SAMSON’S FLAW

Agirl I know may die young if she doesn’t control her eating habits. And a teenage guy I met the other day is in a bad downwards spiral because his drinking and gambling habits are out of control. How do we land ourselves in this kind of mess? Maybe part of it is our lack of self-discipline.

In the Bible, Samson had absolutely no self-discipline or self-control. It led him to make mistakes which ended with him being captured by the Philistines, who cut out his eyes and enslaved him. His downward spiral began when he wanted to marry a Philistine woman (rather than a woman from among God’s people). His demand, “Get her for me. She’s the right one for me” (JUDGES 14:4) set the pattern of selfishness that destroyed his life (16:15-21).

Without self-control, we are “like a city whose walls are broken through” (PROVERBS 25:28). We are open to be invaded and taken over by whatever needs, wants, urges and desires are running riot in our minds. Paul teaches us instead to be people who “take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ” (2 CORINTHIANS 10:5).

People who do well in sport (for example) do so because they eat properly, exercise and practise regularly. Likewise, people who know God read the Bible, pray, obey Him and bring every thought and desire to Him. Selfishness and indulgence only ever leads to a downward spiral; self-control comes from looking to God first, rather than our own hearts joy in your presence” (V.11).