Learning From The Life Of Samson

Lessons from the Life of Samson

I’m looking at the life of Samson. You may know this story well, but I want to encourage you: do your best not to switch off, even if it’s familiar. As I retell the story, I’m praying that I can share something of what the Lord has been challenging me with and teaching me through it.

Samson is quite a character. Like I said, many of you will already know his story, and I’ve got my tissues ready because I struggled to read my notes this morning without crying.

So, what can we learn from the life of Samson?

We’re in the book of Judges, chapters 13 to 16. There are four whole chapters dedicated to this man’s life. If you know much about Judges, you’ll know it’s set in a dark period in Israel’s history—the time between the death of Joshua and the first monarchy, around 300–350 years.

It’s a spiritually dark season, full of idolatry and compromise. God’s people have largely turned their backs on Him. They’ve settled into worshipping false gods and have been deeply influenced by the surrounding nations.

That’s the backdrop as we begin to look at Samson’s story.

Samson and the Formation of True Judges

You can see there are six major judges and six minor judges, but only Samson is given four chapters. Only Samson.

What do I mean by “judge”? First of all, it’s not the legal office you might think of today. It’s more like a military leader who is governing and bringing justice. The whole role of a judge is to restore a sense of what is right—spiritually, socially, politically. They had a significant role in the life of Israel.

What happens in this period is that there is a repeated cycle in Israel’s life. Israel sins, primarily through idolatry. Then there is judgment, which comes from the Lord, and they are oppressed by their enemies. Under that oppression they cry out to God, they recognize their sin, and they cry out for a deliverer, for deliverance. God raises up a judge to deliver them, and then they experience peace. And then it happens again—Israel falls again. So you have this cycle, and you have the stories of these twelve judges and how God uses these men and women. It’s amazing.

Last October, the Lord led me to the book of Judges, and I’m reading the life of Samson. I’m thinking, “Lord, I’m just troubled by this man. What a disaster he is.” I’m not a Taylor Swift fan, but he is a bit of an antihero—this person who has been raised up as a deliverer, and yet there seems to be so much chaos in his life. I’m asking, “What is going on?”

So I start asking the Lord as I’m reading through these chapters, and that’s what I’m going to share with you. It hit me quite powerfully, as I looked at the life of Samson, that this really was a message about formation.

Formation. Because formation is part of our discipleship journey. Amen.

A Simple Story for Little Hearts

Okay, so let's start in Judges 13.

If you want to follow the story closely, you can read along in the text, but what you’ll get from me this morning is my version of it. There will be a little bit of artistic licence, I’m sure, and I don’t have time to pick up every detail. So if you think, “Oh, she’s missed something,” you’re probably right. That’s intentional, because I want to weave you through the story in a way that helps make the particular points I feel we need to hear today.

If you think I’ve missed something big and important, please come and chat to me at the end. I’m very happy to talk it through with you.

The Nazirite Birth of Samson

All right, so what do we find out? This is the only judge in the book of Judges who is given an entire chapter about his pre-birth narrative. The only one. So the first thing you’ve got to realize is this: if he’s been given a whole chapter and he hasn’t even been born yet, out of all those judges—twelve of them—something significant is happening that we’re meant to pick up in this chapter. Agreed?

That’s the sort of thing I do when I read Scripture. I’ll pause and ask, “Why? Why did You give so much time to this? What am I supposed to notice here?”

We find out that Manoah’s wife is barren; she can’t have children. And the angel of the Lord visits Manoah’s wife. She’s not even given a name in the text—she’s the nameless wife. There is a bit of an agenda from the author, who really does want to raise the profile of this virtuous woman. That’s probably a whole other message for another time, but it is significant.

There is so much detail in this text, and that’s one of the reasons it takes me so long when I’m reading. I tend to stay in a passage for a long time, because there is just so much there.

The Weighty Call and Unformed Heart

But the point is this: she gets this revelation. The angel of the Lord meets her and says to her, “You are going to have a son.”

She’s barren, she’s not had kids, and yet the promise is, “You’re going to have a son, and he’s going to be raised up to be a deliverer of Israel.”

Let me tell you something else that’s unique about this story. In this story, it doesn’t start with the cry of the people. That’s missing. With every other judge, it’s there. But in this story it isn’t. This act of deliverance is simply an act of the grace of God. God is doing something in, and does something in and through, the life of Samson.

Which is why I was a bit like, “But it looks like such a mess, Lord.”

