With a Subtitle: Even when our spiritual lives feel empty, God can intervene and bring new purpose and fruitfulness.
A brief Excerpt: Judges 13:3 reminds us that God can transform spiritual barrenness into blessing. Just as Samson’s mother received a promise from the Lord, believers today can trust that God is still at work in their lives.
Scripture
Our verse for today comes from Judges 13:3, “And the Angel of the Lord appeared to the woman and said to her, ‘Indeed now, you are barren and have borne no children, but you shall conceive and bear a son.'”
Background
There is a law in physics called inertia that states in part that an object at rest tends to stay at rest. It has something to do with why the couch feels so good, I think. There is another tenet in culture that refers to sticking with the status quo, the way things currently exist. We cling to this when change is suggested at work, choosing the comfort of familiarity over the potential hassles of improvements. In general, we are not a people that gets too excited about change, and not just at work. Few of us enjoy computer upgrades that look and operate differently. New Coke was a bust. And I’ve used the same razor ever since I started shaving. But a problem arises when we become complacent with where we are in our spiritual life, content to stay at rest or keep things the way they currently exist. The mother in our verse today was barren. That’s all she knew, and that’s all she had ever known. But inertia also says that when an outside force acts upon an object, things change. So when the Angel of the Lord delivered God’s message, that barren woman became the mother of Samson. She went from one who was looked down upon for having no children to the mother of a mighty man of God who helped deliver Israel from the Philistines. And we have been acted upon by that same outside force.
Application
The Holy Spirit of God dwells in your heart as a follower of Jesus. Although you may think you are barren, or your walk with the Lord may seem fruitless and adrift, God is not planning for you to keep things as they are. Sarah was ninety before Isaac arrived, and Elisabeth was well stricken in years before John came along. Your current distance from God, regardless of how far or close you are to Him, is not so far that God is finished with you or has lost track of you. The way it is may need to become the way it ought to be. He has something planned for you. He has more planned for you. Go toward Him and experience it.
Charge
As we seek Him today, examine whether you are walking with Jesus or content to sit there on the couch. Don’t accept that how it is is how it must be. Ask God to turn your barrenness into blessings.
Salvation – Eternal Life in Less Than 150 Words
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