”Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.“—Romans 12:21.

For how else can we cast out evil? Satan cannot cast out Satan. No one can clean a room with a filthy duster. The surgeon cannot cut out the disease if his instruments are defiled. While he removed one ill-growth he would sow the seed of another. It must be health which fights disease. It will demand a good temper to overcome the bad temper in my brother.

And therefore I must cultivate a virtue if I would eradicate a vice. That applies to the state of my own soul. If there be some immoral habit in my life, the best way to destroy it is by cultivating a good one. Take the mind away from the evil one. Deprive it of thought-food. Give the thought to the nobler mood, and the ignoble mood will die. And this also applies to the faults and vices of my brother. I must fight them with their opposites. If he is harsh and cruel, I must be considerate and gentle. If he is grasping, I must be generous. If he is loud and presumptuous, I must be soft-mannered and self-restrained. If he is devilish, I must be a Christian. This is the warfare which tells upon the empire of sin. I can overcome evil with good.— J. H. Jowett

“All they that heard it wondered at those things.” – Luke 2:18
We must not cease to wonder at the great marvels of our God. It would be very difficult to draw a line between holy wonder and real worship; for when the soul is overwhelmed with the majesty of God’s glory, though it may not express itself in song, or even utter its voice with bowed head in humble prayer, yet it silently adores. Our incarnate God is to be worshipped as “the Wonderful.” That God should consider his fallen creature, man, and instead of sweeping him away with the besom of destruction, should himself undertake to be man’s Redeemer, and to pay his ransom price, is, indeed marvellous! But to each believer redemption is most marvellous as he views it in relation to himself. It is a miracle of grace indeed, that Jesus should forsake the thrones and royalties above, to suffer ignominiously below for you. Let your soul lose itself in wonder, for wonder is in this way a very practical emotion. Holy wonder will lead you to grateful worship and heartfelt thanksgiving. It will cause within you godly watchfulness; you will be afraid to sin against such a love as this. Feeling the presence of the mighty God in the gift of his dear Son, you will put off your shoes from off your feet, because the place whereon you stand is holy ground. You will be moved at the same time to glorious hope. If Jesus has done such marvellous things on your behalf, you will feel that heaven itself is not too great for your expectation. Who can be astonished at anything, when he has once been astonished at the manger and the cross? What is there wonderful left after one has seen the Saviour? Dear reader, it may be that from the quietness and solitariness of your life, you are scarcely able to imitate the shepherds of Bethlehem, who told what they had seen and heard, but you can, at least, fill up the circle of the worshippers before the throne, by wondering at what God has done. –C. H. Spurgeon

“I gave them up unto their own hearts’ lust: and they walked in their own counsels“– Psalm 81:12

Sin results in separation from God. But here we are also reminded that it means being joined completely to our own desires and schemes.

At first glance, this might not sound so bad. While we certainly don’t want to be separated from God, the thought of being married to our own desires and plans doesn’t seem to be much of a penalty. Isn’t that more like a dream come true?

In reality this is judgment; this is punishment. Those who persist in sin and rebellion, God leaves to their own lust and allows them to walk in their own counsels. But notice that it does not say that the lust is fulfilled, or that the plans prosper.

When God gives a person up to his own lusts, his lusts consume him without end, because there is no true or lasting or deep satisfaction apart from God. It is to forever hunger, without ever being filled.

Similarly, the person who is left to her own counsel finds that she is like a blind person at the street corner, without a guide. She is free to walk any direction she pleases, but there is danger and destruction on every side.

As C.S. Lewis explained, there are two kinds of people in the end—those who say to the Father, “Thy will be done,” or those to whom the Father says, “thy will be done.” The great punishment for sin is getting our own way.–Baptist Bible Hour

“And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.”— (Romans 8:28)

We can give thanks, even when times are hard. It’s one thing to give thanks when things are going well. But we can also give thanks when things are not going well.

Of the many beautiful psalms David wrote, one of my favorites is Psalm 63: “Because Your lovingkindness is better than life, my lips shall praise You. Thus I will bless You while I live; I will lift up my hands in Your name” (verses 3–4).

We may think David wrote this psalm while he was kicking back on a beautiful sunny day. But that wasn’t the case. David actually wrote this psalm in exile, while he was running from his son Absalom, who was trying to take his throne. Not only that, but David was an elderly man by this time. He was in anguish and personal pain.

We can praise the Lord in good times, and we can praise the Lord in bad times. And by the way, I don’t think we will fully understand what is good or bad this side of heaven anyway. When we’re younger we think certain things are good and other things are bad. Success? Always good. Hardship? Always bad. That’s how we think.

But then, after we’ve lived for a while, we can look back and say, “Actually, success can be bad for some. And actually, hardship can be good for others.” We begin to look at things differently. Sometimes the things we thought were really good turn out to be bad. And the things that we thought were bad turn out to be really good.–Greg Laurie

The Lord can take all things, bad or good, and according to Romans 8:28, work them “together for good to them who love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose.”

Remember—the future always looks bright if we look far enough ahead. The best is yet to come! God will not fail to keep His promises!