So she gets this revelation, and she gets very specific instructions: “You are to raise him with the Nazirite vow.” You can read about that in Numbers 6. “You’re not to cut his hair, and he is not to drink or touch anything of the vine—not the seeds, not the skins of the grapes. Go nowhere near any vine or grape-related products. And while you’re pregnant with him, neither are you, by the way.”

Wow. Very specific instructions.

She goes back and she tells Manoah, “Guess what, guess who I met? The angel of the Lord.”
He’s like, “Really?”
“He’s told me I’m going to be with child, and he’s told me that I’ve got to raise him according to the Nazirite vow.”

“Oh, okay. Well, then I want to hear this for myself.”

This goes on, and let me just cut the story short by saying this: there are three accounts in that chapter, Judges 13, where we are told about this Nazirite vow. Listen, he hasn’t even been conceived, okay? But the weight of the calling upon his life to be a deliverer for Israel is significant. It’s miraculous. And there is an emphasis in this story on the weight of the calling upon Samson’s life. It’s really quite significant, and I need to emphasize that at the beginning of the story, okay?

He has purpose. He has mission. He is anointed with the power of God. But what we see is a lack of formation in his life. And that’s what I want to draw your attention to in chapters 14, 15, and 16.

How is it—and I found myself saying, “Lord, how can you use this person?” Clearly called. Clearly anointed. Clearly appointed. Clearly given a divine mission—and yet there is chaos. Why is there chaos? Because there is a lack of formation in his life.

I am unashamedly Pentecostal. Here at Assemble Church we emphasize that we are led by the Spirit of God, that we want to facilitate encounter for those of us who come and worship here, because we believe that God is moving in our midst and leading and guiding us. And yet what I’m realizing is this: with the presence of the Spirit in our lives, we have to avail ourselves to that journey of formation. Are you with me?

So let’s find out what happens. Straight after chapter 13, we get to chapter 14. At the end of chapter 13 we’re given this picture: the calling is clear, the calling is weighty, he’s clearly born with purpose, and we’re told, “The Spirit begins to move within him.” Then we go into chapter 14, and it just feels so ironic, this contrast.

We’ve just been told that you have to raise him under the Nazirite vow. That’s unique, by the way. No other person in Scripture is raised in that way. Normally, when you take the Nazirite vow, you take it for a period of time. There was a reason why you took it: you had to visibly demonstrate that your life was consecrated to God. Your hair grew; you weren’t allowed to cut it. You had to abstain from the fruit of the vine and the vine itself. And you had to make sure you didn’t touch anything that was dead and become unclean. So you had to keep yourself pure.

So there’s abstinence, there’s purity, and there’s visibility. These were the boundaries that were given to his parents to raise him—formational boundaries, really key. But there is absolutely zero evidence that Samson has internalized that call of God.

You see, we can see the external, but we can’t see the internal. That’s your privilege when you sit and when you talk to the Lord. That’s you and Jesus, right? When we come here, what we see is an expression of what’s happening inwardly. But when we look at the life of Samson, I’m looking at this life and I’m thinking, “What are we seeing? What are we actually seeing?”

And that’s the question that keeps coming to my mind—and that we’ll go over.

Samson, Compromise, and the First Anointing

We start in Judges 14. This is the story of Samson’s marriage.

He goes down to Timnah, sees a Philistine woman, and says, “She is right in my eyes.” He takes a fancy to her. That phrase, “right in my eyes,” is repeated three times in this chapter. The emphasis is important; it’s echoing something theological, something significant about Samson deciding for himself what is good and right. Bear in mind he’s supposed to be raised in a very specific way. Yet he essentially says to his dad, “I’ve seen this one, and I want her. Sort it out. Make it happen.” That’s how it worked in that culture.

His parents are understandably offended. “Samson, what are you doing? You want to marry a daughter of our enemy?” Let’s just get the landscape clear: God is raising up Samson to be a judge, a deliverer, because the Philistines are ruling over the Israelites. And Samson’s big idea is, “I like her. I don’t care if she’s the daughter of my enemy.”

His father points out, “She’s from our enemies, the uncircumcised Philistines.” That detail matters. “Uncircumcised Philistines” means they are outside the covenant relationship with God that Samson is part of. This woman is outside that covenant. She doesn’t know Yahweh, she doesn’t know their values, she doesn’t know how they worship. “Why would you do this?” his parents think. They’re totally offended.

But we get this little indication that actually, the Lord knows about all of this, and he is going to use this situation.

