Sin lurks at the door of our hearts waiting to creep inside and tear us to pieces. It is a wild, ravening animal that will destroy everything and ruin our lives. We must guard against it and protect our souls from its deadening threat and influence. 

It does this though loosing our hold on our spiritual lives and undermines our motivation for the things about God that we love. We get less enjoyment about our reading of the Scripture, less inclination to pray and to draw near to God. We get more satisfaction for the things of temporal life than the things in our spiritual life. Our Christian service wears off and we stop reaching out to other people. We become cynical about others and our love for the people of God begins to dry up. Sin comes in easily then and we will have no defences left to fight it. 

We must not make excuses for ourselves, but come in repentance to the Lord and He will freely pardon us. He does not send us away, or reject us, but will forgive us and warm our hearts again. We need His protection in this fight against this enemy and the teaching of the Holy Spirit to watch for the attacks and face them head on. God has given us the protection of His holy Word and the presence of the Spirit in our lives. The people of God in the past were protected from the outcome of sin and death through the shed blood of the Passover lamb. 

The door posts of the houses of the people of God had the spilt blood of the lamb on the lintel and sides of the door. It was put there to protect all those inside from the avenging angel of death who God sent to kill all the firstborn in Egypt. The people of God had the remedy for that terrible night and were kept safe because they obeyed God and put the blood on the outside of the door. The spectre of death was swept away and the lurking form of sin was also kept away.

The people inside ate their meal with their coats on and ready to fly to freedom at a moments notice. They were kept safe by the promise of God and His provision of salvation, from the angel of death and from the crouching form of sin. They were safe because they accepted the remedy that God gave them, and obeyed what He told them to do. We also need this covering from the Lord, and we obey His commandments and keep ourselves in the love of God. He will protect us and give us the strength to resist the sin that so easily overcomes us and He will keep us safe from the final death. 

The blood spilt for us is not a lamb, but the blood of the Lamb of God, Jesus Christ who died for our sins. By faith in Him and the sacrifice He made on that cruel cross, we are set free from sin and death and have no more fear. 

“But God commends his own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we will be saved from God’s wrath through him.”

Romans 5:8-9

We must not fret or worry about sin in a craven and faithless way, but humbly accept the forgiveness afforded to us, so freely and with such love. The Lord forgives completely all those who come in repentance and faith and will not keep bringing our failures to our minds. He takes the sin away and the guilt of it. We can keep the guilt going as some kind of penance to try and somehow imagine we can pay for our sin, but we cannot. We accept the forgiveness in humility and turn from our sin and live our lives for God. The enemy lurks and will make us feel guilty forever, if he can. It is a false guilt and we turn away from it and rejoice in what the Lord has done for us. The way is difficult, but we cling to the promises of God.

“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us the sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

1 John 1:9

We must lay hold of the promises and exercise our faith and not grieve and wail because of our daily sin. God is looking for heartfelt repentance and not outward signs of sorrow. We may weep and that is good, but the work of the spirit is a deep work in the heart and thoroughly sincere. It hurts us at first, for the sting of conscience and condemnation is real, but the oil and the wine are poured into our lives and our sin is dealt with by God. We turn from it and He blesses us with His peace. 

We can never lie down and think that it is safe and sound to let sin pass. It will never pass until that great day when Christ returns to take His waiting church home to heaven, or we go to be with the Lord in death. As we step into eternity, we will put on the righteous robe of Christ and be made new, fully redeemed people of God and set free from the cloying effects of our sin. We will be the people we were meant to be and be able to enter into our full spiritual blessings in Christ and appreciate the glory we will share with Him.

“For as much then, as Christ suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same mind; for he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin; that you no longer should live the rest of your time in the flesh for the lusts of men, but for the will of God.”

1 Peter 4:1-2

These thoughts of our eternal destiny should help us in our motivation to fight sin and be over-comers in the name of Christ. Sin may lurk at the door of our hearts and minds, but we refuse to let it in. We have the power, because we have the Spirit of God to help us and give us the strength to do so. 

“He who overcomes, I will give to him to sit down with me on my throne, as I also overcame, and sat down with my Father on his throne.”

Revelation 3:21