Stir us

Now we all know the story of Samson and Delilah….and the source of Samson’s strength. He was a Nazarite, set apart for the work of God. Being a Nazarite, he was never to have his hair cut….and his long hair was the source of his strength….or was it?

Judges 16:20 So Samson when he woke up from his sleep and thought, "I'll go out as before and shake myself free." But he did not know that the LORD had left him.
So it wasn’t his hair that gave him strength, but the power of the Lord in him. I wonder if Samson actually thought that he had this ‘superhuman’ strength from his hair, because he had had it (the hair and the strength) so long that he equated what he (Samson) was in control of (his hair) with a gift he was given for God’s glory (his strength).
I was reminded of the man at the Sheepsgate Pool…who lay paralyzed for 38 years. He believed and put his faith in the ‘Pool’ and the water. When Jesus asked him if he wanted to be healed, his reply was “I have no one to throw me in the water”. The man, when confronted with Jesus, the healer, had looked for so long at the pool and the healing waters…that he forgot that it was actually the power of God who heals. So Jesus, reminds him that it is God who stirs the waters when he tells him to get up.

At some point Samson remembers the source of his strength and he prays
"O Sovereign LORD, remember me. O God, please strengthen me just once more, and let me with one blow get revenge on the Philistines for my two eyes."

I pray that we never lose sight of the fact that God is at work at ANC. All of our planning, strategies, budgets, demographic studies, blood, sweat and tears…amount to the same as a lock of hair, or a pool of water. Without God at work in ANC….we would not see lives changed, people healing, true religion happening. Take all the glory, Father….because it is yours anyway. Stir the waters of ANC, so that men and women flock to You, not to us.