"Couching" At The Door

When Cain got very angry at his brother Abel in the Genesis account (4:6,7), we are told that God said to him: "Why are you angry...If you do well, shall it not be lifted up? And if you do not do well, sin is couching at the door. It's desire is for you, but you must rule over it."

Cain didn't take God seriously, and ended up killing his brother...and took the consequences of his sin.

I have often wondered about that "couching" at the door business. And yet I think I get the point. Just when I believe all is well, suddenly I am confronted by decisions, and by situations that test my ability to know right from wrong.

That rather indefinable thing called moral choice, sin, wrong‑doing is always there. It seems to haunt my life. I'd like to believe I am above doing evil...that I would never do those terrible things other people do...but that's not so. I do them, and I must forever do battle with the power of evil in my life.

Whether I call it the devil, or sin, or Satan, I have to be accountable for my choices, and for my life. If good is there, so also is the flip‑side of evil. God gave me those choices, and I cannot expect to coast down hill making the right ones all the time.

The only way I know how to deal with that something that "couches" at my door, is to purposefully put on the vestments of righteousness and faith, before I go out that door. I must determine to be God's child, rather than the child of evil. You can argue doctrine until you are blue in the face, but there is little doubt about it...you and I have a daily struggle. We must try to win it, God being our helper. Sin is "couching at the door"...but we don't have to let him in!