Releasing Wickedness

Ecclesiastes 8:8

“No one can master the wind and contain it—it blows as it will. No one has power over the day of death—it comes as it will. No soldier is discharged in the heat of battle, and certainly wickedness will not release those entangled in it.”

One of the best movies ever produced is “The Godfather.”  For the men around the devotional table, it has to be a must see.  Spoiler alert, it is not a Christian movie.  Ok, now to dive into a point in the story that is so tragic it hurts.  Al Pachino is the lead character in the movie being the son of the Godfather, Marlon Barndo.  At first, his character is a happy young man seeking to grow up and do great things.  You fall in love with this guy because he finds a girl, loves her and the stage is set for a good life.  Well, don’t forget the movie is about the mob so tragedy comes and rocks Al Pachino’s world.  He cannot get away from the wickedness or the chance at revenge, it eats at him until he breaks.  Like a soldier who is trained to kill, he snaps into a revenge filled monster and avenges the crime.  As the story goes on, little bits and pieces of his former life slowly fade away until nothing is left at all. He now is the monster that has consumed him.  It would seem that wickedness would not release him because he kept practicing it.  

Christian soldier, there are some truths you should know. 

1. Just like no one has the power to contain the wind, we often get into a debate over changing things that only God can change.  Politically speaking, the whole climate change thing is one of those.  Another is the gender thing and, yes, death is also one. Paul says in 2 Timothy 1:7, “For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline.”  God has your day marked and while it may seem like we have the ultimate control over death, it is like containing the wind, meaningless.  You have to trust God and ask him to show you what His plans are for you every day.

2.  Wickedness will not release those who practice it.  Just like Al Pachino in The Godfather, he kept diving deeper and deeper into the mob and all its wickedness until nothing of his old self remained.  Proverbs 26:11 says, “As a dog returns to its vomit, so fools repeat their folly.”  You will not begin to live a blessed life until you stop practicing wickedness.  It will continue until it has consumed you destroying all the hope in your life.  At the end of all of the movies, Al Pachino’s character was a shell of a person consumed by a faction of the mob and all its wicked behaviors. 

We are never too far from God to turn back to him.  His arms are always open wide and ready to receive us, like the dad in the prodigal son story. Today, put your total trust in the Lord for all of your life and don’t hold back any part as is the practice of fools.  Remember, wickedness will not release you until you stop practicing it.  

Prayer: Father, we seem to get ourselves into a mess more times than we care to remember. Your Word says in 2 Corinthians 10:5, “We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.” We pray and declare that we will take every thought captive that does not line up with your Word Father. We release every wicked thing in our lives and run after you with all of our hearts every day. In Jesus name, amen.