Samson goes back down to Timnah, and we’re told there are vineyards there. A marriage feast would last about seven days, and it’s set among the vineyards. What do you expect to find in vineyards? Wine. It’s not explicit, but it’s certainly implied. That detail is important when, in the previous chapter, we’ve just been told three times, “Raise him as a Nazirite. He can’t go near the vine.” Samson is flirting with the boundaries, flirting with temptation. He’s been called to live a certain way, and yet he wants to marry the daughter of his enemy, outside the covenant of God, and he’s going to celebrate with a feast in the vineyards.

There is a clear sense that he has not taken his calling seriously. He hasn’t internalized it. And because of that, we see chaos. God is gracious and great, and God still works out his purposes, but Samson has a role to play in this. As I read this story, I’m asking, “Lord, what am I meant to learn?”

It just gets worse. The wedding goes ahead. On the way, there’s a lion. Many of us remember this story. This is the first moment the Spirit of God comes upon Samson, and he tears the lion apart. This is the first time he encounters the power of the Spirit of God on his life.

Later, when they go back to finalize the marriage details in Timnah, he comes across the carcass of that lion. Inside, bees have made a hive and there is honey. He decides to take some honey from the carcass. Is that lion dead or alive? Dead. Then remember the Nazirite vow: “Do not be defiled by touching anything unclean.” Yet he takes the honey from the dead lion’s carcass. He doesn’t tell his mum or dad where it came from, but he does offer them some. “Hey Mum, Dad, have some honey I took from a dead lion’s carcass.”

Again, we see this picture: “Samson, you are taking too lightly the call of God. You are undermining the call of God upon your life. What are you doing, Samson? What are you doing?”

Samson’s Personal Vengeance in Timnah

And then he turns up, it’s the feast, and he meets his lovely wife-to-be. He’s got this riddle in his head because of what’s just happened. He says, “Out of the eater came something to eat; out of the strong came something sweet.”

And remember, this is his enemy. He tells the Philistines, “If you can solve this riddle, I’ll give you a reward, I’ll give you garments of clothing,” and so on. So the story is unfolding, and the Philistines just can’t grasp this riddle at all.

So the fiancée, the wife-to-be, starts to pressure Samson. She’s feeling the weight of her own people: “You have to make him tell us. We cannot be humiliated by this Israelite.” There’s tension everywhere. It’s a recipe for disaster, isn’t it? It just feels like a lot of drama, a lot of chaos.

We know the story: she keeps pressing Samson, he finally tells her the answer, she tells her people, and they come back with the solution. Samson is furious. He knows his wife has been manipulated, and he gets angry. So he goes down to Ashkelon, beats up some Philistines there, takes their garments, and gives them to the people back in Timnah. He is really, really angry. The text even says, “in hot anger” he returns to his father’s house.

That wedding feast never ends; it just collapses. His father‑in‑law thinks Samson is so angry, so finished with them, that he makes this decision: “I’m going to give the wife to his companion.” What a disaster.

Then we get to chapter 15, and the conflict just escalates. It becomes conflict without calling. Samson decides to go back to Timnah to make it up. He doesn’t take flowers, he doesn’t take chocolates. He takes a goat. So guys, next time you want to make it up to your wife, maybe don’t take your cues from Samson! But he does genuinely want to make amends.

When he gets there, he finds out from his father‑in‑law, “I thought you hated us so much that I’ve given your wife away.” Samson is furious. Bear in mind, he’s already beaten up some Philistines. He’s got this uncontrollable anger, and now he’s even more angry.

He says, in effect, “This time I’m going to harm you, but I’m going to do it differently.” Somehow—don’t ask me about the logistics—he manages to catch 300 foxes, tie their tails together, attach torches, set them on fire, and send them through the fields. It destroys the crops, the vineyards, the orchards. It’s an agricultural and economic catastrophe.

The Philistines are furious. And all of this is because of his uncontrolled anger, using the strength God has given him to perpetuate a cycle of violence. Now they’re really angry, and they want revenge. When they find out Samson is responsible, they go and burn the wife and the father‑in‑law, blaming them for what Samson has done.

Samson hears about this and is now even more furious. He goes and beats up more Philistines. The anger and the violence just keep escalating. After he’s finished, he goes and hides in the cleft of a rock.

The Philistines, still furious, come up to Judah. They raid Lehi, and the Israelites say, “This is not good news.” There’s conflict everywhere. And here’s what’s really sad: you’ve got a man who, at this point, feels driven by personal vendetta. He’s justifying his own actions according to his own narrative, doing his own thing. It hasn’t stopped. He’s not leading an army; he’s leading no one.

