Day 116: Silly Samson

Acts 20:17-38; Judges 14-15; Job 42

Paul's words in this chapter in Acts are a beautiful reminder for believers even today.  He talks about how he had trouble, but he remained humble and focused on his mission of spreading the good news to the world.  He says that he knows there is trouble to come, but he will continue to work to finish the plan that God had for him.  We must understand that we will have trouble; God's love does not protect us from tough times.  Because we are believers and have a message that is so radical, we are stepping into a lion's den.  He tells the believers to be kind, not take more than is theirs, and help the weak.  So awesome.

Samson sort of annoys me.  He was set apart by God, given great strength and ability to be a leader, but he continually whines and compromises what is right.  He whines to his parents about a girl, touches dead things when he is not supposed to, reacts out of anger or frustration, and still expects God to care for him.  Surely he was aware of the wrong he was doing, but he sounds like he is too arrogant to care or to think that it will come back and affect him.  Each of us has a calling upon our lives.  God wants to do something awesome in and with our lives.  However, by compromising on what we know is right, we set ourselves up for consequences down the road.  God wants a humble and discerning people that he can use to their full potential.  When we compromise and respond with emotion rather than faith, we, in some ways, reject God's plan for our lives. May we not be like Samson, arrogant and careless, but instead be people of The Lord who are humble and conscious of the ways God is working in our lives.

God wants to bless us!  Believe it or not, he wants to pour out his goodness in your life.  But, sometimes we have to go through rough circumstances to teach us about God.  God can use those challenging times to equip us with the humility and wisdom that can then be used to help others.  God's plan is so much greater than we can imagine, so when bad things happen in our lives, we must try to remember that God can use even this for good.