Our country is at war. And President Bush has called the terrorists who are our enemies in this war “evil doers.” In other words, America is now engaged in a war against evil. 

Yet, even before September 11, a state war already existed. A war between good and evil has been raging ever since human footprints first appeared on this earth. It’s just that we here in America had become so comfortable in our illusions of invulnerability that we had forgotten that there was a war going on around us.

This type of forgetfulness is understandable. We humans are not perfect. We have many flaws and we do many foolish things. The fact is, this war we are now fighting against evil on the outside, we’re also fighting on the inside. There’s even a little evil inside those of us who want to fight evil.

And, as in the case of America’s new war against terrorism, sometimes it takes a tragedy to remind us that we each have our own personal war against evil going on inside of us.

This is why some of us have become Christians. Something opened our eyes to the fact that we have a dangerous enemy inside us and we must turn to God for help.

So, how do we find our help from God? We must do what our President did. We must declare our personal war against evil.

After we have declared war, we must confess that we have been complacent. And, we must resolve not to be complacent anymore. In other words, we have to wise up! 

Amusing to me is how simple is God’s wisdom found in the Bible. Yet, even after all these years of tireless assault, it still towers above us stronger than ever. An example is the Old Testament book of Daniel. In this book we find simple stories that seem fit only for children such as Daniel and the lion’s den. However, this book also contains profound predictions about future events. And, since many of these predictions appear to have been fulfilled, unbelieving scholars assure us that these prophecies were written after the events occurred. The problem with this is, since the time of the book’s known existence, more of its predictions have come to pass.

For example, the book of Daniel accurately predicted Israel’s rejection of their Messiah, the destruction of Jerusalem and the current shape of Europe.

So, how does the Bible say good wins over evil? For our answer let us look again at the book of Daniel. But this time, lets look through the eyes of a child.

 When taken captive into Babylon, young Daniel “made up his mind that he would not defile himself with the king’s choice food or with the wine which he drank” (Daniel 1:8 New American Standard Bible). Because of this, God blessed Daniel and made him an important ruler in Babylon. When Daniel’s three friends refused to worship the king’s golden image and were thrown into a furnace, the Angel of the Lord kept them from harm. When Daniel was thrown into a den of lions for refusing to obey the king’s order to stop praying, God protected him and made him an even greater ruler in Babylon.

So, if we Christians want victory in our war against evil, God’s message is clear. We must not defile ourselves with the evil things that surround us. We must not bow to the many false teachings and the other gods that tempt us. And, we must continue to pray and look to the God of the Bible for our needs no matter the cost.

If we continue to do these things, we will win our personal war against evil.