We all remember the story of Samson and Delilah from Judges 16. After playing the field, Samson fell in love with Delilah. When the Philistines, the long-standing enemy of the Israelites, found this out, they bribed Delilah to learn what made Samson so strong.

After ‘nagging’ Samson with questions about his strength and showing over and over again that she intended to relay this information to the Philistines, Samson gave into her and revealed his secret. His strength was in his hair. That evening she cut his hair off, and when the Philistines came to attack him, they poked his eyes and imprisoned him. Samson teaches us that no matter how strong we think we are, all of us will face temptation. Samson reveals to each of us that the most important strength we need is in our faith.

Although he had super heroic strength, he allowed Delilah to weaken him. How many of us have been in Samson’s shoes? We have managed to resist one or more temptations, and then we find ourselves finally giving into the thing we thought we were strong enough to resist. Samson’s problem was not Delilah. He ignored warning after warning about the situation. But his flesh caused him to have poor judgment. We have to remember that the devil is always tempting us. He knows exactly where we are weak. He will keep on trying until he wears us down.

For us to resist temptation, we must pray, fast, and cry out to the Lord—as Samson eventually does at the end of his life. Often, after we have fallen into temptation, we discover that it was not even worth it. This feeling that we get should encourage us to resist temptation when we can.

All of us have a weakness, and if we do not nourish it with God’s grace and focus, we could end up like Samson and lose our real power. Through it all, God is present even when we fall—to provide for us, redeem us, and deliver us from temptation.