Text: Numbers 25: 1-8
The last time we talked about Samson, we emphasized jealousy for God. we’ll be delving deeper by talking about what is behind this jealousy, and it is the “heart that mourns”
Jealousy does not come out of someone who is not mourning over something, our hearts should not rejoice at the sight of evil, we need hearts that grieve for sin and travails in the place of prayer over a believer who falls by the wayside to have God restore them back to himself.
2 Samuel 3:33-39
David mourned his enemies because of the kind of heart he had, the average believer would rejoice over the death of their enemies and this is the result of not having a heart that mourns and grieves over the things that grieves the heart of God.
2 Samuel 1:17-27
We must desire to have hearts that are moved by the things that move the heart of God. David mourned Saul in spite of Saul’s desire to kill him; we must understand God’s love for his people and be able to extend this love towards all men irrespective of how we are treated by these people.
Nehemiah 1:1-4
Mourning has to do with weeping over something or someone that is lost. Mourning is not prayer and fasting but often leads to praying, fasting and all the necessary actions that can possibly aid restoration.
What qualifies us for greatness is what we mourn for, don’t expect greatness if you do not mourn. Can God make you mourn for a nation? Can you bear God’s burdens?
Nehemiah 2:1-6. Ezekiel 9:1-4
We must learn to linger before God in silence and listen to hear his voice; this is how God reawakens our hearts. Part of the Samson paradigm is restoration, and this happens when we tarry in his presence.
Samson must have mourned to have had his hair grow back, he was devastated over his state at the time and would have kept cooking for his enemies if God had not intervened by having his hair grow back and granting him victory.
We must mourn for God’s order to be restored, this is the kind of mourning he acknowledges.
BENEFITS OF MOURNING:
- Mourning aides restoration/redemption
- Those who mourn are preserved
- Mourning helps in restoring the order of God
- Mourning qualifies us for greatness
- Mourning aids intimacy with God
- Mourning aides victory over the enemy
2 Corinthians 7:7-11, Daniel 9:3, Psalm 63:1, Isaiah 61:3-4
PRAYERS:
- Let us repent from having hearts that are not moved by what moves the heart of God
- We ask that God gives us hearts that can bear his burdens; a heart that mourns
- We must ask God for hearts that can mourn over the state of families, marriages, ministries, government, systems to have God’s order restored to these spheres.
- God is breaking cycles of negative occurrences in our lives.
