But you must rule over it

Please take a few moments and read Genesis chapter 4 because this will lay the foundation for where my heart is going this morning. THANK YOU!

Perhaps you will be like me because at first I began to ponder how often do you and I give an offering that is along the lines of Cain instead of Abel? Our offering coming from the normal that we have instead of from off the top? OUR BEST?

Honestly, that isn't what began to gnaw on me, instead what really hit my heart hard today was when Cain turned away in finality from God. He had grown so cold and callous and allowed sin to win him over. The LORD had spoken to Cain in vs 7 and I will emphasize part of this verse now: "sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is for you, but you must rule over it." Sin desires to rule us, God, Himself told Cain and He is telling you and I that sin truly desires to have us. God doesn't stop there, He goes on to tell Cain as well as you and I that we MUST rule over sin. That tells me that God has given me the power to over rule the sin that comes knocking at my door, that I have a choice to either bend the knee to sin, or to SPIT IN IT'S FACE and tell it to get OUT OF HERE!

When I have stood upon that kind of power over sin, I'm telling you Sisters and Brothers, that I am exuberant! JOY unspeakable bubbles inside of me and I then bend my knee to my Lord and Savior and thank Him for showing me the better way to go. The Gospel then begins to be lived out in me because what I've read and come to believe takes root and changes me. I don't change me, God's Word changes me.

Verse 16 shows us where Cain turned away from God. "Then Cain went away from the presence of the LORD and settled in the land of Nod, east of Eden".

Some time later Adam & Eve had a third son, Seth. Seth had a son named Enosh and here came the blessing because of this nation returning to God in the closing verse of Chapter 4: "At that time people began to call upon the name of the LORD."

Father, I come away this morning knowing that I hunger more than ever to be in Your presence. That You have placed the power and strength with-in me to say no to sin and turn my back on evil. May You find me today and the next day and the next day calling upon the name of the LORD. For the LORD is all that I need, You are my El Shaddai, my All Sufficient One. In Christ Alone, amen.

Lovingly at Higher Grounds,
Yolanda

**all scripture came from the English Standard Version**