Disobedience Will Eventually Cost You

“The Israelites had traveled in the wilderness for forty years until all the men who were old enough to fight in battle when they left Egypt had died. For they had disobeyed the Lord, and the Lord vowed he would not let them enter the land he had sworn to give us—a land flowing with milk and honey.” – Joshua 5:6. 

If you follow Jesus for any length of time and you seriously pursue a strong relationship, you will eventually have to make a choice: will you follow Him in obedience? There is a cost of following Him, and sometimes that cost can be heavy.

We will all be confronted with the choice to obey, or ignore the opportunity for obedience and take a few steps away from God by compromising or making bad choices. The story of Samson is found in Judges 13-16. Chapter 13 begins with the words, “Again the Israelites did evil in the Lord’s sight…”  After this, they were oppressed by the Philistines for 40 years. Samson, a natural leader in that day because of his strength, was appointed by God to deliver the Israelites from the Philistines. But over time small missteps led to large consequences leading to Samson’s eventual humiliation. At the end, God forgave Samson for his disobedience, and gave Samson his strength back one last time to defeat the Philistines. The lesson Samson learned the hard way is that disobedience will eventually cost you.

Each of us has probably come to God with hat in hand asking for forgiveness for some act of disobedience, realizing we have no plausible defense nor excuse for our actions/decisions. After all, it is easy to compromise at first. It can even be fun. We will deal with the price tag on our act of disobedience at a later date. But here is the truth. Disobedience is serious business. Whether we disobey with the cost hidden or the price tag in full view, the ultimate consequences will be very real and very experienced.

The cost of disobedience is high. And it will eventually cost you. Many times it is not easy to follow and obey the Word of the Lord, but how much better to suffer for the sake of obedience, than to suffer the consequences of disobedience. “But if we would examine ourselves, we would not be judged by God in this way. Yet when we are judged by the Lord, we are being disciplined so that we will not be condemned along with the world.” (1 Corinthians 11:31-32.)

If you have disobeyed the Lord in some area of your life, take the steps needed to restore the relationship. God will always forgive and restore us as He did with Samson. Continuing on in disobedience is a serious mistake in the life of the Christian. Samson “paid the fare” of disobedience, and so will we when we step away from God. 

Discussion Questions:

  1. Why do you think Samson failed to be Spirit-led in his life?
  2. Led by the Spirit: This is essential to being developed into the person God created us to be. How do you think about the importance of the Spirit’s work in your life? How much of your life do you think you can handle on your own?
  3. The Spirit leads us and shapes us to be more like Jesus so others can see Jesus through us. In what ways does the Spirit lead you?
  4. What can we do this week to let the Spirit shape our character to be more like Jesus?

Our Own Worst Enemy

“For you are the children of your father the devil, and you love to do the evil things he does. He was a murderer from the beginning. He has always hated the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, it is consistent with his character; for he is a liar and the father of lies.” – John 8:44.

Most everywhere we look, we’re reminded of the real battle that exists. We live in desperate and uncertain times. The devil does not wait until we are strong and ready for his attack. He is ruthless, determined and cunning and is hoping that we underestimate him. The more we underestimate the enemy, the more likely he is to make inroads into our lives.

God has a plan for our lives. The enemy has a plan for us too. We just have to decide which voice we’re going to listen to, and who we’re going to choose to follow each day. God had a plan for Samson’s life, but too often the choices Samson made steered him away from God and into the traps of the enemy.

We can all underestimate and forget about the reality that we have a spiritual enemy whose mission is to steal, kill, and destroy everything that matters to the heart of God. 1 Peter 5:8 says, “Stay alert! Watch out for your great enemy, the devil. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour.“

We underestimate the enemy when we walk right over the guard rails God places in our lives. We underestimate the devil when we become a little too comfortable spending time with that married women. We underestimate our enemy when we relax our ethics to make that deal. We think we know how to stand strong against the Devil, but do we? First Corinthians 10:12 says: “If you think you are standing strong, be careful not to fall.” So we need to be careful that we don’t fall because we underestimate our enemy.

One of the most important principles of warfare is to know your enemy. If you are fighting a war and you have a lot of information about your enemy, it makes the battle so much easier. If you know very little about your enemy, the battle will be more difficult. As we read in 1 Peter, Satan roams about like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. If the newspapers reported that a lion had escaped from the zoo and was roaming the streets of your city, wouldn’t it be a help to know which area of the city he is in, so we could avoid that area? Certainly. In the same way, knowing where Satan is trying to attack us can save us from a lot of problems. It is important that we know our enemy, because once you know what the Bible teaches about Satan, you will be careful and you will not underestimate your enemy.

