Then she called, Samson, the Philistines are upon you. He awoke from his sleep and thought, I’ll go out as before and shake myself free. But he did not know that the Lord had left him. Judges 16:20
One of the greatest tragedies that can happen to a professing Christian is to become over familiar with God. God is Holy and under no circumstance will He compromise His standard. Moses, the meekest man on earth became over familiar with God. He stroke the rock instead of speaking to it. He lost the privilege of going into the Promised Land. David, a man after God’s heart, committed adultery and God punished him. God was with Samson all the time and gave him victory after victory over the Philistines. After nearly 20 years of walking close with God, he became over familiar with God. He broke his Nazarene vow perhaps assuming that God was now his buddy. God left him and sadly Samson assumed everything was normal.
Today, there is much talk about GRACE in the Church and rightly so. Some think that grace is a license to live without the reverential fear of our Holy God. Maybe, we are thinking that God’s requirements for the Old Testament saints no longer apply to us today. Note this: Leviticus 11:44 is repeated in 1 Peter 1:15-16 “But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: Be holy, because I am holy.”
Taking God for granted and abusing grace is a grievous error.
Resources
Never Take God’s Grace For Granted: A powerful reminder that we should always appreciate the things that God does in our lives!
Author: Rev. Sunday Bwanhot
Rev. Sunday Bwanhot is EMS/SIM Missionary. He serves as Team leader of SIM Culture Connexions; Pastors of ECWA Chicago and ECWA USA DCC Chairman.
