I usually am led to write a fresh,
daily word from God each day. Today I wasn’t. I was led to share a devotional
that I had read when I was spending time with God. I pray that it blesses you
as much as it blessed me. It was taken from Experiencing
God Day-By-Day by Henry T. Blackaby and Richard Blackaby. To God be the
praise.
“And she said, ‘The Philistines are upon you, Samson!’ So he
awoke from his sleep, and said, ‘I will go out as before, at other times, and
shake myself free!’ But he did not know that the Lord had departed from him.”
Judges 16:20
One of the signs of a heart that
has shifted from God is the absence of spiritual power. If you are like Samson,
you will not be immediately aware that God’s power has left you. Only after he
tried to defeat his enemies did Samson recognize that something was wrong. He
went against the Philistines as before, expecting their swift defeat. But this
time the Philistines easily prevailed over him.
If you allow sin to creep into your
life, if you refuse to obey your Lord, if you do not reconcile with those who
have hurt you, your spiritual vitality is waning. You may assume everything is
fine, but when you pray, answers do not come as they once did. You once had a
positive effect on those around you, but now your influence is negligible or
even harmful. Your life once brought reconciliation, but now you experience
problems in your relationships. Those around you who have relied upon your
strength are discovering that you are not as helpful to them as you once were.
Your lack of spiritual power is not crying out for attention; but you are
seeing subtle changes in your spirit and in your relationship with God.
How can you stop this spiritual
decline? You must regularly repent of any sin. You must invite God to search
your life to see if there are attitudes, relationships, or activities that need
to be removed. You must fervently obey His will. If you walk with God in this
manner, you will grow in spiritual strength and be used mightily by Him.
Father, Sampson
is an example of a man that You had departed from. Be with each one of us and
may we never allow this to happen in our own lives. May we keep sin from
creeping into our lives. If we have any bad attitudes, make us aware of it so
we can make them right. If we have any relationships that are not spiritually
good for us, give us wisdom on how to handle those relationships. If we are
doing any activities that we shouldn’t be, may we be willing to lay those down.
If we start to say something that we shouldn’t, stop us. We want to be right
with You at all times. As soon as we sin, make us aware of it so that we can
confess our sin to You and repent/turn from it. May we obey You and Your Spirit’s
leading, counting our relationship with You to be above all. Help us to keep
our spiritual vitality. We want to walk with You. Help our faith in You to be
strong. We want to do mighty things for You, bringing you glory. In Jesus’ name
we pray. Amen.
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