Can I pray for you in any way?
Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.
In Christ, Mark
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
** Follow The Christian Walk on Twitter @ThChristianWalk
** Like posts and send friend requests to the author of The Christian Walk, Mark Cummings on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/mark.cummings.733?ref=tn_tnmn
** Become a Follower of The Christian Walk at http://the-christian-walk.blogspot.com
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.
One day Samson went to Gaza, where he saw a prostitute. He went in to spend the night with her. The people of Gaza were told, "Samson is here!" So they surrounded the place and lay in wait for him all night at the city gate. They made no move during the night, saying, "At dawn we'll kill him."
But Samson lay there only until the middle of the night. Then he got up and took hold of the doors of the city gate, together with the two posts, and tore them loose, bar and all. He lifted them to his shoulders and carried them to the top of the hill that faces Hebron.
Judges 16:1-3
This ends our reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.
Through our look at Judges, chapters 13 through 15, we have been studying the life of Samson, a judge of Israel. Through that study, we have seen two traits stand out.
First, we have seen how Samson was very shrewd and intelligent, able to outwit those who tried to come against him. We have also seen how he diabolically came up with creative ways to wreak revenge on his enemies and we will continue to see this as we continue looking at his life story.
That happens in today’s short scripture passage from the opening three verses of chapter 16 as the people of Gaza learn Samson is in town and plot to kill him at dawn, something that never happens as he escapes in the middle of the night and foils the plan against him.
As we look at that escape, we see that he didn’t do it with any sense of stealth for the scriptures tell us he “took hold of the doors of the city gate, together with the two posts, and tore them loose, bar and all”. He then lifted them up on his shoulders and carried them “to the top of the hill that faces Hebron”. This revealed Samson’s second major trait…his incredible strength. We’ve seen glimpses of this before in his story for you’ll remember how he tore an attacking lion in pieces and broke free from bondage to strike down a thousand Philistines with a donkey’s jawbone. Such was his powerful physical prowess.
How about you? Think for a moment about things the Lord has blessed you with. For He has given us all special abilities and talents that we are to use for His glory. And this is really the key…that we use His gifts for His glory. In fact, there should never be a time in our lives when we cease to glorify God with our actions, our words or our thoughts.
This is where Samson got into trouble in his life. There is no doubt the Lord blessed him with special gifts and talents, especially when it came to physical strength. Unfortunately, you can have all the physical strength in the world but if you don’t have spiritual strength…strength to be obedient to God…strength to fend off temptation…and strength to stay firm in faith…then you are really not strong at all but weak.
In this passage, as we have seen prior, Samson shows he is physically strong but spiritually and morally weak. For as he went to Gaza, he saw a Philistine prostitute and never hesitated to spend the night with her. Samson knew God had spoken strongly about illicit sexual behavior…and yet he chose to do it anyways. Samson also knew that God had forbidden Israel to enter into relationships with the Canaanites…and yet he chose to do it anyways. Remember that we have seen it before and we see it yet again here. Samson did what Samson wanted to do. It was all about him and his desires.
Shrewdly intelligent and mighty in strength. These were Samson’s gifts.
How about you? What are the special qualities that make you special, qualities granted to you by God who expects you to use them to His glory?
As we look at Samson, we have seen him using his gifts for his own selfish gain. We have also seen him use them in ways that honored his Lord.
Maybe we’re more like him than we may want to admit and my prayer is that we always seek God’s will for each and every day, not only being strong in the gifts He has provided but even more importantly, strong in Him…strong in His Word…and strong in His Spirit. For it’s then and only then that we can properly honor Him and glorify Him in every aspect of our lives. He expects nothing less than that and surely, He deserves it.
Amen.
In Christ,
Mark
PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.
No comments:
Post a Comment