Daily Devotional

Last month Charlie Kirk, known for going around to college campuses and engaging in open debate with those that seem to oppose traditional conservative values, was assassinated while at one of these events at a Utah university. This event has rightly shocked and saddened millions of people as we come to terms with the horrific event that took place. Charlie, in addition to being a bold conservative, was also not shy about his faith in Jesus Christ and his desire that as many people as possible would come to a saving knowledge of Jesus. For someone who spent his energy trying to engage in healthy dialog and advocating against violence, this event seems especially tragic.

Now this has prompted many people to ask why. The age old question comes up again, “why does God allow bad things to happen to good people?” Setting aside the fact that there really is no such thing as good people compared to God, God didn’t promise us an easy time as christians in this life, in fact just the opposite. We are told that just as the world hated Jesus, so it will hate us too. We are told that to suffer for Christ in this life is gain. In Romans 5:3-4 we read “...but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; and perseverance, character; and character, hope."
 
This verse therefore needs to be taken from a big picture perspective, rather than a personal perspective. God is working all things ultimately for good, even through the seemingly bad things that can happen to us individually. Death often is a focusing agent for people who may not know God. And we often hear that the death of a loved one is the catalyst that led someone to ultimately accept Christ as their Savior. So one's loss and suffering is used to call another to Jesus. We don’t know how God is using our circumstances for His purpose and Glory.

You see God is not reacting to our situations and then trying to work out how to make good out of that, no, He is all knowing and has planned and orchestrated it from the beginning. The cross was not plan-B for humanity, it was always plan-A. God didn’t see Adam and Eve fall and think, “oh great now what?” From the beginning of time it was always God’s plan to redeem humanity through the greatest sacrifice in history. And we would do well to remember in our own suffering, that God came down in the form of man and suffered as part of His ultimate good for us. And if God can suffer for us for good, we should be willing to suffer for Him for good as well.
 
So while tragic and horrifying, this assassination was not a surprise to God. And while we may not understand now, or perhaps ever fully understand, God is using the sudden death of Charlie Kirk to work His good in ways we cannot even imagine. It’s in these times we need to put our trust in God, and rest in the fact that He is God and we are not. Pray for each other during this time, pray for our country as our divisions have never seemed larger and more toxic. In the midst of hardship remember to seek peace not violence, seek forgiveness and reconciliation rather than revenge. God will judge people’s hearts, we are called to love people and lead them to Christ.

New King James Version (NKJV)
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.