THE FINISH LINE
READ Judges 16: 27-30
REFLECT
Have you ever felt like something was so unattainable, so out of reach, just down right impossible? Why even try? I love to go to the gym and lift weights, but running is torture for me. As much as I would love to be a runner, there is no part of me that is. I never feel like I am getting enough air, I get cramps in my side and my knees knock together when I run. However, the hardest part of running is that I am so out of breath that I can hardly talk. So those feelings of unattainable, out of reach, why even try, came flooding into me the day I received an email from Dan saying he had registered us for the “Around the Bay” (30 km race). He thought this would be a great challenge for us to face together; after all I had just placed first in my age group in the Burlington 5 km ‘Turkey Trot” (yes, the name describes the race exactly and I have the tee shirt). But a 30 km run… impossible!
You may be having those same feelings because you have a deadline at work and it just isn’t coming together; maybe your child has turned their back on God; or your marriage is hitting rock bottom? What is your response? Give up? Find excuses? Or maybe just walk away?
Samson stood in front of 3000 people facing his own impossible, unattainable, ‘why even try?’ situation. He was broken, humiliated, and blind. On his own, he would never succeed. Knowing this, he cried out to God, asking that God would give him strength to bring down the columns and kill everyone in the place, knowing that would also mean himself. Now that is a bold prayer. God’s response…”He pushed with all his might and the temple fell on the Philistine rulers and all the people who were there.” God answered him, exactly as he had prayed. A bold prayer was prayed and a bold answer was given.
God wants us to be bold in our faith, in our witness, and in our prayers. When we limit God, we limit His work. Can you imagine what amazing things will take place when we come before the maker of heaven and earth and ask boldly?
BOTTOM LINE
Samson prayed an outrageous prayer and God answered him, giving him supernatural strength that day.
LIVE
When the situation seems impossible and you feel numb and defeated, know that God can still boldly use you. Pray boldly; God is waiting.
PRAY
God, we come before you, humbled at your awesomeness and amazed at your willingness to listen to such simple, broken people. Yet Lord, we know that you hear us and you love us. May we be bold in our prayers, so that we never put limits and boundaries on you and your desires.
Kathy Barber
