Forever Home in the Eternal Family of God

A Daily Devotional by Kenton Cheek

4 April 2024

Reading From Judges 16-18

“One day Samson went to Gaza, where he saw a prostitute. He went in to spend the night with her. The people of Gaza were told, ‘Samson is here!’ So they surrounded the place and lay in wait for him all night at the city gate. They made no move during the night, saying, ‘At dawn we’ll kill him.’

But Samson lay there only until the middle of the night. Then he got up and took hold of the doors of the city gate, together with the two posts, and tore them loose, bar and all. He lifted them to his shoulders and carried them to the top of the hill that faces Hebron.

Some time later, he fell in love with a woman in the Valley of Sorek whose name was Delilah. The rulers of the Philistines went to her and said, ‘See if you can lure him into showing you the secret of his great strength and how we can overpower him so we may tie him up and subdue him. Each one of us will give you eleven hundred shekels of silver.’”

–Judges 16:1-5

     Samson was a mighty warrior who lead Israel against the Philistines, but he continually struggled with lust.  His weakness for Philistine women got him into trouble time and again.  His first wife betrayed him, then there was that mess with the prostitute in Gaza and his second wife, Delilah, betrayed him which led to his imprisonment, blinding, enslavement and tragic death.  Samson made one last stand in the pagan temple.  While committing suicide, he also killed thousands of enemies of Israel by the same act.  So it is with you and I. If we allow our lust to run wild, we will be trapped by it, blinded to our sin, enslaved to our passions and it will decay and destroy us spiritually from the inside out.

     Every man and woman struggles with lust unless he or she has a hormone deficiency.  It is how we handle the struggle that matters to God and will bring about spiritual health or sickness.  While it is true that God accomplished amazing things through Samson, his life would have been even more victorious if he had followed the Lord in purity and holiness.  How can we know that his life would have been different?  If he had married a godly woman instead of pursuing the lust of his flesh then he would not have been entrapped in Delilah’s scheme, for one thing.  His lust led him to destruction and his life was cut short, effectively ending his future potential as a man, a follower of God and a leader.

     Born again children of God have both the Spirit of God and their sinful nature battling one another within themselves.  The Apostle Paul spoke of this war raging inside himself in Romans 7.  It is up to the believer to determine which one wins.  Our desire is to have the Spirit prevail every time, but even in those moments when we fail, God can still gain the victory if we recognize that what we did was wrong, confess it to Him and receive His forgiveness.  In this way, our failures become part of our testimony and our testimony of what Christ is doing in our lives is used in the End Times to cast Satan into the everlasting torment.  What the devil means for our harm, God can turn it around for His glory and our good. God and His eternal family win in the end.

“Thank You God for Your goodness and mercy You have shown me and all of Your children.  I am grateful that You forgive me when I sin and give me the strength I need to resist temptation.  When I do make mistakes, I praise You that You give me the courage to learn from them and move forward in faith.  Help each of Your children to know in their hearts that the good life lies within Your mercy and grace as we travel on the highway of holiness.  Thank You for Your love and understanding.  Amen.”

How can a young man keep his way pure?
    By guarding it according to your word.
With my whole heart I seek you;
    let me not wander from your commandments!

–Psalm 119:9-10

We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good.  As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out.For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.

So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me.  What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death?  Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!

So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in my sinful nature a slave to the law of sin.

–Romans 7:14-25

If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word is not in us.

–I John 1:8-10