The Intruder

“Help! There’s a frog in the living room,” I yelled.

My husband ran into the house and calmly replied, “It’s a toad.”

“How are you going to get it out?” I asked.

Without a word he quickly picked it up and carried it outside. Our front door had only been open a few minutes while we loaded up the car for a trip. In that short time the toad had hopped up the front stairs and into the house.

That toad reminded me of Cain and the sneaky nature of sin. His brother Abel had offered the Lord the firstborn of his flock whereas Cain had brought produce from his garden. When the Lord accepted Abel’s offering but not his, he became very angry.

God asked him, “Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? 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 master it” (Genesis 4:6, 7, NIV).

Just like the toad, sin was crouching at Cain’s door. Likewise, sin tempts us today to rebel against God. If we yield, we become slaves to sin. But if we resist, we obey God and become slaves to righteousness (Romans 6:15–18). Only by God’s grace, will we yearn to turn from our wicked ways. If we continue to do only what we want, we will be like Cain, following our own evil desires.

Nobody likes the idea of being a slave. Yet everyone is either a slave in Satan’s kingdom or else God’s kingdom. How much better for the Holy Spirit to draw us into God’s kingdom as his slaves! What irresistible grace!

www.tale2k.com