I Blew It!Chikamu

Day 3: “This is Gonna Be Great!”

Welcome to day 3! Today we’re discussing the importance of keeping God at the center of our decision-making.

Sometimes, we overestimate our own creativity and cleverness. We think we’re so smart that we know exactly what we need to do in a given situation without consulting God.

In the Old Testament period of the judges, we find a man who made the same mistake. Samson met a beautiful Philistine girl in Timnah and decided to marry her. Before the wedding, he threw a big drunken party. Among those in attendance were thirty young Philistine men who were serving as Samson’s groomsmen. At some point during the party, Samson decided to have a little fun with his groomsmen. He told them, “Let me tell you a riddle. . . . If you can give me the answer within the seven days of the feast, I will give you thirty linen garments and thirty sets of clothes. If you can’t tell me the answer, you must give me thirty linen garments and thirty sets of clothes” (Judges 14:12-13, NIV).

Samson thought he was very clever, but in reality, he was being an idiot. After all, there was only one of him and thirty of the other guys. They had a week to put their heads together and figure out this crazy riddle. The wager wasn’t wise, either. If the groomsmen lost, they owed Samson a single set of clothes, but if he lost, he had to come up with thirty.

It didn’t turn out very well for Samson. His fiancée was a Philistine woman, so the men put pressure on her to find out the answer to the riddle. She decided to use her feminine charms on her man. When that didn’t work, she used whining. After suffering through his fiancée’s constant crying and nagging, Samson told her the answer to the riddle. Of course, she passed it on to the Philistine men, who announced the answer just before sundown on the seventh day. They won the bet and made Samson look like a complete fool.

It’s a sad story. Samson tried to show how clever he was, but he was shamed in front of the enemies of Israel. If he had asked God for wisdom, the Lord would have surely kept him from making this huge mistake. Apparently, prayer never crossed his mind.

Far too often, we forget the power of God to inspire us. We think His power is reserved for healings, conversions, and deliverances, but it also operates in our plans and dreams. God wants to inspire us with so many “God ideas” that we’ll never be able to implement them all. But first, we have to have open, receptive hearts.