Sin, Revisited

You will be accepted if you do what is right. But if you refuse to do what is right, then watch out! Sin is crouching at the door, eager to control you. But you must subdue it and be its master.                    ~Genesis 4:7

This verse came up in my devotional today...it it made me revisit an earlier post on Cain and sin.

God brought to light the very life of sin. Sin is not passive. Sin is not waiting. God wants us to understand this, just as he wanted Cain to understand it.

He gives us an image of sin. Something crouching and waiting to pounce. Something attacking and pursuing that must be subdued.  Sin can be mastered, but we have to be aware of it. A tiger crouches before it attacks its prey because it doesn't want to be seen. Here, God tells us that sin crouches...and I believe it is for the same reason.


If we are not on constant vigilance for sin, then it will be on us. Many times without us even knowing.

There is a question begging to be asked, "How do I keep vigilant and keep on the lookout for sin?"

The answer is so simple that we often don't do it. We simply keep our eyes on God. Much like the Israelites when they were stuck between a rock and a hard place, we look to God and everything will be okay. We look to God and we can see sin coming from far away because He will warn us.

God, help me to keep my focus on you so that sin cannot creep up on me.

  

                     

Rock...Meet Hard Place--Exodus 14

There are times in life where we are stuck between a rock and a hard place with seemingly no where to go.  Here, the Israelites were stuck between the Egyptian army (the rock) and the sea (the hard place).

Not much choice on which way to go is there?

And what did God's people do?...

They prayed and asked God to help them and deliver them! Ummm...
     wait, no they didn't do that.

They actually lamented the fact that God saved them from slavery.

"It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness."  (vs. 12)

Their eyes were looking around at the situation they were in.  They were not looking to God, the author of their salvation.

We read about these silly little Israelites and we think, "Those Silly little Israelites. God has brought you out of slavery and shown you the way to go with a big pillar of cloud and fire.  How much more should you believe than me?!" (It's funnier if you say it out loud with a French accent...just sayin'.)  Funny how we can look from the outside and think that way.  We know the ending and what had in store.  They didn't.

But how many time have I looked around instead of looking to God?  How many times have I not trusted and been overwhelmed by my situation, even though I knew that is where God had led me?

Is God thinking, "That silly little man, if only he knew what I have in store for him!"

Life is hard and sometimes it's hard to trust to God.  You may follow Him and keep all your focus on Him when things are going well, but where does your focus go when it looks like there is now way out of a bad situation?  Where is your focus when you look one way and there is an angry army and then you look the other and there is a huge body of water?

I need to always keep my focus on God, no matter what is going on around me.

God, with You as my focus I know You will deliver me and keep me safe.  Thank you.