Genesis 4:7a If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door.

Opportunity knocks, sin lays in wait.

Allow me to ask one of my pointed questions. On which side of the door is sin? Looking at the issue of not doing well as being Cain’s sin, one might say it is on the inside of the door and does not need to knock.

Revelation 3:20 Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.

Nearly every commentator of bible scriptures acknowledges that the door is the door to a sinner’s heart. John 14:23 supports that idea in the abiding presence of the Father and the Son. I do not have issue with that, but it is a door, not the heart. It is an obstacle that needs to be transformed into an entrance.

Psalm 119:11 Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.

It is error to think that just because you answered the door and let Jesus it that sin fled through the open door as Jesus entered. Not so, the Word enters in to assist us that we “might” not sin. There is no exodus of sin, only light to shine upon it so that we “might” see it for what it is.

We have been set free from the power of sin but not its presence.

1 John 1:10 If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

No matter how many times I vacuum under the bed, dust bunnies reappear. Do you know why? They are made up primarily dead skin cells and light has a difficult time shining under my bed. Such is the life we lead, chasing bunnies.

Romans 1:1 Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God,

In the beginning of this series I pointed to King David’s big sin. I was saying that doing kingdom business provides a hedge of protection around us. While David failed to perform his duties it was not that failure that was his sin, nor was it the cause.

Let us once again assume that you have discovered who you are in Christ and you know your calling. What can we discover about King David’s behavior that will help us not repeat his mistakes? I am not saying that keeping your nose to the grindstone will keep you from sinning. Far from it. Being obedient to God’s commands does that. Sometimes the Lord says rest.

Let us return to King David’s sin and see if we can identify where he went wrong.

2 Samuel 11:2 And it came to pass in an eveningtide, that David arose from off his bed, and walked upon the roof of the king’s house: and from the roof he saw a woman washing herself; and the woman was very beautiful to look upon.

Stop focusing on the woman. That is not David’s problem. David was restless. He got up from his bed because something was troubling him. I do that. I get up when I am restless and cannot sleep. That is how I can recognize it in David. What should we do when we are restless, when things are not right within us? I went back and looked to see if I could discover what was disturbing David and I found nothing except assumptions. The passages do not tell us.

We have to look to the behavior to see where things went wrong. David walked upon the rooftop alone. It is in the alone time that David discovered opportunity to go wrong. So the first opportunity to avoid sin was in keeping his stress to himself. This is where accountability partners come into play. They will help talk out the problem and get to the root source of the stress.

Do not suffer stress alone.