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    I’m sure you’ve felt it! The hair on the back of your neck stands up and your whole body tingles with fear. Your heart pumps so hard that it feels like it’s about explode out of your chest. Your palms sweat and your mind races for options, as it tries to help you find a way to safety.

    I’m talking about that eerie feeling we get when we enter a dark room and have that intuition that we are not alone. Or we’re leaving an unfamiliar place, it is dark, and we get an overwhelming suspicion that someone is following us. Or we may in the middle of a crowd, but get that creepy sensation that someone is closely watching us.

    We have the assurance as believers, that God is always with us. (Hebrews 13:5; Psalm 139) But our adversary is also around trying to entice us into one of his traps or surveying our weaknesses waiting for an more opportune moment to pounce.

“...it desires to have you, but you must master it.”

    That’s why I find God’s words to Cain so compelling. Cain was jealous of his brother Abel. God accepted Abel’s sacrifice and not Cain’s. Cain’s jealousy fermented into a murderous rage. God reminded Cain that evil was close by, wanting to claim him. God’s words are chilling: “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 4:7) In the New Testament, Peter uses the image of a lion on the prowl, looking to devour us as his latest prey. (1 Peter 5:8) Sin, evil, and wickedness are lying in wait just at our doorstep longing to have us. But the evil one can’t have us if we choose God’s way. We not only can master evil, we must master it!

    Today many people either deny Satan and the power of his demonic realm, or they find demons under every rock, behind every shadow, and in every company logo. This denial and extremism have become the excuse for many believers to lower their guard, to not take the presence of Satan in our world seriously, or to fear they are powerless to do anything about his influence in their lives.

    Let’s remember that Satan and his use of evil are real. His desire is to have us and destroy us. His power and influence are crouching at our door. But if we follow God’s way, we will be accepted and empowered by God himself, by his Son Jesus, and through the Holy Spirit. We can master evil. Jesus has already defeated it at the Cross. But if we do not take the offensive against evil, it’s right there on our doorstep, lying in wait to have us. Like Cain, if we ignore the warning, the results will be disastrous for us, and those around us!

    Jesus came to destroy the work of the evil one (Hebrews 2:1428; Colossians 2:15) and he calls on us to resist Satan and submit ourselves to the work and will of God. (1 Peter 5:9; James 4:7-8) As we think of our crucified Lord and the humiliation he bore at Calvary, let’s resolve to live triumphantly for the Lord and not the defeated predator lying in wait outside our door! He cannot have what belongs to the Father and cannot master anyone whose life is joined to Jesus!