God Can Use You
“So he [Samson] judged Israel twenty years in the days of the Philistines” (Judges 15:20).
Judges 15:20 seems like a random verse to focus on for a devotion, but it has recently reminded me that God chooses to use the most unlikeliest of people to do His work. I always forget that God chose Samson to lead the people of Israel out from under forty years of Philistine oppression before he was even born (Judges 15:5). Not only does God use the strength He gave to Samson to free Israel from the Philistines, but He gives this hot-headed, strong-tempered, self-indulgent, lustful man the opportunity to lead Israel for twenty years. TWENTY YEARS! And then when you think Samson has really made a mess of everything, God gives him a final bout of strength to stick it to the Philistines one last time.
Judges 15:20 may not seem like it has anything to do with you and your family, but it does. Israel had more than a dozen judges, and they were all imperfect – all of them. Even though we don’t have detailed accounts of all of the judges, I can safely say that imperfection describes the lot of them because they were all human. Samson just happens to be a glaring example of how flawed they all were. The first thing that Judges 15:20 should remind us is that these faulty judges were just a shadow of the Ultimate Judge, Jesus Christ. Israel’s earthly judges led them out of foreign rule after the Israelites had rejected God and stirred up His discipline against them. Jesus leads us out of spiritual oppression and crushes the power of sin and death in our life. And His leadership doesn’t last for twenty years or any other span of time that can be measured here on earth; the salvation from our sin that He provides is eternal. The reason Jesus has so much power to get us out of the trouble we can’t get ourselves out of is because He’s perfect, He’s God, He’s holy, He’s righteous. The Israelite judges could only temporarily save the nation from the effects of their sin, but Jesus came to permanently save His followers of all nations from their sin as a whole. Wow. Chew on that for a while.
The second thing that Judges 15:20 should remind us is that God uses whom He chooses. Samson had very little merit to his name. He didn’t abide by the Nazarite regulations like he should have, he married a woman who was not an Israelite, he used his God-given strength as a way to hurt those he had a personal vendetta against, and on and on. Yet, God gave this man 20 years to lead His chosen people. If God can use a man like Samson to accomplish His plan, then God can use you. 1 Corinthians 1:27-29 says, “but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong, and the base things of the world and the despised God has chosen, the things that are not, so that He may nullify the things that are, so that no man may boast before God.” Are you imperfect? Do you feel unequipped to be used by God in big ways? Great! You’re just the kind of person God tends to use! If God only chose smart, pious, nearly perfect people to do His work, then it might look like they did the work in their own power. God doesn’t like to share His glory, so He chooses to use the seemingly unqualified people in His kingdom to do big things.
The next time you read the story of Samson, or the next time you think that God couldn’t possibly use you, think about Judges 15:20 and how God used a mess of a man like Samson to work on His behalf for two decades. If you’re a Christ-follower, get ready to follow wherever He leads, whether you feel equipped or not!
Prayer for your Family:
God, please remind us all that You have chosen us to be a part of Your kingdom. We do not have to rely on our own strength or abilities to do the things You have called us to do because You are the One doing the work through us. Thank You for being faithful to abide with us as we seek to live for Your glory. We confess that we can be more like Samson than like Christ, but we pray that You will sanctify our family so that we can be useful to You. Use our family to point people of all nations to Jesus who is able to free them from their sin. We ask these things in the name of Jesus. Amen.
Vanessa Ortiz disciples her 5 daughters with her husband, Noe, in Houston, Texas where they serve the least of these for the glory of Christ.
