How to Pray: When I Got Myself In Trouble

Samson is perhaps one of the most known people of the Bible,  but he had to learn to pray when life did not go as he planned! Sometimes, we get ourselves into trouble, but thanks be to God that we have a God who still listens to us and helps us. We know we can talk to Him because prayer reaches every single situation. Keep pressing!

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Transcript

Press means to apply force. When God said press, prayer reaches every single situation. He gave us permission to apply force to every situation that we will go through.

And in this podcast, we are going to learn to apply force to what's applying pressure to us. Welcome back to the Press Podcast. We are continuing our study in the book of Judges.

We're getting to look at the life of one man who is named in Hebrews 11 in the hall of fame of faith as I call it. Hebrews 11 32, it only drops his name, but we're talking about the man named Samson. Samson is famous for the strength that God gave him for being a man who could defeat a lion with his bare hands.

Samson was as tough as they came, but Samson had his own flaws. He was dedicated to God from birth by his parents, but Samson had a taste for living on the edge. And one thing about living on the edge is that it will always catch up with you.

Samson liked women and there's nothing wrong with men liking women, but Samson, the Bible says his mom told him when he asked for a woman in Timnath, which was one of the daughters of the Philistines, the Philistines at this time are captors. They're enslaving more or less the children of Israel. He wants to marry one of them.

He comes up and he tells his mother and father, I want to marry this woman in Timnath. I've seen her get her for me to wife. She pleases me well.

His mom says, is there never a woman among the daughters of the brethren? Samson, why do you keep messing with these strange women? Why don't you ever see any of the women that you're permitted to have and think that's what I want. Is there never one implies that we've been down this road before it's not recorded in scripture. How many women Samson talked to hooked up with whatever, but his mom's speech says, Samson, Samson, Samson.

Why? But Samson was determined to do this his way. Now the Bible says that his parents didn't know that it was of the Lord and that Samson was actually seeking an occasion against the Philistines to defeat them, to fight against them. But either way they knew Samson, you're playing with fire.

And though the Lord used it, I do believe as we look at Samson's life that God used the women that he allowed him to attach to, to propel him into his purpose, because his personality would not allow his purpose to be propelled without the trouble they brought. God allowed his nature to trigger what God wanted to do, but Samson lived on such an edge. So he makes up with this woman, this Philistine woman in chapter 14.

This story is long, but essentially she betrays him. And when she betrays him, he finds a way to get not only her back, but everybody tied to the betrayal and her people. He plays a lot of games.

Samson is a riddler. Samson is kind of a gambler. Samson doesn't mind taking a risk.

You learn all about this in chapter 14, chapter 15, where you get to see Samson's personality, how he toys with the enemy, how he's always thinking that he's thinking one step ahead. And so he gives them riddles. He gives them things to challenge their way of thinking.

But as he's playing these games, they realize his weakness and they set him up. The setup comes after they see him go into a harlot in Gaza. The Bible says they come past him there and they laid in wait for him all night at the gate of the city.

And they were quiet all night saying in the morning when it is day, we shall kill him. And Samson laid till midnight and arose at midnight and took the doors of the gate of the city and the two posts and went away with them bar and all and put them upon his shoulders and carried them up to the top of a hill that is before he run. Samson did a flex.

He was like, I'm strong. You waiting at the gate is not doing anything to me. I will take the gate with me.

When he does this afterwards, the Bible says he fell in love with a lady in the Valley of Sorek named Delilah and the Lords of the Philistines came up into her and they said, hmm, entice him. See where his strength comes from that we may bind him and afflict him and prevail against him. And we'll give you 1100 pieces of silver.

So Delilah tells Samson, please tell me where is your strength? And Samson continues playing games. He tells her if you bind me with seven green widths that were never dried, then shall I be weak if he isn't any other man. So the Lords of the Philistines, they brought up to her seven green widths, which had not been dried.

And she bound them with him. She tied him up. They were lying in wait when she did this.

And she yells out after she ties them up, Samson, the Philistines be upon thee. And he broke those things so easily that she became sad. She's like, you mocked me and told me lies.

Now, let's just forget that I told you my weakness. You tried to take advantage of my weakness and you set me up to be destroyed. You're mad that I didn't tell you the truth.

But Samson doesn't walk away from this relationship because as much as he's played with these other women, this one, the Bible says he loves this one, unlike the other two where he just had to have them. It's now his heart is involved. He's fallen for the wrong one.

So he's ignoring all of the bad stuff she's done and she's crying and she's saying, you mock me and you've told me lies. She's making it all about what he didn't do, not about what she just tried. She said, now I pray thee, tell me wherewith thou mightest be bound.

And he said, if you get me tied up with new ropes that have never been occupied, then shall I be weak as any other man? He's still playing games because what he tells her is not the truth, but she doesn't know that initially. So she tries it again and she screams, the Philistines be upon thee. And there were liars in wait abiding in the chamber.

They were hiding in his room, waiting for him to be weak, but it didn't work. Why? Because it wasn't true. And so Delilah says unto Samson, you keep mocking me and you keep lying to me.

Tell me wherewith thou mightest be bound. And he said, if thou weavest the seven locks on my head with the web, and she fastened it with a pin and said to him, the Philistines be upon thee. Everything he's told her that makes him weak, she's tried to do to weaken him.

At some point, even when you're in love, you really should look and see this person does not love me back. This person does not mean me well. This person is trying to play on my weaknesses.