You have this judge in place, but he’s judging all by himself. There’s no collaboration, no counsel, no conversation, no army, no sense of community. He’s just doing his own thing, abusing his position, abusing his power, his God‑given, appointed, anointed role. That’s perhaps another message for another day.

The Philistines come to Judah, and the people ask, “Why are you here?” They reply, “We want Samson.” So 3,000 men from Judah go to Samson and say, “Do you not know that the Philistines are ruling over us?” Of course Samson knows. His own people have just settled under the rule of the enemy. They’ve accepted it. “We just want to live peacefully, and you keep stirring up trouble. This isn’t good news for us. They want us to hand you over.”

Samson says, “As long as you don’t attack me yourselves, you can hand me over.” He’s got a plan. He’s going to “take them to town” again; there’s going to be more violence. And that’s exactly what happens. Judah, his own people, hand him over. But as they do, the ropes binding him become like charred flax; they just fall away. He finds a fresh jawbone of a donkey and strikes down a thousand men.

It is brutal, and it’s very much in keeping with the tone of Judges. You just think, “What are you doing?” Samson almost becomes the embodiment of Israel as a nation. They’ve turned their back on their covenant God. They’ve become complacent and indifferent. They’ve started to worship like the other nations. They’re infiltrated, compromised, apathetic.

And here is Samson, stirring things up, but himself not really living according to the Nazirite vow he was given: violent, drawn into idolatry and immorality, spiritually apathetic. Across four chapters, there are only two recorded prayers from him.

One of them is at this moment, after he’s killed a thousand men. He says, “God, you gave me this great victory. Are you now going to let me die of thirst and fall into the hands of the uncircumcised?” It’s really quite a self‑centred prayer: “Can you just help me? Can you revive me for a moment? Don’t let me die in humiliation.”

And this is where we find ourselves asking, as we read the story, “God…why? What is going on here?”

Samson’s Moral Drift and Tragic Restoration

And then we get to chapter 16. Chapter 15 ends by telling us that Samson ruled Israel for 20 years. And in those 20 years, we don’t see formation. How do we know that? Because at the beginning of chapter 16, it tells us that he goes to Gaza, another significant Philistine town, and he sleeps with a prostitute.

His moral compass is so far off. I’m not seeing any cultivation of devotion to God. I’m not seeing anything that says, “I’m taking seriously those vows, that Nazirite vow at the beginning, where I should be abstaining, where I should be living pure, where I should be living in a healthy way.” It’s like he’s not taking that seriously at all. And what’s really sad is that it ends so badly for him.

He’s ambushed, he gets taken away, but he’s still really strong at this point, so he manages to escape. He takes the city gates. He is deliberately humiliating and constantly provoking the Philistines. And I’m thinking, “What are you doing, Samson? Why are you poking the bear? Why are you constantly riling the enemy?” It’s so immature. I sit down and go, “You’re so immature. What are you doing? It’s so childish.”

So he humiliates them, he takes the gates, and he puts them on a hill in front of Hebron, which is in front of Israelite land. He’s sending a message. He’s humiliating the enemy. This is about spiritual authority. This is about dominance: “You are not lording it over me. I am judging you.”

And then there’s another episode, and we probably know this part of the story really well: the story of Samson and Delilah. We’re at the end of the story, and it’s another woman. This isn’t about gender; I’m not making any sweeping statements here. It’s just as it’s presented. But he has these relationships with three Philistine women. Why haven’t you learned? What are you doing? One more time: “Let’s be seduced and manipulated.” Well done, Samson. It’s just a real lack of maturity.

He gets seduced by Delilah multiple times: “Tell me your strength.” “Well, it’s this.” “Tell me your strength.” “Well, it’s that.” And eventually he reveals that the source of his strength is his hair. She cuts his hair, he gets taken away, and we know the story. He is now a prisoner of the Philistines. He is totally humiliated. His eyes are gouged out, he’s put to work. He is really humiliated.

And we know what happens in the end. He gets his strength back and he cries out to God for one final act of deliverance. But it’s a tragedy. It is tragic.

Formation, Self-Control, and Surrender

As I read through this story, I found myself asking the Lord so many questions. I have a lot of questions—and that’s good. Questions are actually liberating. Sally’s introduction was lovely, but I still have so much to learn. I am very much on this journey of formation.