Discussion Questions:

  1. If we do not take our enemy seriously, how could this hinder us?
  2. What can we do to be on guard against Satan? How can scripture help?   
  3. Think about the life of Samson: What is a healthy balance between blaming the devil for all of our ills and dealing with our responsibility for our lives and actions?
  4. What can we do this week to acquire more knowledge of our enemy?

What Have You Learned From Your Mistakes?

“The temptations in your life are no different from what others experience. And God is faithful. He will not allow the temptation to be more than you can stand. When you are tempted, he will show you a way out so that you can endure.” – 1 Corinthians 10:13.

Has you ever tried to do the right thing only to have it turn out all wrong? It happens. It can also happen in our spiritual life.  Maybe you took on a responsibility that you thought God wanted you to do or maybe you avoided a situation God wanted to use in your life to accomplish His purpose. Even when we sincerely want to follow God, we may and often do unknowingly veer off course. That’s why it’s so important to seek guidance from God before we try to maneuver our way out of a difficult situation or rush in to fix a problem. Our plans often seem logical, reasonable, or compassionate, but if they don’t align with the Lord’s will, we are potentially just getting in His way.

Samson often veered off course. And worse, he never made a course adjustment back to God when he made the mistakes. But God was still working in his life to fulfill His purpose whether he realized it or not. The same can be said of each of us. It doesn’t matter what you can see or understand. Faith requires that you trust God that He is at work in your life, even in the failures. God can use our mistakes and our failures to prepare us for some future success.

It is hard to view Samson as much more than a failure. But God was positioning him right where God wanted him to be so he could do what the Lord wanted him to do. It may not seem like God is leading you, but He is. When you feel like God isn’t there, that’s not the time to trust less, but more. Some of the most convicting and uplifting testimonies are when people rise above their failures to succeed. We all need God to help us recover when we make mistakes and temporarily lose our way. Like Samson, you may have wrestled some lions such as loneliness, addictions, financial issues, and broken relationships. 

When you fail, it’s not time to run from God but to God. When at the end, Samson too sought God. Remember the story of the Philistines basking in their victory over Samson. They asked that Samson be brought out to entertain them. Samson asked that he be put between the pillars that support the temple. Thousands of Philistines were in the temple. “Then Samson prayed to the Lord, “Sovereign Lord, remember me again. O God, please strengthen me just one more time. With one blow let me pay back the Philistines for the loss of my two eyes.” Then Samson put his hands on the two center pillars that held up the temple. Pushing against them with both hands, he prayed, “Let me die with the Philistines.” And the temple crashed down on the Philistine rulers and all the people. So he killed more people when he died than he had during his entire lifetime.”

At this point, Samson was a shell of his former self, or so it seemed. He was defeated, blinded and forced to entertain his enemies. We too must overcome our tendency to run from God when we fail and instead substitute it with a habit of running to God. We can approach God boldly, just like Samson did, even when we fail: “This High Priest of ours understands our weaknesses, for he faced all of the same testings we do, yet he did not sin. 16 So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most.”  (Hebrews 4:15-16).

Discussion Questions:

  1. Is it possible to live a mistake-free life?
  2. What should we learn from the mistakes we make?
  3. What is God’s role when we make a mistake?
  4. What can we do this week to run to God rather than run away from Him?

Going It Alone

Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.” – Joshua 1: 9.

How often have you been in a conversation where someone comments that they don’t know how people cope with life without God. Or maybe in a small group, somebody comments that they couldn’t face what they are facing without God. I couldn’t agree more because I can’t imagine coping with the stuff life throws at you without knowing the love and grace of our truly faithful and amazing God. But that is exactly what Samson often did. 

Samson was always doing his own thing. He was always going it alone. Because he put himself in charge of his life, his personal desires dictated his actions. Another sign that Samson was going it alone was that from all appearances, he never prayed about anything, except before his final act, when he brought the house down (Judges 16:28-30). He was impulsive and he was impetuous. He didn’t take the time to ask God for direction. He just went ahead and did whatever his spirit willed him to do rather than God’s. 

