One thing that can stop God’s power in your life…..

“And the woman [in due time] bore a son and called his name Samson;

and the child grew and the Lord blessed him.

And the Spirit of the Lord began to move him at times in Mahaneh-dan

[the camp of Dan] between Zorah and Eshtaol “

Judges 13:24, 25

 

I used to think Samson as the most arrogant of the heroes of the

bible. I thought he was brash, proud and conceited but I was wrong.

He was humble.

He knew where his true strength came from.

 

Let’s take a look at a scripture,

 

“Samson was very thirsty, and he prayed to the Lord and said, You have

given this great deliverance by the hand of your servant, and now shall I

die of thirst and fall into the hands of the uncircumcised?”

Judges 15:18

 

When spending time with God he addresses himself as “servant”.

With all his strength and power he humbled himself before God.

He never once gave himself the glory.

We never read of a time where he praised himself.

Samson was a humble man.

 

Let’s take a look at one more scripture,

 

“And when he came to Lehi, the Philistines came shouting to meet him.

And the Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon [Samson], and the ropes

on his arms became as flax that had caught fire, and his bonds melted

off his hands.”

Judges 15: 14

 

“The Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon Samson”

 

That wouldn’t have been possible if Samson was arrogant and proud.

He knew God was the reason for his strength and power and that is why

he was used so mightily.

 

This is the lesson I want you to take from the life of Samson.

With all his strength and power he never became proud and arrogant.

He knew God was the source of his strength.

Because he was humble he was in a position to be used mightily by God.

He put God first in his life and that is why he did what he did.

He never once praised himself.

If he was prideful he wouldn’t have been used.

 

To be used by God we need to be humble. We need to always put Him first.

Pride takes God out of the picture and makes us believe we can do it on our own.

Pride wants to go on its own.

Pride thinks it doesn’t need God or anyone for that matter.

One of our prayers should be to be humble.

No matter how much God does for us we must remain humble.

No matter the great heights He takes us to we need to remain humble.

It’s only when we are humble that we can be used by Him.

 

Bless you friends

 

Rolain

 

 

The arrogance of man….

And Saul built an altar to the Lord;

It was the first altar he built to the

Lord.  1 Samuel 14:35

 

Saul built an altar to God. It was probably the only

altar he built to God.

Why he built the altar is not really clear but the point

is this, he built an altar.

Saul building that altar almost seems out of context.

In fact, it’s so out of Saul’s norm that the word says,

 

“It was the first altar he built to God.”

 

Building an altar meant on a very rare

occasion Saul remembered God, he honored God!

It was one of those very rare occasions where

Saul put God first, where Saul stopped to thank

God.

The altar that Saul built tells us a lot about where

his relationship with God was. He didn’t build altars

which meant something.

 

On the other hand let’s look at David.

Building an altar wasn’t out of context for him.

He built countless altars to God. That also said

something about his relationship with God.

David was a man after God’s heart. God was the

most important thing to him….

 

David and Bathsheba (2 Samuel 11:1-5)

David kills Uriah (2 Samuel 11:14-23)

In both these situations David repented to God.

He confessed his sins and asked God to forgive him.

His heart broke because of what he did.

 

David counts his people (2 Samuel 24:1-9)

After counting the people the word says:

David felt ashamed after he counted the people

and said to the Lord, “I have sinned greatly in

what I did! Lord, I beg you, forgive me for my

sin. I have been very foolish.”

2 Samuel 24:10

 

Once again David humbled himself before God.

He confessed his sin to God quickly!

 

David wants to build a house for God.

(2 Samuel 7:1-18)

Even in peace David still sought the Lord.

He never forgot Him!

 

This is what I am trying to show you,

We need to be like David who built countless

altars to God. He loved God so much. Yes,

he sinned many times but he always turned 

to God. No matter how bad things got he

always turned to God and even in good times

he still turned to thank God!

 

Saul didn’t put God first a lot of the time.

Some would say he was proud. He believed

he could make it on his own. He was a skilled

warrior who was a “head taller” than everyone

else. (1 Samuel 9:2)

Whatever the case we must aim to be like

David who humbled himself before God.

He never relied on his own strength. Instead,

he relied on God and ALWAYS turned to

God, always……

The goal is not to be David but it’s to take

those things that made his relationship

with God stronger and apply them to

our lives.

The goal is not to discredit or attack

Saul but it’s to look at his life and

learn from his mistakes. We all sin

so attacking Saul would be foolish…

 

God wants us to put Him first….

Pride will always resist God.

We need to be humble and allow

God to lead us.

Rolain