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You are Richer than you Think


 
            “But he did not realize that the Lord had left him” (Judges 16:20).

           That verse, said of Samson, is maybe one of the saddest verses in the entire Bible and it leads to a lesson that we need to hear.

            Samson was special from the beginning.  Before he was born, an angel told his parents that Samson was to be “set apart to God” (Judges 13:5) to do great things.  As signs of this special relationship with God, Samson was to avoid wine and fermented drinks, observe the special Jewish dietary rules and, most visibly, never cut his hair. 

            The trouble began when Samson fell in love with a woman named Delilah. She was a “Philistine”, one of the enemies of God’s people and soon her friends talked her into finding out the secret of Samson’s great strength.   Three times she asked him to tell her the secret and three times Samson protected himself by giving her false information. 

            Now, we are not told exactly why Samson finally gave in.  Maybe Samson became complacent about his relationship with God and began to think, “It does not really matter what I do.  God will be with me”.  Maybe he became a little arrogant and thought, “I am strong now and I will always be strong.  No one can stop me”.  Whatever the reason, Samson finally let his guard down, shared his most valuable secret and that is when we hear the words, “The Lord had left him”.

           So what can we learn from this?  One simple rule:  If you do not value what you have, you will not have it for long.

           Samson’s special relationship with God was a great gift, but he threw it away because he did not value it enough to protect it.  I wonder how many blessings we are throwing away, or are missing out on, simply because we do not value them enough.  

            The cure:  We need to learn to celebrate what we have, where we are while we can.

           The fact is that things change.  Your kids will grow up and leave home.  Your parents will pass away.  Your job will come to an end someday.  One day you will wish you could come back to this time, to these blessings. and relive them, so maybe it is best to look around and value what you have before it is gone.

            Samson did great things for God, but his life would have been even more effective if he could have seen his blessings and valued them more.

           That is probably true of all of us.

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