What about us? To many people, God is just kind of an afterthought, a convenience. If we would just stop and ask God for direction before we jump into something with both feet and get all messed up. When things get tough and tight, we turn to him in desperation. Psalm 10: 1: “O Lord, why do you stand so far away? Why do you hide when I am in trouble?” But when everything is all right, we leave Him on the sidelines. Going it with God’s help means paying attention to what He says and seeking his guidance and wisdom every day. 

Samson never took that path until the very end of his life, after everything had finally fallen apart. He was captured by the Philistines, they gouged out his eyes, and they made him grind grain at a mill, a job normally reserved for animals. Notice what happened after everything collapsed: Samson finally prayed, as seen in Judges 16:28, “Then Samson prayed to the Lord, “Sovereign Lord, remember me. Please, God, strengthen me just once more, and let me with one blow get revenge on the Philistines for my two eyes.”

So how do we keep from going it alone? By drawing near to God when life is both easy and hard, and also through times of difficulty. James 1:2-4 says,“Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles of any kind come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing.” 

Discussion Questions:

  1. Do you ever find yourself going it alone by leaving God in the background?
  2. When does God become a distraction, or an afterthought in your life?
  3. What needs to happen to draw closer to God? 
  4. What can we do this week to better walk with God in our lives?   

Making Sense Of The Senseless

My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.” – Psalms 73:26. 

It is not news, and yet at the same time we hear each day in the news, that we live in a hurting world.

It was just about a year ago that tragedy struck the Emanuel AME Church in Charleston when  nine people were killed, including a pastor at prayer meeting. This week tragedy struck again as 49 people were killed and 53 people wounded in Orlando. Since hearing the news, my heart has been broken. I cannot begin to understand the feelings of parents, grandparents, siblings, nieces and nephews, friends, colleagues, neighbors and community members. All of us lost something this week, for some the losses are unimaginable. My prayers go out for everybody that was impacted by this senseless act. 

My reflection on this event is first, sadness. I am saddened to hear about so many people losing their lives. Secondly, I feel frustration. It is frustrating that someone would be so selfish to take other’s lives. And third, I feel a deep hurt. I am hurting because so many people lost their lives. Every person is made in the image of God. Every person is loved by God. Loved so much that He sent His son to die on the cross for each of us. The Bible clearly reveals how precious every single one of us is to God 

And fourth, we need prayer for our country and our world. After this tragic event, I can’t help but be reminded of the need for strategic prayer. God is a God who can and must be communicated with. It was Mother Teresa who said, “if we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other.” This tragic event reminds me of the need to pray for people because we don’t know if they are about to do something unwise, or if they are about to suffer the harsh reality of senseless tragedies like the Orlando shootings. 

Jesus told us the truth when He said in John 16:33, “I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me. Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world.” He didn’t say it could be a possibility – He said trials and sorrows are going to happen.

But why? If you ask me point-blank, “why did God allow the gunman to kill so many innocent people in Orlando,” my answer isn’t much of an answer, but it is the best I can do: I do not know. As a pastor, I wish I had the answer. But I cannot stand in the shoes of God and give a complete answer to that question. I don’t have God’s mind. I don’t see with God’s eyes. First Corinthians 13:12 says, “Now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely.” 

My prayer is that God will use this tragic event to help our community and country draw nearer to Him and not drift further away from Him.  

Being Spirit Led

“Therefore, dear brothers and sisters, you have no obligation to do what your sinful nature urges you to do. For if you live by its dictates, you will die. But if through the power of the Spirit you put to death the deeds of your sinful nature, you will live. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God.” – Romans 8:12-14. 

Most Christians believe in the leadership of the Holy Spirit. However, like Samson, we often take charge in our lives instead of letting the Holy Spirit lead. It is easy to believe that our individual feelings, urges, and desires are the things the Spirit has led us to do. The question is how does the Holy Spirit lead us? What must we do in order to be Spirit led?

To be led by the Spirit simply means that we will be living as Jesus lived, since he perfectly lived according to the Spirit. “And you know that God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power. Then Jesus went around doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him.” (Acts 10:38)  “…For by the power of the eternal Spirit, Christ offered himself to God as a perfect sacrifice for our sins.” (Hebrews 9:14)

The Holy Spirit’s leading should be sought in all of our decision making processes. We should pray for the Spirit’s leading in all things. It’s a biblical thing to pray and to seek the counsel of the Holy Spirit, and to even expect an answer. “In times of trouble, may the Lord answer your cry. May the name of the God of Jacob keep you safe from all harm. May he send you help from his sanctuary and strengthen you from Jerusalem…May he grant your heart’s desires and make all your plans succeed….May the Lord answer all your prayers.” (Psalm 20:1-5).

