“If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? 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” (Gen 4:7). When God spoke these words to Cain, His kind warning was unfortunately ignored. Instead, Cain yielded to the covetousness and envy in his heart and
took the life of his own brother. As I consider the tragic outcome of his choice, I am all too aware of my own sin nature and the opportunity I have each day as a Christ follower — to listen to
God’s Truth, trust and follow Him or do it my way and suffer.
It seems an easy choice up front. In fact, I don’t think any
logical person if presented with this story and the options would choose to
ignore God’s leading and walk in misery. But, interestingly, we do it every
day. The Lord shows us that going to bed angry or with unforgivness in our
heart will result in a root of bitterness (Eph 4:26), but we often ignore the
warning and refuse to let go of the anger. He says that if we worship idols we’ll
become like them and our hearts will be darkened (Ps 115:8), but we reason that
He couldn’t be serious and continue to bow our hearts to money, people, pleasure
and our own selves hoping for the best. He says that if we leave “jealousy and
selfish ambition” in our hearts, our lives will be chaotic and filled with all
kinds of evil (Jas 3:16), but we refuse to let go of what we want and disregard the warning.
Like Cain, “sin is crouching” at the door of our hearts and
desires to have us. It’s only as we submit to God, resisting the enemy and
choosing instead to walk in the Spirit, that we have victory (Jas 4:7). But how
do we actually “do” this in the midst of hectic lives and not
nearly enough time and space for reflection?
Stop
When we lived in Korea, we often exercised on the trails by the ocean and mountains nearby. It seemed I got a pebble in my shoe almost every
time we walked, but I usually tried to ignore it to keep from stopping. I didn’t
want to lose my momentum, but the pebble became so distracting that ignoring it
became far more frustrating than the inconvenience of stopping for a few
seconds to get it out. That’s the way it is with sin in our lives throughout
the day. As soon as we notice that something is not right, that we’ve lost God’s
peace or that we’re convicted of saying or doing something we know in our
hearts is not pleasing to God, it’s time to stop. Delaying dealing with it only
steals from what could otherwise be a joyful and peaceful day with the Lord.
Drop
Once we notice that our communion with God has been breached
and we stop to acknowledge it, there’s the opportunity to either yield our
hearts to Him in prayer or keep moving forward, maybe with excuses and even good
intentions to deal with it later. This reminds me of when the girls were young
and would start crying about a problem. Depending on how focused or busy I was,
I was tempted to ignore it, which only made it worse and usually the tension
escalated. If, on the other hand, I would stop and carefully consider what was
happening, drop what I was doing and deal with the struggle it was much more quickly
resolved.
Pray
The decision by faith to go before the Lord and ask Him to
show us specifically what has happened to unsettle our hearts really doesn’t
take much time and it frees us to keep a clear conscience. Not only that, the answer is guaranteed! He promises that when we
ask for wisdom with sincere hearts, He’s not going to turn us away but will show us His truth (Jas
1:5-6). When He reveals what we’ve done or not done or how we’ve taken offense at
another person’s action or inaction or allowed our emotions to rule us, we can
acknowledge and repent of these sins and claim the cleansing blood of Jesus over
us (1 Jn 1:6-8). As we strive in the Spirit’s power to keep a clear conscience
before God and others, we not only experience inner peace but we are able to
reflect Christ’s light and love, bearing fruit for his glory (John 15; Acts 24:16; Matt 5:14).
It Makes All the Difference
We may think that it doesn’t really matter if we leave sin in our hearts, but we see from Cain’s life that it made the difference between life and death. Not that we’ll have such a tragic ending, but each day we ignore God’s Spirit nudging us to listen, trust and follow Him, we become increasingly less spiritually sensitive and our relationship with the Father grows cold. This, in turn, impacts our relationships with others. As we grieve the Holy Spirit, we lose interest in reading the Word, praying and seeking God’s Kingdom and our hearts begin to chase after other idols to satisfy the longing only Christ was meant to fill (Eph 4:30). As our hearts become hardened, we cease living in joy and fellowship with the Father, which leads to many other sins (Rm 1:21-25).
The obvious conclusion is that Cain’s struggle is our struggle. And God’s warning to Him is the same one He gives to us. As His children, we have access into His presence at all times (Heb 4:16). Not only that, we’ve been given all that we need for life and godliness (2 Pet 1:3) along with His promise of forgiveness for all our sins --- past, present and future (Col 2:14). But we have to choose to walk in this truth to experience His love and freedom (1 Jn 1:7). It’s a choice we make throughout the day that can certainly seem cumbersome, but dealing with the sin that seeks to master us is by far the wiser choice than trying to ignore it. Like a pebble in our shoe, the sin and the Spirit’s conviction remain until we stop, yield our hearts and turn back to Him, confessing and forsaking those things that separate us from a life of loving fellowship with the One who loves us perfectly!
We may think that it doesn’t really matter if we leave sin in our hearts, but we see from Cain’s life that it made the difference between life and death. Not that we’ll have such a tragic ending, but each day we ignore God’s Spirit nudging us to listen, trust and follow Him, we become increasingly less spiritually sensitive and our relationship with the Father grows cold. This, in turn, impacts our relationships with others. As we grieve the Holy Spirit, we lose interest in reading the Word, praying and seeking God’s Kingdom and our hearts begin to chase after other idols to satisfy the longing only Christ was meant to fill (Eph 4:30). As our hearts become hardened, we cease living in joy and fellowship with the Father, which leads to many other sins (Rm 1:21-25).
The obvious conclusion is that Cain’s struggle is our struggle. And God’s warning to Him is the same one He gives to us. As His children, we have access into His presence at all times (Heb 4:16). Not only that, we’ve been given all that we need for life and godliness (2 Pet 1:3) along with His promise of forgiveness for all our sins --- past, present and future (Col 2:14). But we have to choose to walk in this truth to experience His love and freedom (1 Jn 1:7). It’s a choice we make throughout the day that can certainly seem cumbersome, but dealing with the sin that seeks to master us is by far the wiser choice than trying to ignore it. Like a pebble in our shoe, the sin and the Spirit’s conviction remain until we stop, yield our hearts and turn back to Him, confessing and forsaking those things that separate us from a life of loving fellowship with the One who loves us perfectly!
