Countdown to Trouble - Part 3

You can read part 1 of this post here
You can read part 2 of this post here

20 Then she called, "Samson, the Philistines are upon you!" He awoke from his sleep and thought, "I'll go out as before and shake myself free." But he did not know that the LORD had left him. ²¹ Then the Philistines seized him, gouged out his eyes and took him down to Gaza. Binding him with bronze shackles, they set him to grinding in the prison.
Judges 16:20-21

Whenever someone finally falls as a result of their hidden sin being made public there are a lot of intense feelings and emotions that take place. People are hurt, shocked, and often become disillusioned with believers or church leadership as a whole. And the person who falls they experience embarassment, shame, and the pain of feeling like they not only let God down but everyone else as well.

For Samson it looked like this:

• He lost his vision (they gouged his eyes out)
• He was bound to his filthiness (another translation for being bound in bronze shackles)
• He became a slave to sin (forced to push the grinding wheel in prison)

I've heard how some believers talk after someone is caught in a sin, and If you listened to them you would begin to believe that God exposed the person just to pay them back for their sin. To the person who has fallen this is the thing that often hardens them against the work of restoration that God wants to do in their lives. They feel as if God is against them, and they know for sure that the people who once enjoyed the gifting of God on their life ARE against them.
Healing the wounds inflicted as a result of a big fall can take a very long time. Many people will never trust the person who has fallen again... regardless of their gifting. And the person who has fallen they may never again experience the influence that they once had. Sin always carries consequences.

BUT...

This is important, so listen up... if you have fallen, or if you are on the countdown to it... know this - God doesn't let you fall to pay you back, He lets you fall to win you back.

That changes everything. To be continued...