Acts 13: 1-4 tells us: “Among the prophets and teachers of the church at Antioch of Syria were Barnabas,…and  Saul. One day as these men were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Appoint Barnabas and Saul for the special work to which I have called them.” So after more fasting and prayer, the men laid their hands on them and sent them on their way. So, being sent out by the Holy Spirit, they went down to Seleucia, and from there they sailed to Cyprus.”

Barnabas and Saul were led by the Spirit of God. “Being sent out by the Holy Spirit” is the proof of responding in obedience to the call and direction of the Holy Spirit. My prayer is that we all desire to obey the call of the Holy Spirit, so that we may experience the direction of the Spirit in our life and ministry.

As we study Samson, we know that he made too many emotional decisions and too few Spirit led decisions. But hopefully we are using this teaching series to do some introspection. For example, if someone was looking into my life, knowing I was a Christian, would they come to the conclusion that my life is Spirit led? Because when we weigh what Jesus did for us, it is a reasonable expectation that we live a Spirit-led life. 

Discussion Questions:

  1. Why do you think Samson failed to be Spirit-led in his life?
  2. “Led by the Spirit”: This is essential to being developed into the person God created us to be. How do you think about the importance of the Spirit’s work in your life? How much of your life do you think you can handle on your own?
  3. The Spirit leads us and shapes us to be more like Jesus so others can see Jesus through us. In what ways does the Spirit lead you?
  4. What can we do this week to let the Spirit shape our character to be more like Jesus?

False Pride

“Don’t be selfish; don’t try to impress others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves.” – Philippians 2:3

C.S. Lewis said this about pride in Mere Christianity: “There is no fault which makes a man more unpopular, and no fault which we are more unconscious of in ourselves. And the more we have it ourselves, the more we dislike it in others. The vice I am talking of is pride. In fact, if you want to find out how proud you are the easiest way is to ask yourself, ‘How much do I dislike it when other people snub me, or refuse to take any notice of me, or shove their oar in, or patronize me, or show off?’ The point is that each person’s pride is in competition with every one else’s pride. It is because I wanted to be the big noise at the party that I am so annoyed at someone else being the big noise.”

C.S. Lewis could be talking about Samson. He wanted to be the big man on campus and believed he was. He probably believed that guys wanted to be like him and every girl wanted to be with him. Samson believed he could do anything and he often did. After several killing sprees, Samson went to hang out in the top of the rock Etam for a while. While he was there, 3000 men of Judah came, tied him up and took him to the Philistines. When they delivered Samson, we pick up the story in Judges 15: 14-17: “As Samson arrived at Lehi, the Philistines came shouting in triumph. But the Spirit of the Lord came powerfully upon Samson, and he snapped the ropes on his arms as if they were burnt strands of flax, and they fell from his wrists. Then he found the jawbone of a recently killed donkey. He picked it up and killed 1,000 Philistines with it. Then Samson said, “With the jawbone of a donkey, I’ve piled them in heaps! With the jawbone of a donkey, I’ve killed a thousand men!” When he finished his boasting, he threw away the jawbone; and the place was named Jawbone Hill.”

Notice the phrase “and the spirit of the Lord came powerfully upon Samson.” But in his trash talking there is no mention of God, just multiple times using the word I’ve. He is basically saying: Look how strong I am, look how skillfully I fight, and are you not impressed yet? He simply takes the credit. I don’t think it would be inaccurate to imagine Samson standing before the torn lion, his blood pumping from adrenaline, and sweat dripping from his forehead, in total amazement at the scene at his feet, thinking to himself, “Look at what I’ve done.” Instead of saying, “look at what God has done.” The problem is where pride leads. Pride produces self-recognition, self-advancement, and a desire to be served. Pride is the arrogant, self serving, ambition driven attitude that can and often does leads to destruction, as it did with Samson.

In the end Samson is the one who became humbled, by being imprisoned and forced to work in a grain mill, mocked, and ridiculed for entertainment. After all this is done, Samson finally prays to God to give him strength to do God’s will.

Discussion Questions:

  1. How do you define pride?
  2. Being open and honest, have you ever gone through a season when you struggled with pride? How did it affect your relationships with others? With God? How did God address that issue in your life?
  3. Most men have a desire for greatness, as Samson did, that can often result in pride. Do you have a desire for greatness? How do you handle that desire? Do you believe God put it there? If so, why do you think He did? 
  4. This week, spend some time learning what God has to say about pride. For starters, Proverbs is chock-full of warnings of the effects of pride.

