Notes of Faith September 10, 2025
Hope When You Are Distressed by Evil
The hot African sun beat down unmercifully on everything and any- thing at the border between Uganda and Rwanda in the fall of 1994. The Rwandan civil war had ended, amnesty had been offered to the losing side by those now in power, and my brother, Franklin, had just made arrangements for medical services to be given to hundreds of thousands of refugees inside Rwanda.
As Franklin prepared to cross the border, guarded by soldiers who lazily lounged at their posts, passing the time by smoking cigarettes and flicking the ashes onto the sun-parched earth, he noticed a little Rwandan girl. She was seated in the back of a pickup truck, clutching a blanket, rocking back and forth, and quietly singing to herself. In reply to his inquiry, my brother was told she was one of the thousands of children whose parents had been killed during the war. This little girl in particular had seen her family hacked to death with machetes until not one family member was left. She was all alone in the world.
When my brother asked a nearby soldier what she was singing, the soldier shrugged indifferently and said he didn’t know because she was singing in French. A soldier was found who spoke French, and when he was taken to the little girl, he listened casually then said, “She is singing something about God’s love.” My brother asked the soldier to listen more carefully and tell him exactly what she was singing. This time the soldier listened intently then said, “She is singing
‘Jesus loves me, this I know; for the Bible tells me so.’”
The evil actions of others had stripped the little girl of everything except what her parents or missionaries apparently had given her — her faith in Jesus! In a deeply moving way, the little girl was clinging to all she had left in the world, which was her hope in God’s love for her.
Such stories read in the newspaper, such scenes of cruelty observed on televised newscasts, such violence witnessed in our streets and schools and homes could cause any caring person to be deeply distressed over the evil actions of wicked people in our world. I find myself at times avoiding the local and world news because of the outrage I experience at such reports.
But sometimes the evil actions of others become very personal, and we cannot avoid them because they are committed against us or against our loved ones. In such instances, the outrage can become a root of deep-seated anger, hatred, frustration, and bitterness that festers until our lives are filled with distress.
Have you been stripped of everything? Stripped materially, emotionally, financially, socially, intellectually, physically? Stripped of your marriage, your health, your family, your home, your friends, your reputation, your youth? Are your days filled with distress because of the evil actions of others? Does your future look bleak and barren because your present is so bitter?
If you have been stripped of anything — or everything — look up! The vision of His glory gives you and me the same hope for the future as the little Rwandan refugee. What hope did she have for the future? None — except for the hope she had in Jesus.
In Him, each of us has a glorious future — a glorious hope — because one day God will straighten the crooked, right the wrong, humble the proud, judge the wicked, and vindicate the righteous!
Why? Because God is just!
Jesus loves me, this I know;
for the Bible tells me so.
Finding Hope in Knowing God Is Just
The apostle John had just witnessed the dramatic moment for which God’s people yearn — the moment when the Lamb — who is the Lord Jesus Christ — asserted His right to rule the world and fulfill God’s purpose for the human race. At long last, the world would be ruled rightly and justly. The entire universe must have still been reverberating from the thunderous acclamation of the worthiness of Christ when John “watched as the Lamb opened the first of the seven seals” (Revelation 6:1). He watched as the Lamb began to take charge of a wicked world filled with evil actions.
The opening of the first of the seven seals apparently began a time in human history that Jesus described when He said,
For then there will be great distress, unequaled from the beginning of the world until now — and never to be equaled again. If those days had not been cut short, no one would survive, but for the sake of the elect those days will be shortened. — Matthew 24:21–22
The Bible refers to this period of great distress as Jacob’s trouble,1 Daniel’s seventieth week,2 and the tribulation.3 In essence, the tribulation is a seven-year period at the end of human history when God’s wrath is poured out upon the world in response to man’s evil actions.
Because God is just, judgment is coming.
And the principles with which He will judge the world in the future are the same principles with which He judges you and me today.
God Judges with Patience
One of the first principles of judgment that becomes apparent in Revelation 6 is that God judges with patience. John “saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God and the testimony they had maintained. They called out in a loud voice, ‘How long, Sovereign Lord, holy and true, until you judge the inhabitants of the earth and avenge our blood?’ Then each of them was given a white robe, and they were told to wait a little longer” (Revelation 6:9–11a). God is patient in judgment.
When we read of the sex trafficking of women and children . . .
When we read of a wealthy, famous celebrity charged with sexually assaulting women . . .
When we read of school shootings that claim the lives of innocent children . . .
When we read of young children kidnapped for pornographic purposes . . .
When we read of babies born to be sacrificed in occult practices . . .
When we read of men brutally raping and beating women in front of their children . . .
When we read of a terrorist group invading a peaceful nation, slaughtering hundreds of people, raping and torturing women, burning babies alive in ovens . . .
When we read of murder, extortion, sadism, perversion, cruelty, and blasphemy, we want to scream, “God, holy and true and righteous! How can You stand it? Why do You allow such evil actions to take place? Why don’t You strike such evil people with lightning? Or open up the ground and swallow them? Or just drop them dead in their tracks?”
Have you experienced injustice at the hands of someone else? Have you been the victim of evil actions by someone who seemed to get away with his or her wickedness? Like Jeremiah of old, did you cry out,
You are always righteous, Lord, when I bring a case before you. Yet I would speak with you about your justice: Why does the way of the wicked prosper?
— Jeremiah 12:1
Did you want to say, “If You are loving and good, why don’t You do something about the evil actions of others?”
In the midst of our heated, passionate distress comes the quiet answer:
The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some under- stand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. — 2 Peter 3:9
God is patient because He understands how long eternity is! He knows that when an unbeliever dies, that person is not only separated from God and barred from Heaven, he or she is condemned to live for all eternity in hell, a place of physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual torment that lasts forever and ever and ever and ever.
And God, who so loved the world that He created it . . .
who so loved man that when he sinned, He planned for his redemption . . .
who so loved the world that He sent His only, beloved Son to be the Redeemer, paying the price of redemption with His own blood. . . .
. . . so loves the world still, even with all of its evil actions, that He is not willing for any to perish! Therefore, He is patient. He withholds His wrath as He seeks all to come to repentance, that they might be saved from the judgment to come! What a magnificent God we worship!
In what way are you aware of God’s patience? Have you misunderstood it, mistaking His patience for tolerance of evil?
See Jeremiah 30:7.
See Daniel 9:24, 27.
Excerpted from The Vision of His Glory by Anne Graham Lotz, copyright Anne Graham Lotz.
God loves His creation and said it was good! Before sin came into the world it was perfect. Even so, God made a way for mankind to be redeemed from the curse of sin, that man might have an eternal relationship with his Creator. God is patient and just. He will judge evil and unbelief. Hell is real. Heaven is real. We will arrive at one of these two destinations in a quick moment of time. Two things mankind is commanded to do… Love God. Love others!
Lord, forgive us for our lack of love. Pour out your Spirit upon us that we might love as You love. Increase our faith and devotion to live righteously, pure and holy before You. May we love the world as You love it, not as those with a fallen heart that love evil. Praise God from whom all blessings flow!
Pastor Dale