Given Strength

I'm so glad you are here! I hope during your visit you get a glimpse of God's heart for we become what we are gazing at. I want to be a blessing to you so I've made these Resources available to you and have the Missional blog tab for practical ideas of how to live on mission right where you are. 

Currently I am writing my way through Judges sharing glimpses of God's heart and character for a weekday devotional. To check out the entire series so far head on over the the Judges Devotional. And if you are a blogger, come on over on Friday's for a blog hop. 

In college I found out I had hypothyroidism. Apparently 1 out of 4 people have it but I had never heard of it. I was super tired all the time and felt like I could literally fall asleep on the floor in the middle of the day when I was working. I was pretty concerned so I set up a doctors appointment at my home doctor 7 hours away and started the drive. I was 30 minutes away from home when I fell asleep at the wheel. When I woke up I was about to go head on with a truck and I remember there being a truck behind me and ditches on both sides of the highway. I swirved and the next thing I know I was facing the other direction on the side of the road and no other cars were around. I was shaking and confused. Where did all the other cars go? How did I not hit that truck? As I sat there a guy ran up to my car and said, "Are you ok? You must have some good karma." In shock, all I could say with my shaking hands and voice was, "God" and pointed up. He left and another guy came up and said, "Man, you must have an angel or something." But I just didn't want anything else to get the recognition for what God did. So again, all I could get out this time with a couple more words, "It was God"

God shows His power that His name may be declared throughout all the earth.(Rom.9:17) But so often we attribute what God has done to our own ingenuity or ability or to someone giving us a hand. Like the guys who saw how I didn't go head on with a truck and praised angels and karma, the same happened with Samson's life. The Philistines praised and offered sacrifices to their god Dagon. How sad! 
"Now the rulers of the Philistines assembled to offer a great sacrifice to Dagon their god and to celebrate, saying, "Our god has delivered Samson, our enemy, into our hands." When the people saw him, they praised their god, saying, "Our god has delivered our enemy into our hands, the one who laid waste our land and multiplied our slain." While they were in high spirits, they shouted, "Bring out Samson to entertain us." So they called Samson out of the prison, and he performed for them. When they stood him among the pillars, Samson said to the servant who held his hand, "Put me where I can feel the pillars that support the temple, so that I may lean against them." Now the temple was crowded with men and women; all the rulers of the Philistines were there, and on the roof were about three thousand men and women watching Samson perform. Then Samson prayed to the LORD, "O Sovereign LORD, remember me. O God, please strengthen me just once more, and let me with one blow get revenge on the Philistines for my two eyes." Then Samson reached toward the two central pillars on which the temple stood. Bracing himself against them, his right hand on the one and his left hand on the other, Samson said, "Let me die with the Philistines!" Then he pushed with all his might, and down came the temple on the rulers and all the people in it. Thus he killed many more when he died than while he lived. Judges 16:23-30  

But wasn't it left open for discussion? Samson didn't walk with the Lord let alone talk about Him or give room for the Lord to show Himself great through him. 

"God is not like an insecure bully, who likes to show off his strength by putting weaker people down. God loves to show off his greatness by being an inexhaustible source of strength to build weak people up." John Piper 

Too bad Samson spent his whole life not submitting to God's inexhaustible strength. And look where it got him. Blind and used to give a fake god glory. 

But God!
"God is the kind of God who delights most deeply not in making demands but in meeting needs. Prayer is his delight because prayer shows the reaches of our poverty and the riches of his grace. Prayer is that wonderful transaction where the wealth of God's glory is magnified and the wants of our souls are satisfied." Piper

The Philistines didn't know God was a Forgiver and Restorer. They had a servant boy leading Samson around. A boy, leading around the strongest man to ever live, how crazy! God sure knows how to humble us. And Samson did, he humbled himself under the powerful hand of God and the Lord showed Himself strong through him. Through his death he is now placed as a model for us of a man of faith (Heb. 11). What grace! An entire life unsubmitted yet God seems him as a man of faith because of this moment when He called out to the Lord for strength.

If there's hope for Samson, selfish, arrogant, lustful, hiding, Samson, isn't there room for God's grace for us. Yes! God wants to show Himself strong for all who call on Him.

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