Genesis 4: 6-7
Then the Lord said to Cain, “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 rule over it.”
God said something profound here that I personally could not get past. He said, “sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it.” As I read these lines, I thought about many things. Why is sin such a nuisance? Why must it always be crouching down at our doors? Peering at us and nagging us when we are simply just trying to live? Yet, that God said to Cain from the beginning of time that we must rule over it, showed me that we have a role to play in the act of overcoming this nuisance called sin.
In the medical field, there is a biological process we learn about known as homeostasis. In essence, homeostasis can be defined as any regulating process by which biological systems tend to maintain stability while adjusting to conditions that are optimal for survival. The stability attained is actually a dynamic equilibrium in which continuous change occurs yet, relatively uniform conditions prevail. (Britannica)
In lay man terms, it is the way our body maintains balance. In our physical bodies, the process of homeostasis heavily relies on something known as a feedback loop. This feedback loop can be broken down into 3 major components:
1. A sensor/ receptor: something that would detect that a change has occurred.
2. A control center: the area where this change is compared to a normal range
3. The effector: what would initiate different processes that aim at returning that change back into the normal range.
Now stick with me, this miniature lesson in physiology is getting towards a larger point. Like our physical bodies that needs to be in a state of constant regulation and monitoring, God has urged us to do the same in our spiritual lives. If anything at all throws off the balance in our bodies, that is when problems arise, and diseases develop. In the same way, if anything throws off our spiritual life, there is a break in the way our spirit man operates. Things begin to not function properly, and we find ourselves in a downward spiral of feeling separated from God. For example we begin experiencing unnecessary pain and despair.
Sin, being the great separator it is, initially separates us from God, and when we are separated from him, our mind, body and soul functions in disharmony.
Drawing a comparison between medical homeostasis and how our spiritual lives may operate, spiritual homeostasis can be thought of as having 3 essential parts necessary to maintain balance. The holy spirit is the sensor as He is the one who convicts us. He can detect when a situation has changed or has deviated off track. God’s word functions as the control center. Like the control center, His word has the standards and references by which we can compare everything to. His word has been described as a mirror, whereby when a person looks at it, it reveals who they truly are. Rather than His word only being a powerful convictor, His word also aims at inspiring change in our lives. This then leaves us to function in the role of an effector. As an effector, we have a responsibility to want to change our lives for the better and to want to be reconciled to God.
Romans 12: 2
Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the RENEWING of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is- His good, pleasing and perfect will.
Note the writer said “renewing” which is indicative of the fact that it is an ongoing process. To renew one’s mind is not as simple as one would hope. In fact, it requires much of God’s grace which fortunately for us, He has given to us freely through the death of His Son Jesus Christ on the cross. Throughout scripture Jesus assures us that He is here to strengthen us and guide us in regulating our lives and that His grace is the way by which we can overcome sin.
Romans 6: 6-7; 12 -14
For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin – because anyone who has died had been set free from sin. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey it’s evil desires. Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer every part of yourself to him as an instrument of righteousness. For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace.
As believers in Jesus Christ, let us not neglect to strike a balance with our spiritual health. Pray, fast, read your bible and integrate into community. Do what you need to do to build a firm foundation in Christ. The closer you get to Him, the more you learn about Him and the more you learn about Him, the more you learn to rely on Him, especially when it comes to overcoming sin. Overcoming the daily annoyance of sin, is a day-by-day thing. However never forget, that ultimately - once we have given our lives to God and have believed that He has indeed died for us - sin no longer rules us anymore and the battle we are fighting is one that has already been won.