As a parent, I frequently have to tell my boys, "Shut the door!" There are various reasons to shut that door, and most of them are to keep something out like the cold (during winter), heat (during summer), strangers and other dangers, etc.. This made me think about the conversation God had with Cain about Abel.
God says to Cain in Genesis 4:7 (NIV)
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.”
What God was saying is, "Shut the door!" Don't entertain the thoughts that will lead you to do evil! As you read Genesis 4 you see that Cain chose to open the door and he killed his brother. Sin had it's way with Cain.
But what about us? Sin is crouching at your door and it desires to have you! That word is still for today. Truth is I've entertained thoughts that I never should have in the past, and being part of the human race, I know that you and I have so much in common. LOL :) We may not be opening the door to allow sin into our lives where it will bring physical death, but the Bible teaches that the consequences for allowing that sin to "have it's way with us" leads to death. We have to shut the door to some stinkin' thinkin'.
Years ago I was working at KFC (doing chicken right!) and training a guy. One day while we were working he said, "If that Assistant Manager looks at me again like that I'm gonna quit!" He convinced himself that there was a problem and had decided that he was going to quit. Moments later the Assistant Manager walked through, glanced at us working and walked to the office. Just after that he said, "That's it! I quit!" He needed to shut the door. There are husbands and wives who have or are thinking about entertaining thoughts that will ruin their marriage and family. Shut the door on that! Choose to stop that thinking and make a change. Follow through with that change by finding someone who will walk through the process with you. Knowing that you need to doesn't mean that you will, and trying to do it all alone is setting you up for failure. (does that make sense?!) It's not just marriages, it goes into other relationships, other choices. The great lies of sin are, "it's not gonna hurt anyone." and "But I deserve better!" (there are more lies, but I find these pretty common) You can look around your neck of the world and hear stories of broken hearts and lives. You can probably point to a situation you know about, or even worse, know the pain of personally. It touches all of us. We have to "Shut the door!"
Here's what I know... we gotta do a better job of "shutting the door" on that sin and the thoughts that lead us down the wrong path and leave a trail of destruction. If you are part of that trail I know that Grace, Truth and Time will help you to make it. (but that's another post) Don't give up!
Praying that God helps you do it or helps you through it! Shut the door!
