"Hey, It's the wrong way 'round."
"If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him." Genesis 4:7 (KJV)
Have you ever been assembling something from the store? You know, anything that has the words "assembly required" somewhere on the box? Working through the often times linguistically challenged instructions you discover you have one part on backwards. The frustration of that moment, the lost hope of the end result, just seems to melt away at that moment when you turn the part the right way around. All just fits, works, and you stand back and admire the thing that, more-or-less, resembles the picture on the box. Even with a few parts left over, the frustration of the past moment is gone and soon forgotten.
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In Genesis chapter four, God warns Cain about the destructive power of sin. How sin lies at the door waiting to devour. But then God says something else, something that hit me like a unsuspecting "This is your Life" contestant of the late 40's to early 50's. (The show also had a small revival during the early 70's as well.) God said that the desire of sin is a thing that should not rule us, but us rule over it. Wait! What? All this time we have had the idea of reacting to sin as a helpless Christian that leaves us wondering what part of the "Whole Armor" (Ephesians 6:10-18) we forgot to dress in today?
"Shall you not, if you do well, be accepted? And if not you do well, at the door sin lies. But, unto its [sin] desire you must rule over." (humbly adapted from the Hebrew text analysis page at the Bible Hub web-site.)
So, we should think about the desire of sin as something we rule over, not the other way around. And the "Whole Armor" as the 'how to' assistance from a loving God and His Word. Very awesome.
Lord, I pray that I use your strength and power to do this task and that "I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me." (Philippians 4:13) In Jesus' name, Amen.