Then the Spirit of the Lord came upon him mightily, and he went down to Ashkelon and killed thirty of their men, took their apparel, and gave the changes of clothing to those who had explained the riddle. Judges 14:19

REFERENCE
Judges 14:1-19

Samson was a man greatly anointed with the Spirit of might; he could do unimaginable things with his strength. In today’s account, he tore a lion apart with his bare hands, and he killed 30 men just to give their apparels to those who solved his riddle. At other instances, he caught 300 foxes in one day, killed a thousand Philistine men with a donkey’s jawbone and uprooted the iron gates of a city. God gave him great strength so he could fulfill his purpose as a deliverer for Israel; but he sometimes misused his powers.

Myles Munroe was quoted to have said that, “When purpose is not known, abuse is inevitable.” In other words, when you don’t know why something exists, you will abuse it – putting it to a use that it wasn’t designed to for. When the Jews faced annihilation in Susa, Modecai requested that Queen Esther should plead with the king for their lives, but she was afraid to do it. He then pointed it out to her that perhaps it was to prevent the annihilation of the Jews that God brought her to the corridors of power at that time; and so, she needed to use her authority (influence and power) to serve God’s purpose.

If care is not taken, the most natural thing, when we discover we have some innate talents, privileges, position or power, is to use them to satisfy our personal needs. However, if you have found yourself to be ‘stronger,’ ‘more gifted’ or ‘better’ than most people in a certain area of life, it is not to oppress or corrupt people, neither is it for your self-promotion, it is to serve the people and to honor God with. Today, most gifted singers have used their gifts to corrupt many minds and spewed out lewdness into societies; I doubt that it is for these reasons that God gave them such gifts.

What have you done or what are you doing with the special privileges and talents God has given you?  Have you diverted them to other uses? Have you allowed pride, strife, competition, or personal aggrandizement becloud your judgement on how you should use your position? How have you used your influence? Is it to corrupt or bless others?

I end with the lesson I learnt from the first Marvel’s Spiderman movie, “With great power comes great responsibility.”

SCRIPTURE PHOTO

ADDITIONAL STUDY
Esther 4:1-16, I Kings 21:1-16, & Luke 22:25-27

REFLECTION
Consider how Samson, Ahab and Jezebel (I Kings 21:1-16) abused their authority, what lessons can you learn from that?

What necessary adjustments would you need to make in order to use God’s privileges in your life to fulfill the purpose for which they were given?

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