Experience is a great teacher. God uses the experiences of our lives to build our faith and prove to us how sure a foundation He is. Through trials, failures, and obedience we grow in wisdom and grace. Yet there is a dangerous side of experience: we can allow experience to fetter us to our past. We begin to look at our experience as a model that others should follow because of the outcome. We can trust our methods and allow our own past to hinder future progress. Our experience can take our eyes off Christ and focus on ourselves.
Samson was a judge over Israel who had faith in God. He is one of the few mentioned in the Hall of Faith in Hebrews 11. Yet the physical strength of Samson caused him to rely upon himself and wander from God. Samson was living in sin with Delilah and finally broke the vow concerning shaving his head. He said in Judges 16:20, "...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." Instead of seeking strength from God, Samson looked to his own strength. He did not realize that God's Spirit had left him. He was blinded, bound in a Philistine prison, and enslaved.
My success can be the path to trusting in myself rather than God. We can find ourselves striving to finish in the flesh what God has begun in the Spirit. It is by God's grace that He allows us to fail and fall that we might learn to trust in Him more deeply. God restored Samson and his supernatural strength and He can restore us when we begin to walk by faith instead of sight. Refuse to fetter yourself with your experience, and never shackle anyone else to your past. Learn from your mistakes and seek wisdom from God, trusting Him and His Word. Lead others in the path of righteousness through your gracious love and conduct. God has a race for each one of us to run. Let us all look to Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith. He will teach us how to run with obedience and endurance the race set before us.
Samson was a judge over Israel who had faith in God. He is one of the few mentioned in the Hall of Faith in Hebrews 11. Yet the physical strength of Samson caused him to rely upon himself and wander from God. Samson was living in sin with Delilah and finally broke the vow concerning shaving his head. He said in Judges 16:20, "...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." Instead of seeking strength from God, Samson looked to his own strength. He did not realize that God's Spirit had left him. He was blinded, bound in a Philistine prison, and enslaved.
My success can be the path to trusting in myself rather than God. We can find ourselves striving to finish in the flesh what God has begun in the Spirit. It is by God's grace that He allows us to fail and fall that we might learn to trust in Him more deeply. God restored Samson and his supernatural strength and He can restore us when we begin to walk by faith instead of sight. Refuse to fetter yourself with your experience, and never shackle anyone else to your past. Learn from your mistakes and seek wisdom from God, trusting Him and His Word. Lead others in the path of righteousness through your gracious love and conduct. God has a race for each one of us to run. Let us all look to Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith. He will teach us how to run with obedience and endurance the race set before us.
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