Judges 14
The tearing up of a Lion sounds like a Hollywood film doesn’t it? This superhuman strength is like the incredible hulk or something, except for those 9 key words ‘the spirit of the Lord took control of him’. I don’t recall that happening to the incredible hulk.We find out that the spirit is working in Samson at the end of yesterdays reading but it isn’t until verse 5 and 6 that we get a picture as to what it may be doing. God fills him with strength. If a lion came bounding up to me I can assure you I would run a mile in the opposite direction, it would potentially be good training for the Bristol 10k. But Samson was confident in his ability, in his strength and he stood his ground. However as the story unfolds Samson becomes more and more confident in his own Gifts rather than trusting in God.
When it comes to gifts God gives us we need often do one of two things: Some of us don’t embrace them enough. Looking back at Samson he teaches us a lesson. His strength became a part of him, needing not to be mentioned. We can take a lesson here, what are the gifts God has given us? What is our purpose and crucially our role in the building of Gods Kingdom?
For others of us the challenge is trusting our gifts too much. This was Samson’s fatal error – he trusted the wrong place. We need to trust God rather than relying on ourselves.
(lay member of staff)