UNCHECKED DESIRES, UNHINDERED ACCESS

Hello there dear gist partner. 

How are you doing today? Happy Democracy day!! May Nigeria become better for us all. 

Welcome to today’s gist, it’s our last interaction with Uncle Sam, for now. 

Today’s gist borders on something that I had never noticed in the story of Samson until just the other day, I think it will blow your mind away to find this out. So when Samson goes ahead to marry his Timnite wife, a feast is thrown, as was the custom, and 30 young men were attached to Samson as his companions, what we call ‘Groom’s men’ in our modern day parlance; Samson decided to give them a riddle, and if they could answer the riddle by the end of the 7-day wedding celebration, he would give each man a new linen and a new change of clothes but if they couldn’t answer the riddle, then each man owed him a new linen and a change of clothes. Four days into the feast, realizing that they were no closer to answering the riddle than when they first began, the men threatened the new Mrs Samson to entice the answer out of Samson or face them destroying her father’s property, including she and her father, by fire. Faced with this threat, here’s what the Bible records that Mrs Samson did: “And Samson’s wife wept over him and said, “You only hate me; you do not love me. You have put a riddle to my people, and you have not told me what it is.” And he said to her, “Behold, I have not told my father nor my mother, and shall I tell you?” She wept before him the seven days that their feast lasted, and on the seventh day he told her, because she pressed him hard. Then she told the riddle to her people.” (Judges 14:16-17 ESV)

Quickly, let’s run forward to when Samson began to consort with Delilah and she became motivated to entice the secret to Samson’s strength out of him so that the Philistines could overpower him. After three unsuccessful tries at finding the secret to Samson’s strength, here’s Delilah’s approach: “And she said to him, “How can you say, ‘I love you,’ when your heart is not with me? You have mocked me these three times, and you have not told me where your great strength lies.” And when she pressed him hard with her words day after day, and urged him, his soul was vexed to death. And he told her all his heart, and said to her, “A razor has never come upon my head, for I have been a Nazirite to God from my mother’s womb. If my head is shaved, then my strength will leave me, and I shall become weak and be like any other man.”” (Judges 16:15-17 ESV)

Notice the similarity? For all intents and purposes, these two women fed Samson basically the same line, in 2 separate circumstances, and were both able to weasel secrets out of him that he did not intend, and in one case wasn’t even supposed to, divulge. I remember comparing these two circumstances and being mind-blown at the fact that the devil didn’t even attempt to get creative with plotting Samson’s downfall, he had a foolproof strategy that he just kept using because he had found Samson’s weakness and was able to fully exploit it. Because really, “if it ain’t broken, why fix it?” The strategy of using the women Samson decided to consort with outside of God’s will to bear on Samson with whinings and insistence that Samson prove his love by doling secrets to them was one that was sure to get Samson to fall, so the devil had no cause to change strategy. 

And I asked myself, “when Samson heard Delilah’s words, e no get déjà-vu? E no remember as im wife take whine am?” How did it not bother him to be fed that same line again? And how did that bait catch him as surely again as it caught him the first time? That’s when I realized something which is what I thought to share: that sin you keep indulging in will provide devil a ‘never-closed door’ into your life. The devil didn’t need to be innovative because for as long as Samson let himself be controlled by his lust, he was putty in the devil’s hand. And that truth is still valid and applicable today. When you ‘resign’ yourself to continue committing a sin and deceive yourself, because you do not feel like repenting, into believing that ‘this one na my own cross to carry’, you have provided the devil with an access to your life that he will manipulate you with and use to destroy your life in the end. This is why the correct response to sin isn’t to make excuses like Saul but to repent because when you repent, you close the door and the devil no longer has access to your heart and life, so when he brings that his former strategy, you go just laugh tell am “too late oo! I don commot from this wilderness oo, this kind thing no dey move me again!” DON’T CODDLE SIN!!!! REPENT OF IT AND RUN AWAY FROM IT!! Make devil no ever take am for granted say “ahh ahn! No need to stress yourself; if na ABC, just do PQR and e go surely fall”, may that not be our portion in Jesus name, amen. But for they not to be your portion, confront that sin and break free of it! Don’t allow devil use you do ‘tinko tinko’. 

May God help us to be intentional about getting rid of sin in our lives. 

TUNES AND THOUGHTS: our song recommendation for this week is ‘I believe’ by Selah Ogaba. This song!!!! Just go hear am abeg!!!!!!! It’s a declaration that regardless of what happens in my life, I choose to believe God’s word. Like that father to Jesus, the song says “help my unbelief, Lord I believe!” It’s a cry to God to perfect trust in Him, that regardless of how overwhelming life gets, and it do get like that sometimes, I can hold on to the truth of His word and find peace and draw strength therein. I pray that this song blesses you as it has blessed me again and again. 

Well, that is that about that as far as that is concerned, see you when I see you. 

Love,

Achenyo. 

PS. Please continue to pray about the insecurity situation in Nigeria, just yesterday there was an attack somewhere close to my area.