That is never love. Somebody's trying to play on your weaknesses. If they're trying to take advantage of you, if they're trying to destroy you, that is not love.

But Samson is missing this memo because the Bible said he loved her. One person's love is not necessarily enough for everybody. But she continues playing games and you see the manipulation of it.

She says to him in verse 15, how canst thou say I love thee when thine heart is not with me? Thou has mocked me these three times and has not told me wherein thy great strength lies. And it came to pass when she pressed him daily with her words and urged him so that his soul was vexed unto death that he told her all his heart and said unto her there have not come a razor upon my head for I have been a Nazarite unto God from my mother's womb. If I be shaven, then my strength will go from me and I shall become weak and be like any other man.

And when Delilah saw that he had told her all his heart, she sent and called for the lords of the Philistines say, come up this once where he has showed me all his heart. When he gave his heart to the wrong woman, she could care less. She didn't care anything about his heart.

She was looking to get paid. You can't make somebody love you. And Samson had been playing games so long.

He had played with wife number one, with the harlot, who knows who else he had been playing games. But when he's ready to show his heart now is the wrong person and the wrong time. And you've messed up, Samson.

You fell in love with something that does not love you. And because he did that, she did what she had always done. She didn't change who she was.

She was exactly the same person she was last time she tried to destroy him. This time she does exactly what she's always done. She tells him when he's asleep, the Philistines be upon thee, Samson.

And the Philistines be upon thee. I will go out as other times before and shake myself and wish not that the Lord was departed from him. Now, as many times as she had yelled out while you were asleep, the Philistines be upon thee.

And she yelled it because she had tried to weaken you. What made you think, Samson, that you could share your weakness with this woman and wake up just fine? Sin has a way of deceiving you. Being in love with the wrong thing, with the world, with the things of the world, with the people of the world has a way of deceiving you into thinking that God is going to stay with you when you're not staying in covenant with him.

He thought he could shake, but he had broken covenant. So this time the Philistines take him. They put out his eyes.

They bring him down to Gaza and they bind him up with fetters of brass. And he was working in the prison house. But what they didn't notice, just because they made him blind, just because they made him weak, just because they tore him down, they didn't notice, the Bible says, that the hair of his head began to grow back.

I'm so glad God didn't allow him to stay in a permanently weak state. And when growth started in him, his strength returned to him. They didn't understand that I'm growing though I'm blind.

I'm growing though I'm chained up. I'm growing though I'm broken. I'm growing though I messed up.

Something in me is still growing. And God did not forget who he called Samson to be. Eventually, the lords of the Philistines gathered them together to offer a great sacrifice unto Dagon, their God, and to rejoice.

Because they were celebrating that their God had delivered Samson into their hand. And when the people saw him, they praised their God. And they wanted to bring out Samson for sport.

They wanted to make a mockery out of him. And they set him between the pillars. And here is where we get to the prayer for today in Judges 16-28.

The Bible says, and Samson called unto the Lord and said, O Lord God, remember me, I pray thee, and strengthen me, I pray thee. Only this once, O God, that I may be at once avenged of the Philistines for my two eyes. His prayer, God, do it once again.

He continued to pray in verse 30. He said, Let me die with the Philistines. And he bowed himself with all his might.

And the house fell upon the lords and upon all the people that were therein. So the dead which he slew at his death were more than they which he slew in his life. This story is a tragedy in that it didn't have to end this way.

Again, I'll tell you, I believe God used the women to propel Samson into his purpose because his personality would not let it be birthed without their trouble. But the women were not part of the initial call. God didn't say to his mother and father, I will have to use this woman and that woman.

But he looked and said, If I'm going to accomplish what I have to accomplish with Samson, I'm going to use this. I'm going to use that because he's going to mess up here. He's going to mess up there.

So his mistakes are still going to have to work to propel him into the purpose I birthed him for. It costs Samson to do things the wrong way. It costs Samson not to listen to when his mother said in chapter 14, Is there never a woman among thy own brethren? It costs him not to take heed to the way he should have done things.

But what God allowed was still victory and completion of his purpose. He didn't let Samson's purpose be destroyed. In fact, Samson has the testimony, just like the Philistines, that sin may have killed us both, but God didn't lose me to my sin.

Because in Samson's last moments, though his sin got him in chains, though his sin got him blind, though his sin got him down, sin may have been what eventually killed him. But his objective returned to what God's objective was for his life. And purpose was still fulfilled.

And God did not lose his child, even in the destruction that sin caused in his life. As we see in Hebrews 11, he is a man who lived by faith. His failure didn't define his life.

His fight, his last in, his victory, his return to what his purpose was, his return to God, that defined his life. Thank God he doesn't keep us trapped to our mistakes, even when the consequences cost us. Today I pray that whomever is out there, no matter what God has had to use to save you, to work on you, to heal you, know this, what he said of you is what he meant about you.

And I pray that you let God finish what he started in you. I pray that you remember today, press. Prayer reaches every single situation.

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Visit us at PressToPray.com or find us on Instagram or Facebook. Did you know that when you are quiet, your voice is missing to God's ears? I know some of us have prayed and were wondering, how long should I pray about this? Why should I pray if God already knows? How will I know God is answering? And what do I do when I feel like God's not listening? But God is listening for your voice. It's too quiet in this world for the troubles we have.

You have to raise your voice and God wants to hear from you. It's too quiet in a book about prayer. It's designed to answer your prayer questions and build your faith.

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Transcribed by TurboScribe.ai. Go Unlimited to remove this message.