“When the unclean spirit has gone out of a person, it passes through waterless places seeking rest, but finds none. Then it says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came’; and when it comes, it finds the house empty, swept, and put in order. Then it goes and brings with its seven other spirits more evil than itself and they enter and dwell there and the last state of that person is worse than the first. So also, will it be with this evil generation.”
– Matthew 12:43–45
There’s a lot we could talk about with this passage from Jesus.
Matthew 12:43–45 Teaches that Unrestrained Evil Multiplies
But the big picture truth that I would encourage us with today and want to lead us to pray according to today is the reality that evil, when unrestrained multiplies. Say that again. Evil, when unrestrained, multiplies. When we don’t guard ourselves against evil. When we allow for evil to gain a foothold in our minds, our hearts, our lives, in the church, in the world. And we don’t work by God’s grace to restrain it. And I emphasize by God’s grace because it is only God’s merciful hand that keeps us from evil and keeps evil from multiplying even more evil, unrestrained, multiplies.
So guard your heart and your mind today from sin and evil and temptation. Do not take a break today at any point from spiritual battle against wickedness in your own heart and life.
And, as you pray for others in your life, as you intercede for other people, for your church, for the world around you. For the nations, we’ll pray in a moment for the Aimaq people of Afghanistan and Pakistan and Iran. We pray for the restraining of evil. We pray that God would, by his grace, keep evil from multiplying.
Matthew 12:43–45 Reminds us we are in a Spiritual Battle
So God, we pray that knowing that we are in a spiritual battle. God help us to see with spiritual eyes today. That there are spiritual forces of evil at work in the heavenly realms that want to destroy us, that want to destroy our families, our marriages, children, parents.
Spiritual forces of evil at work in the world that want to destroy our relationships, that want to destroy the church, that want to destroy the world, that want to defame you, that want to distract us, that want to deter us from following you, that want evil to reign unrestrained. Jesus, we praise you that greater is he who is in us, greater are you than the one who is in the world. We praise you for your victory over sin and evil and Satan and death, and so we pray. Help us to cling to you today to hold fast to you.
We pray that you would guard each of our hearts and minds and lives and relationships. Guard your church, we pray, from evil. We pray that you would help us to be sensitive to temptation and to run from it. And we intercede for the cities where we live, communities where we live. We pray, God, that you would by, your mercy, keep evil from multiplying. Help us to spread the gospel to be salt and light in the world around us in a way that restrains evil, in a way that glorifies you, in a way that leads people to you.
Praying for the Aimaq People
God, we pray this over the Aimaq people of Afghanistan and Iran and Pakistan and Turk Menistan. God, we pray for the spread of your grace and your mercy for the spread of the gospel among the Aimaq people. That evil might be restrained by the power of your grace in the gospel. That people might be saved who have never heard the gospel. God, we pray for the spread of your grace among the Aimaq people, even as we ask for your grace and your mercy in restraining evil in our lives and the lives of those around us today. In Jesus’ name we pray according to Matthew 12:43–45. Amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
