Little by Little

        There are some recipes where you need to gradually add one on the ingredients to the rest by itself.  I like to dabble in cooking now and then and I have one spice that doesn't seem to mix with a liquid especially if the liquid is cold.  I can add it later and it works fine.  If you do not do it in this way, it will not mix properly with the rest.  Many of you all know the story of Samson and Delilah that we read about in the Book of Judges.  He was a man of great strength but things began to happen to him and he compromised his convictions  As a result, the Lord departed from him in such a way that Samson didn't even know that it was happening.  He had flirted with sin so many times that the change that was coming upon him was not recognizable even to himself.  Judges 16:20 says, "And she said, The Philistines be upon thee, Samson. And he awoke out of his sleep, and said, I will go out as at other times before, and shake myself. And he wist not that the LORD was departed from him."   
       You would think that a person would know it when the LORD departed from them.  But, Samson didn't know it and when the time came for him to exercise his strength, he had none and was captured.   This lesson from the Book of Judges is important to us because it reminds us that we, too, can gradually compromise our convictions until our strength is gone.  Our stand is gone and our evangelism is gone because we gradually become more and more like the world.  Satan doesn't do this all of a sudden.  If he did, you would be able to recognize it and then do something drastic about it.  No, Satan undertakes this process a little at a time.  It is so gradual that you don't even see it coming nor do you know it is happening.  Soon, you find that your strength is so diminished that you are just like those in the world.  What do we need to do?  We need to stay in the Word of God and then actually put to practice the things that are written in it.  You need to spend time in prayer communicating with God and then to be able to discern what God says to you.  It all comes back to those two things.  You need to be immersed in Scripture and Prayer.  How are you doing today?  Is your strength being diminished because of the influence of the world in your life?  If so, take time to get things straightened out today.  Praise God today for His promises.