Crouching At Your Door

Genesis 4:7 “But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it.” Tonight Elaine and I will be leading our first session of Love After Marriage. (We’ve been in a supporting role in prior weeks). There’s been a lot of spiritual attack over the last week, and going through this week’s video has been really helpful for us. In it, Pastor Barry Byrne talks about the concept of taking every thought captive. We have to take responsibility for when we act out in sin (and when we repent God forgives us). However, oftentimes sin comes after us and we have a moment to fight it before we actually succumb to it and act it out. In Genesis 4, Cain got upset that his brother’s offering was well-received while Cain’s was not. It could be said that this anger in and of itself was a sin, but God came and told Cain that “sin is crouching at your door.” Similarly, when Elaine or I get upset at each other, we can feel guilt or shame because we “have sinned”, which typically makes us more defensive and more upset at each other. That’s exactly what the enemy wants, and that’s exactly what he got with Cain, who directed his anger at his brother Abel and murdered him. But last night we identified sin crouching at the door, we nailed it to the cross, and experienced victory and redemption in the process. The next time you start to feel upset, maybe you can try to nail that to the cross too. God already won the victory for us, and all we need to do is come in line with that truth. Lord, thank you for everything. The battle is won. The war is won. Because of what you’ve already done for us. I love you. In Jesus’ name, Amen.