If we’re going to stay faithful to a God who thinks it’s a good idea to maim, torture, and kill us, we need to be darn sure that He is good. But then again, suppose He’s not good? What if God were evil by nature? Then we could all rebel against Him and—go where? It’s still His universe. He’s still in absolute control. If God isn’t good, we are in serious trouble. There are no other options. Peter had this figured out, so when a bunch of Jesus’ disciples got tired of Him and left, and Jesus asked if Peter would do the same, he replied:

“Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and to know that you are the Holy One of God.” (Jn. 6:68-69)

Once we learn who God is, we realize that He is the only Truth. He is the only Authority. We might not always like His Truth, and we might not like what He does with His Authority, but if we think we can escape His rule we are deluding ourselves. In this world, Christians aren’t persecuted because Satan got the upper hand. Satan gets his power from God, and God then micro-manages the way that Satan uses that power. This is what God teaches us in His Word: that His control is absolute over every aspect of everything that He has created. This is a truth that the Holy Spirit confirms to our souls over and over again as we read through headlines about Christians being persecuted and slaughtered around the world. So given all of this, what should our response be? Should we be sending up a million prayers for God to stop what He’s doing? Should we be telling God He is wrong in the way that He is using His power? Should we be groaning like those martyrs in Heaven and tell God to get off His duff and stop doing things we don’t like? No, we shouldn’t. This is not a reverent way to speak to the Almighty King. We should be honest with God about how much His choices disturb and upset us. We should be honest about the questions it raises in our minds about how good and trustworthy He is. And then we should ask the Holy Spirit to make our view of God one that is both aligned with His truths and honoring to Him. God is good, He is trustworthy, and He is running this world in a way that is deserving of praise. But He is the only One who can convince us of this these things. We’re not going to get there crying over martyrs and making ourselves sick reading graphic descriptions of torture and sadism. We’re not going to get there worrying about the growing power of religious extremists. We must look to God—the very One who is doing all these things—and ask Him to keep us in alignment with Him. Submission takes on a whole new meaning when we acknowledge God’s involvement with evil. Trust becomes far more challenging. But if we are serious about getting closer to God, we can’t back away from these sobering lessons.