So I said to the Lord, “What is this about? How am I supposed to interpret this story?” And in that moment, the Lord gave me a verse—a verse that has been a “life verse” for me many times over the years, precisely because it is so challenging for me. Proverbs 25:28: “A city with no walls is like a person without self-control.”

I sensed the Lord say, “I want you to read this story through the lens that Samson is like a city without walls. This is about formation.” And that really hit me. I found myself thinking, “Okay, Lord, what are you talking to me about?”

What’s beautiful is that each of you represents your own journey, your own individual path of formation. You have your testimony, and your testimony is powerful—what Jesus Christ has done in your life. But we have to engage with that. We have to participate in that journey. We have to avail ourselves, to surrender ourselves. That’s what formation looks like.

Formation is the cross. It is the denying of self. It is that surrendering that says, “Lord, I’m submitting my life to you.” And that can be very challenging and very difficult.

The Word of God is meant to bring us life, and sometimes that life comes in quite a confrontational and challenging way. It’s meant to inspire us and give us hope and so much more.

As I looked at Samson, I began to see a man who had been playing on the edge of destruction. He is clearly called. He is clearly empowered. And yet he is chaotic, compromised, and ultimately undone. He is like a city without walls—a person who lacks self-control.

Samson and the Failure of Inner Walls

Let me just talk about that city for a moment. City walls are essential for a city to flourish. We’re using this as a metaphor, but it was also literally true in that time, three thousand years ago. A city would thrive or fall depending on the strength of its walls.

In the same way, we will thrive, grow, and mature depending on our internal walls—those personal boundaries we put in place for our formation. Samson was given those boundaries. If you think about it, they will look different for each of us, but where were the broken walls in Samson’s life?

When you have a city with strong walls, there is protection. The enemy is kept out. Those walls preserve identity because they define what belongs inside the city and what should remain outside. Think about his Nazarite vow. It brought order because it regulated what could come in and go out of his life. It provided security and created the conditions for flourishing.

Now imagine a city without walls. What will that city look like? Vulnerability becomes normal. If the city doesn’t have walls in place, it is wide open to attack; anything can come in and out. Those walls are so important.

As I look at Samson’s life, I sense the Lord highlighting this: the reason his life feels so chaotic, the reason it so disturbs us, is because we are seeing a man without self-control, a man without spiritual, relational, or moral boundaries. He has not put those internal walls in place. It’s actually quite frightening, and I found it very challenging.

Samson’s problem is not only moral failure; it is the absence of internal walls.

His spiritual boundaries, for a start—he pays no attention to them. They’re just not evident in his life. He was meant to live a life visibly consecrated to God. We, too, put spiritual boundaries in place that help our spirituality grow and develop: our prayer life, reading the Word of God, coming to church, being part of a community. These are vital parts of our spiritual boundaries.

Samson was told to abstain from the things of the vine. This isn’t a message about never drinking alcohol, but it is about abstaining from things that will corrupt us. When we are called to a holy life, to follow God, to imitate Christ, those spiritual boundaries are really important. Yet Samson wants to marry a Philistine woman outside of the covenant.

We, as the church under the new covenant, are called to live in love, to walk in forgiveness, to be empowered by the Spirit. We don’t want to compromise those things. That’s why we need spiritual boundaries in place that will help us.

When I look at Samson’s life and see that he didn’t do this, I realize it created a gap in his internal wall. And when those spiritual boundaries weren’t in place, it impacted his emotions. I want to suggest that became another hole in the wall: his emotional life.

He is quick to anger. By not paying attention to how he was called to be raised, by neglecting his spiritual life, he opened himself up to other influences and lost the ability to manage his emotions well. He is driven by anger, revenge, personal vendetta. It leaves him deeply vulnerable. His life looks like a mess, doesn’t it?

He allows his anger to govern his decisions. Reaction replaces reflection. Instead of pausing to think and discern what is going on, he simply reacts, driven by fury. He is not led by the Spirit, but by his appetites and his desire for revenge.

Discipleship and God’s Purpose for Life

You can imagine this is just making me look in the mirror. The Lord is just… this is formation. “Lil, you have got to make sure”—the Lord calls me Lil sometimes—“you have got to make sure that there aren’t holes in your wall, that you’re not vulnerable. If you’re not paying attention to your spirituality, if you’re not submitting and surrendering your emotions…”

Because if you allow your emotions to govern your decisions alone, it ends up in chaos. That’s what I’ve learned from his life. And that impacts relationships, it impacts community.