Burned With Anger

“And “don’t sin by letting anger control you.” Don’t let the sun go down while you are still angry, for anger gives a foothold to the devil. If you are a thief, quit stealing. Instead, use your hands for good hard work, and then give generously to others in need. Don’t use foul or abusive language. Let everything you say be good and helpful, so that your words will be an encouragement to those who hear them. And do not bring sorrow to God’s Holy Spirit by the way you live. Remember, he has identified you as his own, guaranteeing that you will be saved on the day of redemption. Get rid of all bitterness, rage, anger, harsh words, and slander, as well as all types of evil behavior.” – Ephesians 4:26-31.

The life of Samson has always made good Hollywood copy, and colorful stories for Sunday School classes. Some see Samson making poor choices in women. Others see a wild man slaying a thousand men with the jawbone of an donkey. Still others imagine a blinded, bitter Samson ending his life in a last fit of vengeance. But when you get by the mystique and fascination of the legend of Samson, you find a man of great physical strength, but also great weakness when it came to controlling his emotions.

Samson’s life includes one stumble after another. He became too friendly and too familiar with the Philistines. He consorted with a prostitute in Gaza, barely escaping a threat to kill him. No sooner had he escaped that threat when he takes up with Delilah. To the human eye, it may have looked as if Samson was veering out of control here, thwarting the work and the will of the Lord. Samson’s actions were certainly in conflict with the revealed will of God. But God had not lost control.   

Samson was utterly undisciplined. He could not control his eyes. He could not control his appetite. He could not control his emotions. He could not control his anger. An example starts out as a lark. Samson tells a group of Philistines for fun that he thinks there is no way they will figure out the answer to his riddle, but they outsmarted him. And what began as a contest of wits among friends turned quickly into a serious conflict, partly because Samson’s pride was wounded. He responded in anger as Judges 14:19 tells us what happened.”Then the Spirit of the Lord came powerfully upon him. He went down to the town of Ashkelon, killed thirty men, took their belongings, and gave their clothing to the men who had solved his riddle. But Samson was furious about what had happened, and he went back home to live with his father and mother.” 

Samson’s wrong choices when he was young led to repeated problems with the same sins throughout his life. Anger and lack of self-control haunted him throughout his life. And Samson’s sinful pride, as well as his violent anger, continued to plague him, though God used Samson in a marvelous way to deliver Israel from the Philistines.

Discussion Questions:

  1. Would you say that we live in an angry culture? Why or why not?
  2. According to James 1:19-20, why should we be swift to hear, slow to speak and slow to wrath? What does this mean?
  3. What does Galatians 5:19-25 teach us about the positive side of this issue?
  4. What can we learn from the anger of Samson to apply to our life? 

When Emotions Get The Best Of You

So I say, let the Holy Spirit guide your lives. Then you won’t be doing what your sinful nature craves. The sinful nature wants to do evil, which is just the opposite of what the Spirit wants. And the Spirit gives us desires that are the opposite of what the sinful nature desires. These two forces are constantly fighting each other, so you are not free to carry out your good intentions. – Galatians 5:16-17.

Have you ever wondered what life would be like without emotions? Or if everybody was able to control their emotions. We would all be like Spock on Star Trek. All his responses to all situations are always logical, made without any emotion. But we will never be like Spock because God created us as emotional beings. We feel love, joy, happiness, guilt, anger, disappointment, fear, etc. Sometimes our emotions are productive and sometimes they are not. Either way, emotions can be helpful indicators of what is going on in our hearts.

When we study the life of Samson, we quickly see how his emotions often got the best of him. Usually to his detriment. Samson was set aside at birth by God to save the people from the Philistines. Samson was a man of great potential, but often made self destructive decisions. Last week we saw that he struggled with lust (I want it!), entitlement (I deserve it!), and pride (I can handle it!). This week we look at how Samson was emotion driven, not spirit led. Emotions aren’t always bad, in fact they’re a gift. But, when we let our emotions take over, they become one of the “two forces” fighting each other Paul is talking about in Galatians.

