Its desire is for you...

 He was a good man and he took good care of the peasants.  He was fair to them and the taxes he charged were used wisely.  But I wanted control.

  I decided that I was going to win the heart of the king.  I'm the most beautiful woman in his kingdom and I will use my beauty to beguile him.  Every Monday the king came to our village and greeted the people so I dressed in my finest clothes and set my trap.    

I waited for him at the gates and when he came, I faked a fall right in front of his entourage to get his attention.  My plan worked perfectly.  When he saw me on the ground, helpless, he was moved in his heart to offer aid.

The king stopped his horse and got off to help me.  I knew when he saw me he would be taken by my beauty.  It is said that with my eyes I can cause a man's heart to stop beating.  When he saw the faked pain in mine, I had him.

He extended his hand to me, lifted me from the ground and asked if I was all right.  "Yes, your highness, I am fine.  You are so noble and kind to help an unworthy peasant as myself."  The king was my captive but I knew I had to be wise to bring my plan to completion.  I wobbled a bit and he reached out to steady me.  When he put his strong hands on my shoulders, I could feel his strength becoming mine.

While it was highly irregular for a king, any king, to be seen with a peasant, this king pursued me.  He had me brought to the palace and I was pampered and prepared to become his queen.  

My appearance had taken his heart captive and my promise of giving him a life beyond his dreams won his mind.  The  king belonged to me.  We would reign together.  I would let him believe that he was in control, but I would have my way with him and his kingdom.

After I became his queen,  we did reign together.   When the peasants had a problem, they would come to his throne and we would make sure that they found justice.  We worked well together, but I wanted control.   

My plan was perfect.  I would ask the king to allow me to control his kingdom for one day.  I dressed perfectly for the occasion and my appearance was that of an angel.  When he looked upon me he was unable to resist my petition. The next I  was  to control the entire kingdom by myself.  With control now in my grasp, I would have my own way with the king.

In front of the king's court and all the people, he awarded me the control of his kingdom for a day.  It was glorious.  I met with the people and listened to their petitions and problems and granted them the desires of their hearts.  Some of the nobles were given large parcels of land and authority they'd not had before.  I'd easily won the hearts of the people with my gifts and promises of a better life.  Later in the day I had the royal guards summoned to my throne.  I gave the order that the king, who was in my chambers , was to be arrested and executed immediately.  The guards, knowing I was in charge, did exactly as I said.  When the king was brought before me I could see in his eyes that he had been thoroughly deceived   He begged me for mercy, but I wanted control.  He offered me half of the kingdom, but I wanted it all.  By giving away his kingship for just one day, it cost him his kingdom and his life.

If you're wondering if this is a true story, it is and it isn't.  There is a legend of a queen who did this very thing though not exactly as I wrote it.  But the results were the same:  The queen was given the authority to reign for a day and her first order was to have the king executed.

Are you wondering how this story is supposed to help you in your pursuit of being conformed into the likeness of Christ?  Let's go back to Genesis 4:7 and see what it has to say about our “queen.” 

If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin crouches at your door; its desire is for you, but you must master it. 

Before Cain murdered his brother that is what God said to him.

The queen wanted the king's authority, but as long as the king guarded his heart, she could not get it.  But the king looked at the beauty of the peasant who would be queen and he let his guard down and was overcome by her depeption and appearance.  

Sin is like that beguiling queen:  it looks good but beyond the appearance there is the reality of its life-taking ability.  Many of us in America have been brought up to believe “we are saved by grace,” which is certainly true.  We are also taught that forgiveness comes from God and it's almost automatic.  What we aren't taught is that sin is serious and it can take our lives away from us.  Once we give ourselves over to habitual or purposeful sin, it's very difficult to find the way back to where you've fallen off.  A verse not many of us like to recall is this: 

Once sin works its way into our hearts and we lose control, we may find ourselves like Esau--repenting with tears (crying out for mercy) but unable to find the way back.  I'm well aware that many believe that salvation is a one-time confession and that's it.  You are welcome to believe what you want.  I know "Christians"  like Esau who were very sincere who today wallow in sin and denial of His grace.  My point is to warn you and to warn myself:  Sin has consequences and to give your heart to sin in exchange for God's blessing is a dangerous thing to do.  Heb. 10:26 - 27 says it this way:  

Dear friends, if we deliberately continue sinning after we have received knowledge of the truth, there is no longer any sacrifice that will cover these sins. There is only the terrible expectation of God’s judgment and the raging fire that will consume his enemies.  

We don't have to suffer the fate of Esau and we don't have to "continue sinning."  There is grace and mercy from God to prevent this.

Sin crouches at the door, waiting for our attention so that it can pounce on our hearts and plunder them.  Sin struggles using various methods to conquer our hearts and establish itself upon that throne.  Once in power, it can very easily hold a person captive for the rest of their lives.  This need not be so.  We are to stand guard over our hearts and use all the tools we have to resist the temptations that come to us.  What tools?

We've been talking about one since January.  The first thing we are to do is to make the commitment to take up the challenge by God to become made into the likeness of Christ.    Once we take that up, we have direction and purpose for our lives.

We can fight sin by fasting.  While fasting is not a fashionalbe thing in our culture of instant gratfication, it has been used since the 1st century to do battle with sin. How?  Well, think about it.  When we fast, we deny ourselves and when we deny ourselves we have the power to obey God.  Fasting teaches us to say “no,” even if it is something as simple as a dessert at a meal or meat for a week or whatever you do.  Once our physical bodies get used to who's in control, it's easier to resist its passion for sin.  Fasting is a tool that has been used by the Church for centuries.  It's a shame that most of America ignores this valuable tool in the struggle against sin.

David said in Psalm 101:3 that he wouldn't set anything wicked in front of his eyes.  Self-denial is another tool in our battle with sin.  How easy it is for me here in Florida to put things in front of my eyes I don't need to see.  For example, I ride my bike over to the beach to go surfing.  When I get to the beach it's not unusual for there to be a lot of very good looking girls that are wearing next to nothing.  If I want to, I can allow my eyes to take in all the skin they want.   But what I've found to be better than that is to remember what David said and to not look.  I know, I've heard the teaching that a girl's body is not sinful and it's a creation of God and blah blah blah.  But you know what?  I don't need to see other girls' bodies because it's not good for my brain.  And it's not good for yours either if you are a normal man/boy.  It will invite and encourage thoughts and fantasies you don't need.

Fasting and self-denial are a couple of things you can do in preventing sin to get you.  But what do you do if you crash and burn?  You confess your sins and you repent.  In the Protestant culture of America, confession is something we don't think too much about.  When we sin we might go to God and apologize (on a good day) and quote 1 John 1:7-9 to Him.  I wonder why we quote Scripture to God when we are confessing?  Don't you think He knows them already?  Anyway, that's not the type of confession I'm talking about.  I'm talking about the kind where you go to your Priest and confess your sin to him and ask for his prayers.  I'm an Orthodox Christian and I have a priest who will listen to me.  More than likely, you aren't, though I think you should be.  What can you do?  Go to your pastor and tell him what you did.  Why?  Because when you say out loud to another person the sin you did, it is humbling and you can get help.  If you conceal your sin by only confessing to God, you deceive yourself if you think you are going to get past it.  Oh, I guess you might but chances are it'll become a habit.  Habitual sin becomes a habit when you allow it to live with you in secret.  Bringing sin into the light allows it to be dealt with.  And if you are fortunate, the person you confess to will be totally honest with you and maybe even chew you out for being so stupid or disrepectful of God's grace in your life.  When we sin, we bring pain and shame to Christ.