The WoW power of Vow

Uni-verse 231/10,000 For better through verse Judges 16 v 13

Jdg 16:13 And Delilah said unto Samson, Hitherto thou hast mocked me, and told me lies: tell me wherewith thou mightest be bound. And he said unto her, If thou weavest the seven locks of my head with the web.


As Samson was physically strong, the Lord desires that His children be spiritually strong. The secret of Samson' s strength lay in the seven braids or locks of hair that had never been cut with a razor. Similarly, our secret source of strength and immense power from God lies in seven "locks": Fear of God and love of God are the first two locks that grow side by side. As we grow in our personal knowledge and intimacy with God, both our fear of God and His holiness and our love of God with all our strength of spirit, mind and body need to grow slowly but surely like our hair grows from day to day. The fear of God makes us hate evil even as the love of God makes us love all that is good, noble, praiseworthy and perfect.

The third lock of hair is our prayer life. Just as nostrils breathe air constantly, our soul and spirit needs to pray ceaselessly in order to sustain itself. The fourth lock of hair is the Word of God. We meditate and absorb strength from claiming God's promises and by diligently studying and obeying His eternal commands. We need to claim God's strength in this manner and stay free from blame. The fifth lock of hair is praise and worship- we need to be regular in our praise and worship. Worship is like a warship that has been launched with all its guns firing. It is also the flagship of our faith life.

The sixth lock of hair is the joy of the Lord. We need to delight in what the Lord delights. The joy of the Lord is our strength. It implies that we submit all our plans and decisions to the Lord. We give priority to what He desires in our lives. The seventh lock of hair is our witness. We need to witness with our lifestyle, our deeds and our words. At the same time, we need to be wary of the Delilahs of the world who wish to betray us, weaken us or have us handed over to the enemy. These seven locks must never be cut but grow day and night, right through our lives. They will enable us to defeat all the force and power of the enemy of our souls. What else can we do with all this immense strength that the Lord has invested in us? We need to be like Samson a judge of the nations, a leader who influences people for God, a ruler or one who executes God's judgements on earth. We need to exhibit in our lives the "wow" power of vow or the power of commitment that kept a razor from the seven braids of hair from birth till his ultimate downfall by deception. We must not be attracted to the seductions of this world.

Prateep V Philip