She said, ‘The Philistines be upon thee, Samson.’ And he awoke out of his sleep, and said, ‘I will go out as at other times before, and shake myself.’ And he wist not that the Lord was departed from him– Judges 16:20
The horrendous tragedy of the shorn, helpless, but foolishly confident Samson is an appropriate picture of each one who dabbles too long in sin.
Samson had teased with Delilah on several previous occasions, pretending to confide in her the secret to his supernatural strength. But finally he revealed it to her and she, of course, promptly took advantage of the information. This pathetic scene follows, in which he goes boldly against his enemies, but this time without the strength he has always had before.
The same thing can easily happen to any of us, if we are not careful. Your marriage, your relationship with your children, your moral purity—all of these are only invincible as long as Christ is the core of your life.
If you dabble in sin long enough, assuming that you can keep the power of Christ and enjoy the immediate pleasures of sin, you will wake one day to find that you have been shorn of the strength that you thought you would always have. Your marriage is falling apart, your children are rebelling, you have committed sins you never thought possible, life has lost its luster.
Thankfully, as with Samson, God is only a prayer away. When we turn to Christ in repentance and faith, God is able to restore what has been lost, although there may be life-long scars from the mistakes we have made.