Guard Your Heart

May 9

Judges 15-16

Psalm 57:7-11

Proverbs 13:7-8

Luke 23

Guard Your Heart

“Some time later, he fell in love with a woman named Delilah, who lived in the Sorek Valley.  The Philistine leaders went to her and said, ‘Persuade him to tell you where his great strength comes from, so we can overpower him, tie him up and make him helpless.  Each of us will give you 1,100 pieces of silver.’”   

Judges 16:4-5 HCSB

Samson was anointed by God to deliver his people from the power of the Philistines.  He was raised up by his parents with this anointing in mind.  They had followed the instructions given them by the angel of the Lord that he should not cut his hair, drink wine or beer or eat anything unclean.  God had given him incredible strength and he was able to defeat anyone who came against him.  But Samson had a weakness.  He had terrible taste in women.  His wife betrayed him by telling her people the answer to his riddle forcing him to pay them thirty changes of clothes.  You would think he would have learned his lesson about divulging secrets, but then he fell in love with Delilah.  Samson made several mistakes in this relationship that had fatal consequences.  Delilah was not the kind of woman he should have been with.  I have to believe he knew better.  He was enticed by her beauty and ignored the warning signs.  Sin is like that in our lives.  Satan knows just how to make it look enticing and beautiful.  He makes it seem harmless and so we ignore the warning signs and let ourselves get attached to it.  The Philistines promised to pay Delilah a lot of money if she found out the source of his great strength.   He knew something was up when she started asking him about his strength because he lied to her twice.  That should have been a flashing red light telling him to run away from her, but instead he stayed.  Verse 16 tells us, “She nagged him day after day and pleaded with him until she finally wore him down.” (NIV) That should have been his next clue.  He wasn’t married to her, but he stayed and listened to her nagging for days.  Instead of fleeing from her, he made himself comfortable.  If we don’t flee from temptation, it will wear us down and before long we will become comfortable with our sin.  It is difficult to defeat it when we are enjoying its company.   

Samson should have guarded his heart.  He gave his heart to two women that were not worthy of his affection.  Instead of helping him fulfill the calling on his life, they lead him to destruction. It is important that we choose carefully who we allow to have our heart. This applies to friendships as well as romantic relationships. We need to spend our time and energy with people that will build us up spiritually doing things that will draw us closer to God and help us fulfill His purpose for our lives.  Unlike Samson, let us heed the warning signs and flee from sinful relationships before we have to face the consequences of bad choices.