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Have you ever noticed how we
sometimes tend to take credit for what Father has accomplished in our
lives. It is easy to speak of it as if we were the ones who brought it to
pass all on our own. It is the opposite of humility, isn't it? Note what
Spurgeon observes about what Samson did:
“He was sore athirst, and
called on the Lord, and said, Thou hast
given this great deliverance into the hand of Thy servant:
and now shall I die for thirst?” — Judges 15:18
Samson was thirsty and ready to die. The difficulty was totally different
from any that the hero had met before. Merely to get thirst assuaged is
nothing like so great a matter as to be delivered from a thousand
Philistines! but when the thirst was upon him, Samson felt that little
present difficulty more weighty than the great past difficulty out of which
he had so specially been delivered. It is very usual for God’s people, when
they have enjoyed a great deliverance, to find a little trouble too much for
them. Samson slays a thousand Philistines, and piles them up in heaps,
and then faints for a little water!
Jacob wrestles with God at Peniel,
and overcomes Omnipotence itself, and then goes “halting
on his thigh!” Strange that there must be a shrinking of the
sinew whenever we win the day. As if the Lord must teach us our littleness,
our nothingness, in order to keep us within bounds.
Samson boasted right loudly when he
said, “I have slain a thousand men.”
His boastful throat soon grew hoarse with thirst, and he betook himself to
prayer. God has many ways of humbling His people.
Dear child of God, if after great
mercy you are laid very low,
your case is not an unusual one. When David had mounted the throne of
Israel, he said, “I am this day weak, though
anointed king.” You must
expect to feel weakest when you are enjoying your greatest triumph. If
God has wrought for you great deliverances in the past, your present
difficulty is only like Samson’s thirst, and the Lord will not let you
faint,
nor suffer the daughter of the uncircumcised to triumph over you. The
road of sorrow is the road to heaven, but there are wells of refreshing
water
all along the route. So, tried brother, cheer your heart with Samson’s
words, and rest assured that God will deliver you ere long.
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