Sampson should have listened to Meat Loaf “I would do anything for love, but I WON’T do that.”

It bugged me that Sampson was tricked by Delilah seemingly TOO easily, telling Delilah about the secret of His strength being his hair – that his hair was not cut from birth, because he was set aside, was dedicated to God. God of course, not the actual hair, was giving Sampson strength because He had a plan for Sampson and because He wanted and wants people to know that dedication to God means something. So, the hair could be called a token of dedication, important but a substitution of focus, and yet hair is a visible outward image of what is covering our heads – like God covers us all – IN LOVE. Love however is not removable like hair. Love IS.

I bet Sampson felt tricked to have lost his strength, but really what felt painfully worse immediately to Sampson was that he lost his sight too, the capturers gouged his eyes out. Hair regrows, but eyes do not. Sampson however DID re-find his faith. He returned to asking God for strength. He accomplished much by God’s unique Way, known only to God. Samson prayed to the Lord, “Sovereign Lord, remember me. Please, God, strengthen me just once more…” God may have removed the strength with the hair – but God’s hearing and love and forgiveness was only less than a hair’s width away from Sampson.

We too are to walk by faith and not by sight. 

What did Meat Loaf actually mean – “I won’t do that” ? He was talking about forgetting something he loved about that person (I looked it up).   WELL, we need to remember that “I won’t do that” to us should be: “I WON’T FORGET THAT YOU LOVE ME, LORD!”

Are you part of the ‘Overthinkers Club’? ME TOO! Yet, I know EXTRA paranoid people too, so I am not so bad, right? We all have a little bit of worry in us, founded and unfounded. We ask: “Are we being tricked?” What if we start down that path being tricked by the devil: “Do I really have to do THAT for love?” – “Have I drifted away from God and lost my strength AND His Love?” DON’T OVERTHINK! BE STILL!

Number One lesson: You DON’T lose God’s Love. God IS Love. God does NOT change. Love is not fickle and love is forgive-ful, meaning His love will forgive your sins and draw closer to overlay you with mercy thanks to Jesus. 

Overthinkers could be tricked into the simple trap of paranoia by the devil. We develop elaborate scenarios of trickery and how evil works and we over think over-orchestrated plots to sabotage us, yet the REAL basic trick of the devil is to make you question your love and His love. It’s like those thieves that watch your eyes to betray where your valuables are hidden, to betray your secrets. Don’t hide God under your basket – wear His Love on your sleeve – because HE wears HIS LOVE EVERYWHERE.

We are to remember that God’s LOVE is NOT hidden, not a secret or something increased by earning it, not out-of-touch or unachievable. God’s LOVE is POURED OUT AND OVER YOU. Complete. LOVE like Jesus’s Blood poured over you. LOVE like freshly fallen snow adhering to every tree branch as if blankets of thick purification. Love keeps no records of wrongdoing.  Therefore the evil rehashing of old sins can be rebuked too. Don’t go there overthinkers,  God’s LOVE is complete. Completeness comes and ALL who love the Lord will be whole again. 

When the world comes asking questions, stand strong, not from your own strength but humbly in His Love. Don’t worry about showing the world your human secrets but display the parts of God’s Love that you DO know, that you can put on HIS Armor to protect and teach – and that you can be covered in God’s Love enough to share His Love too (even with your enemy). His LOVE is more powerful than anything under the sun. Walk knowing that His LOVE will NEVER fail.

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. LOVE NEVER FAILS. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when COMPLETENESS comes, what is in part disappears. 1 Corinthians 13:4-10

AMEN!!!

Love NEVER FAILS – It WON’T do that.