(5min reading time)
Many years ago, I started flirting with the idea of getting a dog, and someone told me, “Just remember, big dog, big poop; small dog, small poop.” I thought it was an interesting concept, and it stuck with me in my memory. Well, fast forward several years — today I have both a big dog and a small dog, and I can say with total confidence: big or small, poop is poop. It stinks, it’s nasty, and it must be picked up and cleaned no matter the size.
The same goes for sin. Yes, let’s talk about sin. It seems like we get so cautious talking about sin these days, afraid that it might offend someone. But the truth of the matter is, we all sin. (I was going to make the analogy that, like poop, we all do it — but I think we all get the picture and are ready to move on from that frame, eheheh.) Moving along…
The Bible says in Romans 3:23:
“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,”
and that means all of us. And although some of us might have a 180-degree testimony of incredible transformation — I know I have mine — and I’ve had the opportunity to talk to some people with even greater testimonies than mine, I still need God’s grace, mercy, and forgiveness daily. Because even after accepting Jesus as my Savior, I’m not immediately transported to heaven. I still need to live in this world and deal with my sinful nature daily.
No wonder God instructs us so many times:
1 Peter 5:8 (NIV)
“Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.”
Proverbs 27:12 (NIV)
“The prudent see danger and take refuge, but the simple keep going and pay the penalty.”
1 Thessalonians 5:22 (NIV)
“Reject every kind of evil.”
Among many others, but the one that caught my eye today was during my Bible reading in Genesis 4:7, where God is talking to Cain and says:
“…sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it.”
Here, God, who sees all, knows what the devil is scheming against Cain and plotting to have him do. God warns him and says: beware, sin desires to have you — but you must rule over it!
I think sometimes we just skim over this chapter because, one, we all “know” it — yeah, Cain kills his brother, let’s move on; or two, because it is such a heinous crime or sin, and I think I can say that for the majority of us, we don’t fit into that category of being a murderer. But that is not the topic here. Don’t be afraid to go deeper. “Deep calls to deep” (Psalm 42:7, NIV). Let God take you deeper into His teachings and truths and reveal Himself in new ways as you read His Word — a living, inspiring message for us.
What I saw today is God’s love and compassion as He spoke to Cain, saying that in this fallen world, the devil plots and schemes all the time. He sets up traps through situations and circumstances so that we may fall — but God has made every provision for us to see and rule over it!
Number one: He loved us so much that He gave His Son to make provision for our sin and forgive us of our iniquities. To wipe the slate clean so we can have a new life in Him — away from our past and our mistakes. Through the blood of Jesus, He has given us access to seek Him and find Him, to enter His presence freely and pour out our hearts, our troubles, our insecurities, and yes, even our doubts before Him. For He is God Almighty, and He can deal with it and guide us out of it.
He also gave us His presence — the Holy Spirit who lives inside of us. All we need is to stay connected with Him, and He will guide us into all truth. He will help us see. He will widen our vision and increase our hearing so we can detect evil and flee from it.
And I’m not talking only about the heinous and obvious ones, not just the huge sins that we should technically all know better than to commit. I’m talking about a canine sense of smell so sensitive that dogs can smell one teaspoon of sugar dissolved in two Olympic-sized swimming pools — roughly 1 part in 1 trillion. An extraordinary level of sensitivity.
I’m talking about that kind of sensitivity to the Holy Spirit’s warning.
Yes, we live in the world, but let’s walk in the ability to detect evil like that — 1 part in a trillion — from the smallest to the greatest temptation, from the whitest lie to the unspeakable action. Sin is sin. There is no big or small.
The grace of God and Jesus’s blood is powerful enough to forgive and cleanse all of it — YES!!! Glory to God in the heavens for that! Where would we be without it? Yes!!! Oh God, give us the sensitivity so that the smallest one-in-a-trillion part sin causes us to flee from it.
I believe that as we claim the blood of Jesus over our lives, get closer to God, and practice running from the tiniest appearances of sin, two things will get stronger: our sensitivity to sin and our ability to run from it and take refuge in our Father.
Big or small, let’s run from sin so the devil can face the reality that Jesus’s blood has triumphed over his failed plans — and in Him, we have victory daily. Hallelujah!
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