April 11

Judges 15:1-8

Mean, nasty and cruel!

Samson’s wife had tricked him into telling her the meaning of his riddle. He was furious when he found out that she had told the Philistines what it meant.

So Samson went back to his parents’ home, leaving his wife behind. Later, when he went back to look for her, her father told Samson that he had given her to someone else to marry. Samson became very angry and said, “This time I am not going to be responsible for what I do to the Philistines.”

Then he went out and caught three hundred foxes, tying them in pairs by their tails. He put flaming torches in the knots and set them loose in the Philistines’ cornfields. As the foxes ran, they burned all the corn in the fields, as well as the corn that had already been harvested.

Why did God allow Samson to use His strength in the wrong way?

How would you feel if you were given a wonderful present, and as you started using it, the person who gave it to you took it back because you didn’t use it properly?

God has given you certain skills to do things well. He has given you the gift of a mind to make decisions. And because God doesn’t want to control you like a puppet, He has also given you the gift of freedom.

God respects our freedom to make decisions, and even when we dishonor Him by the way we use our abilities, He seldom takes them away. However, as Samson found out later, God may eventually take away an ability He has given us.

God wants us to make good decisions and use our abilities in a way that is pleasing to Him. Make it your goal to honor Him, because one day we will all stand before God and tell Him how we used our abilities (2 Corinthians 5:9-10).

Verse for today

From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked. Luke 12:48b