Cold. Blue. Calculating. Wooed.
Pressed daily with words.Vexed to death, literally.
So, Samson, who once appeared appointed and anointed, gives in to his sin of lust.
Tells everything that is in his heart cause he was annoyed.
Oh God, You once stirred this man's heart,
Yet, his sinful desires stir him up more.
What about this heart of mine?
Matthew Henry wrote that the grief from sin is 10,000 times worse than the pleasures.
Sin stripped Samuel of his Strength.
Prayer gave Strength right back.
No magic formula here.
God is looking for Surrender of ourselves to His Beautiful Story.
The life of Samson was extraordinary due to the strength he received from the Lord. However much of his life is like our lives. Sin, prayer, and answered prayer. He ended his life in total surrender. I pray I surrender daily and do not wait until the end of my days.
ReplyDeleteSamson's life does look like my own. Not a Nazarite nor a weightlifter, but sin-filled and falling away, eyes set on different prizes than the True Gift, followed by desperate prayers and short-lived reconciliation before the next sin cycle and return. Full surrender looks different. Full surrender offers peace and joy amid the seeming failures of this world.
ReplyDeleteLord, You alone save us. You alone are our strength. Allow me to mean it with my whole life to fully surrender and stop operating out of my own depleted strength. You are the One that saves us from ourselves.
Then, and only then, we can be about the Bigger Story--let the palms we wave this day be white flags of surrender to Your Lordship.
Salvation belongs to the Lord. Hosanna in the highest.