The Door
Romans 6.12-13 (Passion Translation)
“Sin is a dethroned monarch; so, you must no longer give it an opportunity to rule over your life, controlling how you live and compelling you to obey its desires and cravings. So then, refuse to answer its call to surrender your body as a tool for wickedness. Instead, passionately answer God’s call to keep yielding your body to him as one who has now experienced resurrection life!”
There’s one person in our household who consistently, faithfully, opens the front door when the doorbell rings: our 9-year-old, Noah. I know if I’ve forgotten my key and I ring the bell, it will be he who opens the door. I love that characteristic about him!
The Bible speaks again and again of a HUGE problem that humans’ face – the problem of sin. A magnetic pull towards doing things that displease God, that don’t honour his perfect standards (as he is purely good, purely holy). It isn’t a problem only some people face, and not others – no, the Bible says it’s a temptation that knocks on the door of all our houses.
So, here’s one visitor that I would tell Noah NOT to open the door to. ‘Noah, you don’t need to get up off the sofa, stop what you’re doing, and go and answer that one. That visitor doesn’t need to come into our house!'
Our passage today, carries this really helpful image of resisting sin: ‘refuse to answer its call’. God has great plans for your life, and there will always be knocks on the door, rings of the bell, invitations to do this, to go here, to do that. But with the help of the Holy Spirit in you, daily reading of Scripture, and praying with others, you will know in your heart when they’re not the right doors to open. Next time the doorbell goes and you know God wouldn’t want you to answer it, don’t. Call up your friends, get some worship on and lift your eyes to heaven. Not today.
Prayer — Lord, fill me with your Holy Spirit’s power to resist the call of sin. Instead help me to daily invite more of you into my life. I thank you that Jesus reigns over my life.