the hold up for most.

       Evil. Hate. Death. Loss. Brokenness. Failure. Are what we face everyday on Earth. It sucks, it's painful and it is no fun at all.  It is real and when we face any of these things our world seems to be falling apart.  I hate when I fall into the avenue of failure.  That is one big painful thing for me.  I'm not talking about failing a test [when I was in school] or losing a game.. I'm talking about doing things that I know are not healthy for me.  Doing the things that I hate. There are a couple struggles in my life that many of you could probably relate to that I wish had never entered into my life.  It causes me to feel broken, lost and like a failure.
       These pains are a big hold up for people with God.  Why would he let these evil things happen?  If he is a caring God he wouldn't let this happen, right? Are we just puppets for God to toy around with?
       I get it. It seems so confusing that we have a God who loves us enough to let us do what we want.  Who gives us the freedom to make our own decisions.  Who cares enough to allow us to wake up on a day-to-day basis.
       If you have ever struggled with the subject of evil in the world I want to encourage you to look at it differently.  Read Genesis 2 & 3 in the Bible and see the warning God gave to us and the decision that we made.  I understand that you and I were not there but humans were and humans have been making the same choices since that day.  A choice against a warning that was given by God.  Just like your parents gave you warnings about a hot stove or a sharp knife when you were a child. I want you to see that we as humans made the decision for evil to happen.
       It's not that God couldn't keep it from happening [he could have]. He did allow it to happen though because of the freedom we had to make our own choice.
       In the story that is told from Genesis 3 there is another party whom influenced the situation for Adam and Eve to eat from the tree that God instructed them not too.  It was the same influence that causes you and I to make horrible decisions.  An influence that would love nothing more than to have more influence than God has.  Then [in Genesis] he was in the form of a snake and now he is in the form of lies we tell ourselves.  I'm sure you all have exactly who I am talking about in your head.  The name which should not be spoken [for Harry Potter fans].
   
Satan.

        I want you to see that God is not evil and actually cannot even have evil in his presence.  That is why Satan is who he is because in heaven [he was an angel] he wanted to be better than God... so God kicked him out of heaven. Ever since the time when Satan was in heaven his goal has been to get people to do what he wants.  Those things are acts against God. That is where evil began. Not God.  A being against God.
        That's why Jesus came to earth.  To show people the love of God and that we are God's children.  He came because Satan doesn't have the final say for our lives.  All this evil, death, loss, failure, etc. will come to an end.  Until then we can choose to practice something different than these things, through Jesus.  We still have the freedom to choose just like Adam and Eve.  Thank God for Jesus because if we don't always make the right choice, we don't get "kicked out." Jesus is salvation.
       This all may seem surface level and something some of us learned when we were young in the church, but this is everything.  Jesus came and did what none of us could ever do.  Beat Satan. Thank God. Now we can have a perfect father who always knows what is best for his children.

 "Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil."

-1 John 3:8