Pray the Word with David Platt is a resource from radical.net.

Judges chapter 16, verse 20.

And she said,

The Philistines are upon you, Samson.

And he awoke from his sleep and said,

I will go out as at other times and shake myself free.

But he did not know that the Lord had left him.

This is the story of when Delilah had betrayed Samson,

and Samson had been used to rising and conquering the Philistines.

And he had presumed he could do that again.

But Judges chapter 16, verse 20,

as he says, I'll go out as at other times and shake myself free.

But he did not know at this moment that the Lord had left him.

And this verse is a keen reminder of what we see all over the Bible.

Everything.

Everything depends on whether or not the Lord is with you and for you or if the Lord is against you. Everything in our lives hinges on the presence of God with us, the help of God for us. And if God is with us, if God is for us, in the words of Romans chapter 8, nothing can stand

against us. But if we are on our own, and if God is against us, then we have no hope. And you read about Samson's life.

And you can't help but think how foolish he was in so many different ways,

with so many different things he was doing.

Yet I read this and I think, how foolish I can be.

And so Judges Chapter 16 leads us to pray, God, you are our only hope today.

We can do nothing good without you, without your grace.

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