiving His forgiveness of sins and accepting His salvation, He now lives in us through His Spirit. Scripture says that if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he or she does not belong to Christ. God is love and He will not forsake His own.