The Lord Departed

 God is so good to be with His children. It gives us great peace and strength to have His presence with us. However, there are times when we find ourselves alone. Some people think when that happens to them that God is the one at fault. That is not the case at all. He desires to be with us, but His presence will not be with us in certain situations.

Samson found himself in one of those situations, after he told the secret of his great strength to Delilah, and she cut off his hair while he was sleeping. (Judges 17-19) She said, "The Philistines are upon you, Samson." And he awoke from sleep and said, "I will go out as at other times and shake myself free." But he did not know that the Lord had departed from him. I pray we will never let this happen to us.

Some Christians think that God is following us around all of the time. They believe that is His responsibility since He loves us, and He wants what is best for us. However, if we sin by going to places and doing things that God doesn't want us to do, He is under no obligation to follow us. He lets us go off by ourselves and face the consequences of our actions. 

Also, if we break His commands like Samson did, He could depart from us for a season because of our rebellion and unbelief. He can't bless us when we are doing those things. It is not that we are no longer saved. It is our loving Father teaching us why we need to be faithful to Him. Just like He blessed Samson with strength later, He can and will return to us, when we repent and confess our sins to Him.

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Tomorrow, I intend to read Judges 17-19.