Podcast

Daily Presence: Take It With You 3/18/2022

Worship

Scripture

I love game night. Nothing like a good board game or card game with friends. The problem is I’m too competitive. I can control myself, but I still question whether not playing to win is even playing at all. My wife titles me as ‘too aggressive’ when I play. I either play to win or not at all. I always give it my best effort to destroy the competition with no regard for feelings. I can see where she’s coming from. Granted, most of the time I don’t win.

We’ve all heard the story of Samson before. Strongest man to ever live. If someone played to win, it would be Samson. He didn’t even need to be competitive, no one was a match for him. His secret? His long hair, or so he thought. I honestly can’t understand Samson’s decision to tell Deliliah the truth about his hair after the third time she tricked him and tried to get him killed. She clearly wasn’t trustworthy. Fool me once it’s on you, fool me twice it’s on me, am I right? Yet time and time again Samson played with the idea that he was strong enough. He flirted with sin, danced along the edges thinking he would never fall. Even after they had shaved his head he thought he was going to get away with it. Samson trusted his own strength and fell. 

At the end of the day I don’t believe Samson’s hair had anything to do with it. Time and time again in the passage we see that Samson was filled with the Holy Spirit, thus he was able to do the incredible things that he did. I believe Samson grieved the Holy Spirit for being a fool. Proverbs 26:11 says, “As a dog returns to its vomit, so fools repeat their folly.” Samson kept going back to and trying to push the limits. Paul in Ephesians 4:30 tells us not to grief the Holy Spirit with malice. 

I don’t know about you, but my goal for today is not to grieve the Holy Spirit. Not to go back to sin. To do what I want to do and not what I hate. I pray that we may run our race in a way that we get the prize. That we maintain our relationship with Jesus.

Prayer

HONOR GOD

Psalm 121:8

The Lord will protect you from all evil; He will keep your soul. The Lord will guard your going out and your coming in From this time and forever.

 My Protector and Defender is the Lord of angel armies, I will not submit to fear of opposition.

ASK GOD

James1:5

If you need wisdom, ask our generous God, and he will give it to you. He will not rebuke you for asking.

 When I dont know the answer in my situation, God does and He is good enough to reveal his wisdom when we ask for it.

SUBMIT TO GOD

Malachi 3:10 NLT

Bring all the tithes into the storehouse so there will be enough food in my Temple. If you do,” says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, “I will open the windows of heaven for you. I will pour out a blessing so great you won’t have enough room to take it in! Try it! Put me to the test! 

Can we afford to offer just a tenth of our time, thought, money, energy to the Lord. He is ready and willing to abundantly bless the portion that we give to Him.

CLOSING PRAYER

Dear Lord and Savior of mankind, thank you for the Cross! Thank you for the Cross! Thank you for the Cross! Can we say it enough? Say it again: “Thank you for the Cross!”  In Jesus Name, Amen.