Pastor’s Bible Reading Schedule: Judges 16-18
Devotional Thought:
It is always a sad thing to see a person with great potential that does not do anything with it. There is always potential in the child of God, because with Christ we can do all things. However, without Christ we can do nothing. Sampson is a great example of a person with great potential that wasted it because of selfish pride. Sampson wanted what he wanted rather than yielding his life over to the Lord and doing what God wanted. In the reading yesterday we saw the selfishness of Sampson as he told his father to go down into the world and get a specific woman for him, “because she pleases me well.” We will always make really poor decisions and many times cost us life-changing affects when we serve our selfish nature. In chapter 16, Sampson is marching down the path to destruction. Verses 20-21 are the key verses to this chapter. “…I will go out as at other times before, and shake myself. And he wist not that the LORD was departed from him. 21 is the key verse in this text. But the Philistines took him, and put out his eyes, and brought him down to Gaza, and bound him with fetters of brass; and he did grind in the prison house.” Once sin get hold of a person, it blinds him to his future fate, and they he becomes the servant of sin. How sad for the child of God, who has been freed from such bondage, to volunteer to go back under bondage. I think the saddest words of this chapter are, “…and he wist not that the Lord was departed from him.” Sampson was so filled with himself that he did not even notice that the power of God no longer rested upon him. He was so blinded by his own selfishness that he thought it was his own strength that produced the results and not the power of God. Friend, may I tell you that your Christian life cannot be lived in your own strength. You must obey God’s word, follow God’s will, and go forward in God’s strength. If you live in the flesh, you will fulfill the lust of the flesh. “And when sin when it is finished, bringeth forth death.” The chapter ends with a testimony of God’s grace toward repentant sinners, but how tragic it is to see potential wasted.
Personal Requests:
• Lord, please help me to embrace the power of the Holy Spirit within me. Help me to never quench the spirit, but to follow and fulfill the leadership of the spirit.
• Lord, Please help me to discern the lies of the world, my flesh, and the devil. I want to fulfill the purpose for which you saved me. May I not just have potential, but may I walk in the spirit and not fulfill the lust of the flesh.