Super Strength
I remember reading the stories of Samson as a young kid and fantasizing about how cool it would be to be as strong as he was. I’ve never really considered myself a wimp, but compared to him – I am certainly a wimp. He strikes me as a bit uncontrolled with his God-given strength. His first experience with his power came on quickly. Check this out…
5 Samson went down to Timnah together with his father and mother. As they approached the vineyards of Timnah, suddenly a young lion came roaring towards him. 6 The Spirit of the Lord came powerfully upon him so that he tore the lion apart with his bare hands as he might have torn a young goat. But he told neither his father nor his mother what he had done. (Judges 14:5-6 NIV)
I’m not sure how this went down, but I have a feeling that Samson was stunned by what he was capable of. The scripture never tells us that he’s a giant, only that he’s extremely strong.
I used to lift weights and work out 5 days a week – I drifted away from that routine. I enjoyed the feeling after the workout more than the work out. I understand that in order for my muscles to grow they have to be broken down a bit by pushing them very hard. As I work out my muscles and push through the pain of that – I get stronger. Although my body has aged a bit since my “work out” days – I see great value in daily exercise. I wish I would work more at “push-backs”. I didn’t say “push-ups”….I need to improve a pushing back my plate and not eat so much.
As I finished up processing this story of Samson, the physical strength He possessed was super natural. I don’t have that and unless God does something super natural, I won’t ever have that kind of strength. I do believe that the Lord has given me inner strength that is super natural. I can’t explain walking through the struggles and the sufferings of my life any other way – He gave me the strength. When life is hard, that is when God really shows up and shows out. I’m a bit more relaxed these days because I know that He is in control and will walk with me through the darkest valley or highest mountain. I don’t want to take His Presence for granted. I don’t want to ignore His Prompting of my heart. The Spirit of God is on me and my perspective of my life is really different in a good way.
Pressing On!
Dwayne