Samson, a man with God-given strength, lost it when he gave his secret away to Delilah. Samson said to Delilah ‘If my hair were cut, I would lose my strength and be as weak as anyone else.’ (Judges 16:17), and then the trap was set – Delilah called a man to cut Samson’s hair, then the Philistines pounced. It was too late – Samson’s strength was gone, but God came through, and Samson ended up overcoming the Philistines in one last act of strength.
Even though Samson had amazing strength, he still needed to rely on God too. Check out Judges 15:9-15 (GNT):
9 The Philistines came and camped in Judah, and attacked the town of Lehi.10 The men of Judah asked them, “Why are you attacking us?”
They answered, “We came to take Samson prisoner and to treat him as he treated us.” 11 So these three thousand men of Judah went to the cave in the cliff at Etam and said to Samson, “Don’t you know that the Philistines are our rulers? What have you done to us?”
He answered, “I did to them just what they did to me.”
12 They told him, “We have come here to tie you up, so we can hand you over to them.”
Samson said, “Give me your word that you won’t kill me yourselves.”
13 “All right,” they said, “we are only going to tie you up and hand you over to them. We won’t kill you.” So they tied him up with two new ropes and brought him back from the cliff. 14 When he [Samson] got to Lehi, the Philistines came running toward him, shouting at him. Suddenly the power of the Lord made him strong, and he broke the ropes around his arms and hands as if they were burnt thread. 15 Then he found a jawbone of a donkey that had recently died. He reached down and picked it up, and killed a thousand men with it.
‘Suddenly, the power of the Lord made him strong’. On this occasion, Samson needed to depend on God for the required strength to be given right at the last moment.
In our lives, things are not so different! Whatever God calls us to do, we can depend on Him all the way, and he’ll provide what we need when we need it. It’ll take us well out of our comfort zone, but He will still provide.