We find in the story of Samson a battle of the riddle. Samson has a competition with a bunch of other guys around a riddle. But he doesn’t leave it at a competition. He adds a bet. Here’s the riddle: “Out of the one who eats came something to eat; out of the strong came something sweet.” (Judges 14:14)

So the answer to this riddle is a lion and honey. Samson killed a lion, came back later and found in its corpse a bunch of bees and honey. The Philistine men can’t figure it out, so they threaten Samson’s Philistine wife and she cries to Samson and gets the answer from him. He tells her, and she tells them. They solve the riddle and Samson is furious.  He says: “If you hadn’t plowed with my heifer, you wouldn’t have solved my riddle.” (Judges 14:18)

Calling your wife a heifer is a bad idea. But back to the story. Instead of being led by the Spirit, Samson becomes driven by his emotions, particularly his anger. He takes the lives of 30 innocent men to pay his bet. Samson then leaves the party, and his wife’s dad thinks that he’s abandoned his daughter so he gives her to another man.  Samson comes back several weeks later and finds that his wife has been given to someone else.  So he takes 300 foxes, ties them together, lights their tails on fire, and sets them loose in the Philistine grain fields. Anger leads to a destructive cycle of violence in Samson’s life. 

Allowing our emotions to control us is a bad idea. Denying our emotions is not a good idea either. Controlling and stewarding our emotions is the idea. The way to manage our emotions is to be spirit led. “Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.” (Romans 12:2) The Holy Spirit is the one who can produce self-control in our lives. “ But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.”  (Galatians 5:22-23)

Discussion Questions:

  1. What can we learn about emotions in the life of Samson? Do you believe emotions contribute to bad choices?
  2. What emotions are positive and what emotions are negative in your life.
  3. How can we become more Spirit led?
  4. What can we do this week to be more led by the Spirit? 

Pause and Pray

Samson judged Israel for twenty years during the period when the Philistines dominated the land.” – Judges 15:20.

In Judges 15:20, we learn that Samson judged Israel well for 20 years. Then one day, he chose to walk to the Philistine headquarters in Gaza to find a prostitute. We can never know the number of actual steps but some basic math indicates that Samson walked about 56,000 steps to get to Gaza from where he was. And for the sake of discussion, let’s say that Samson takes about 100 steps per minute. So the 56,000 steps would take him approximately 560 minutes or 9.33 hours to complete. That’s 56,250 chances that Samson had to pause, reflect, and take a different road literally and figuratively.

He had approximately 9 hours to do some mental due diligence and determine whether this was the wise thing for him to do. But he chose not to reflect or to pause, opting instead to keep walking. And eventually he ran into Delilah. If he had taken just one minute out of those 560 minutes to pray and ask God for wisdom and guidance the outcome may have been different. Maybe even radically different. But he didn’t pause and his hair was cut, his eyes were gouged out, and the strongest man to ever live was made weak.

The story of Samson should give us pause. When in doubt, pause. When angry, pause. When tired, pause. When tempted, pause. When stressed, pause. When seeking God’s will, pause. And whenever you pause, pray. Jesus took time to pause in His ministry to get away from all of the action to be renewed. Mark 6:31 tells us, “Then Jesus said, “Let’s go off by ourselves to a quiet place and rest awhile.” He said this because there were so many people coming and going that Jesus and his apostles didn’t even have time to eat. Matthew chapter 13 shows the short pauses in one day Jesus took before continuing His teachings. 

We need to leave space for God to provide. Psalm 37:7 says, “Be still in the presence of the Lord, and wait patiently for him to act.”  That suggests both a pause and relinquishing total control of the action with our own hands and minds. It is taking the time to listen for the “still small voice” through which God often chooses to speak to us.

And don’t forget to pray. Praying and seeking God’s will help to give us the strength we need to ward off temptation and prevent us from possibly stepping on other landmines in our lives. But let me take that one step further. We should often practice preemptive prayer. Most of us default to pray as we are sliding down the rabbit hole, or as a last ditch hope to keep us out of trouble. And there is nothing wrong with that. But pause and think about it for a second. Prayer is our most powerful, most accessible, most useful resource for all the challenges we face. If we are not using it proactively, in other words praying for the wisdom to see the guard rails, to keep our distance from temptation, to keep our vision and our actions committed to God, then we should start. Much like it is wise to perform the preventive maintenance on a car rather than fixing it when it is not running. It is far better to pray and stay out of danger than to pray for deliverance when we are already in danger.

Discussion Questions:

  1. Is it easy to pause? If not why not?
  2. What times in your life do you think it is important to pause?
  3. It is important to pause and to pray. Why do you think that is true? 
  4. What can we do this week to make pause and pray a regular activity in our lives?