I always say this: we’re formed in community. I’m not navigating this journey as a disciple following Jesus on my own. I’m privileged to have a beautiful husband, to be part of an incredible church. Friendship is a gift from the Lord—when you can find people you have chemistry with, and you can just talk and be raw with. So precious. So precious. We’re not meant to do this alone.

Having the right relationships, having the right friendships, that keeps those walls intact, because it becomes sacred—a sacred place where you can talk and you can vent, but in a healthy, constructive way. Not because you want to gossip, not because it’s about dissension and causing division in the church, but because there’s wisdom and collaboration and learning from those who’ve journeyed further than you.

But Samson, he makes the decision to have a relationship with three Philistine women. What are you doing? It’s a disaster. He gives access to what should be guarded. There is nothing more precious than you outworking your journey of salvation, your personal walk. You want to protect that.

So we have boundaries, personal boundaries, in place. This is formation. We listen and we hear and we recognize: this is what discipleship looks like, having these in place. His downfall is not sudden; it’s just that there are no walls in place to help him navigate life. I find that a real tragedy.

And I’m not blaming Manoah and his wife… maybe I am a little, maybe I am. But it does highlight the weight and the burden of being a parent—thinking about your kids and thinking, “I have got to make sure I am investing, I am sharing good, healthy, wholesome truth.”

I loved what Sally shared—how precious was that? “God has a plan and a purpose for your life.” I want my children hearing that every week at church, growing up knowing there is a plan and a purpose for their life, because that’s going to reinforce that spiritual boundary that says, “God loves me, He cares for me, and I’m going to learn to hear His voice as I journey in my own life.”

And obviously all of it impacts those moral boundaries. It’s like this progressive compromise in his life: he’s in the vineyards, he’s choosing the wrong relationships, he’s not staying pure, he’s abusing his position, he’s abusing his power. He has not internalized anything of what God really has for him. And it ends in disaster.

It’s a little bit challenging this morning, isn’t it? That’s the Word of God. You know what? This has given me life, because it has made me say, “Okay, Lord, You’re putting Your finger…” I so struggle with self-control. You can ask Paul. My sweet tooth—it does govern my life sometimes. It really does. It’s not a joke. It’s different for each and every one of us.

And I think the challenge—and I’m finishing now, I’m finishing, this is it, this is it, honest promise, sorry—I knew it was going to be a long one.

Guarding the Heart Against Spiritual Breach

The challenge for us this morning, and the way I want us to respond, is to ask: is there a breach in our wall?

About 18 years ago someone gave me a word: “There is a breach in the wall.” She gave me this verse and I thought, “What on earth is that? What does that mean?” We were in Scotland, in a church, and I just left it. Then a little while later I got the same verse again, and I thought, “Okay, now I’m paying attention.”

Let this be a moment where we pay attention and ask the Lord, “Okay, Lord, is there a breach in my wall? In my internal structures that keep me following you, is there a hole? Am I letting things in that I shouldn’t be letting into my life? Have I got relationships that aren’t healthy, that aren’t good for me?” Because we know what the Proverbs say: bad company corrupts good character. Let me get it right, don’t we?

Think of Samson. You’ll never forget this: Samson is a city with no walls. Every time you think of Samson and the chaos of his life, here is someone with no internal structure.

So, rebuilding the walls.

First, identify the breach. Where am I most unguarded in my life?

Second, recover sacred boundaries. This isn’t legalism, this is formation.

Third, reorder desire. Samson made decisions because she was “right in his eyes.” He was governed by desire, but not a desire aligned with the things of God. He was way off. When my life isn’t aligned with the things of God, my desires are way off. I want to be aligned with what breaks his heart, with what moves him.

Fourth, restore awareness of God. In Judges 16:20, after Samson has had his hair cut by Delilah, it says, “He did not know that the presence of the Lord had left him.” This is the bit that made me cry. We have to tune in. We have to make sure we have an attentiveness to the Spirit of God, because when our walls are down, when there are holes in the wall, when we’ve not got those personal boundaries in place and things are coming and going, we can lose that sensitivity to God and to what he’s saying to us.

So we want to invite structure in a very healthy way: accountability, spiritual disciplines. I want to encourage you to keep your dialogue with Jesus going and just ask him, “Lord, what were you putting your finger on? Was there something you were putting your finger on in me? Something I need to pay attention to?”

And I pray you find freedom in that. I pray you know his presence and his comfort and his blessing, because that’s what the Word of God gives us. It gives us life.

Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus. I want to thank you.