“And she said, ‘The Philistines are upon you, Samson!’ So he awoke from his sleep, and said, ‘I will go out as before, at other times, and shake myself free!’ But he did not know that the Lord had departed from him” (Judg 16:20).1
Among the catalog of saddest Scriptures in the Bible, surely this frightening verse should occupy one of the top spots. You know the story quite well, don’t you? Samson was reclining in the arms of Delilah, his paramour—a Philistine temptress whose leaders had bribed, to discover the source of his supernatural strength, so they could neutralize him (Judg 16:4–6). Samson played coy in a haze of sexual intoxication, until Delilah wearied him into revealing the symbol of his otherworldly strength. “. . . ‘No razor has ever come upon my head, for I have been a Nazirite to God from my mother’s womb. If I am shaven, then my strength will leave me, and I shall become weak, and be like any other man’” (Judg 16:17). At this, Delilah tied him up once again, sprang the trap, and Samson awoke, sure that his awesome strength was still intact. He quickly discovered that while the muscles were there, the Being who powered them was not. The Spirit of God—the true Source of Samson’s strength—had left him.
Now more than ever, God is calling Seventh-day Adventist individuals and families back to His heart—back to consistent times of refreshing in His presence.
POWERLESSNESS
Have you ever “shook yourself,” only to discover that the Spirit of God had left you? As an elder, you provide spiritual leadership to God’s people, general oversight of church activities and functions, and you nurture members through godly counsel, encouragement, prayer, and much more. Surely you have never lacked spiritual power in a crunch, have you?
Whether we are willing to admit to moments of powerlessness in the work of God or not, the story of Samson paints a sobering picture of a life lived with a broken devotional altar. Samson’s birth was divinely predicted, his diet divinely prescribed, and his calling divinely outlined (Judg 13:2–5), but did Samson have a personal walk with God to match his divinely ordained purpose? There is no record of it in Scripture.
Reflecting on the faithfulness of Joseph versus the faithlessness of Samson, Ellen G. White notes, “Samson in his peril had the same source of strength as had Joseph. He could choose the right or the wrong as he pleased. But instead of taking hold of the strength of God, he permitted the wild passions of his nature to have full sway.”2 Samson lacked the revival and reformation power of a vibrant devotional altar.
GIFTS WITHOUT AN ALTAR
The life of Samson is a cogent reminder that gifts given for the glory of God are nourished by daily, consistent relationship with God. It is in these private moments with God that our foibles are unmasked, hearts converted, and service refocused. God has always wanted this connection with human beings. He came to visit Adam and Eve “in the cool of the day” after they had sinned (Gen 3:8). It can safely be assumed that this was not the first time God had done so; He was accustomed and committed to meeting with the holy pair every day. After the exodus from Egypt, God began to institute a devotional structure for personal worship with Him. Morning and evening worship experiences were to be the spiritual bookends of Israelite life. God signaled as much when He said to Moses, “One lamb you shall offer in the morning, and the other lamb you shall offer at twilight” (Exod 29:39). In short, God never intended for His children to attempt daily life or service without Him.
In spite of this fact, many Seventh-day Adventists appear to be doing just that. A 2018 worldwide survey of Seventh-day Adventists found that only 34 percent of families are having morning and evening worship and only 52 percent of Adventists have any devotional life to speak of.3 These statistics are especially disturbing when one considers that the final message that we are to share with the world—the Three Angels’ Messages of Revelation 14:6–12—is a worship-centered message. Can a church with such low percentages engaging in personal worship effectively deliver a worship-centric message? In other words, can we do publicly what we are not doing privately?
BACK TO THE ALTAR
Now more than ever, God is calling Seventh-day Adventist individuals and families back to His heart—back to consistent times of refreshing in His presence. It is for this reason that the Seventhday Adventist Church is launching the Back to the Altar (BTTA) initiative, a movement to encourage daily personal and family worship in the life of every Seventh-day Adventist. By 2027 we hope to see at least 70 percent of Adventist members engaged in daily morning and evening worship.
The restoration of personal and family worship among Seventhday Adventists is the most pressing need of our time but doing so will require much prayer and effort. Today we face the challenge of technologies that, while providing some efficiencies, benefits, and conveniences, increasingly occupy our time while altering our minds. Widespread addiction to devices and media, especially social media, has left many of us anxious, irritable, lonely, stressed, depressed, sleepless, and unhappy with our station in life. Ironically, personal and family worship has the opposite effect. It calms our minds, decreases loneliness, reduces stress, increases peace, fulfills our emotional needs, and teaches us contentment.
WHAT ELDERS CAN DO
Elders within the Seventh-day Adventist Church are leaders who have their hands on the pulse of local congregations around the world. You are indispensable to the work of God and the BTTA project. Here are three critical things that elders can do to help revive personal devotional life among church members.
1. Lead by Example. The personal devotional lives of God’s servants are the fountain from which they minister and serve. Jesus declared, “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing” (John 15:5). How important is this need to commune with Christ? Listen to Ellen White: “There is nothing more needed in the work of God than the practical results of communion with God.”4 You cannot lead people where you yourself have not been with God.
2. Share Your Walk with God. Among the most powerful things that you can do as an elder is to share with members what God is doing in your personal time with Him. What is He showing you? What parts of Scripture or the Spirit of Prophecy are you studying? Sharing what God is doing in your life will inspire others to seek their own experiences with God!
3. Encourage Healthy Uses of Digital Media. The greatest challenge to devotional life today is the misuse of technology. Smart devices, social media, television, and the like have significantly reduced the amount of devotional time that people spend with God. To be sure, while some people use smartphones and other devices as their means of worship, studies are increasingly showing the deleterious effect that devices are having on our capacity to think clearly, deeply, and creatively. One study concluded that the integration of smartphones into daily life appears to diminish such vital mental skills as “learning, logical reasoning, abstract thought, problem solving, and creativity.”5 Watch for resources coming from the BTTA initiative to help facilitate proper mental digital hygiene. Share these resources widely. Speak often about this issue and model healthy digital usage in your own life.
The Adventist Church has wonderful spiritual/outreach initiatives. What it lacks is not another program; we lack what Jesus had— power from close, daily communion with God in His presence. Here’s how Ellen White describes the benefit of this experience with God: “Communion with God will ennoble the character and the life. Men will take knowledge of us, as of the first disciples, that we have been with Jesus. This will impart to the worker a power that nothing else can give. Of this power he must not allow himself to be deprived. We must live a twofold life—a life of thought and action, of silent prayer and earnest work.”6 Amen.
1 All biblical quotations are from the New King James Version, unless otherwise indicated.
2 Ellen G. White, Signs of the Times, October 13, 1881.
3 “The Global Church Member Survey,” Office of Archives, Statistics, and Research (Silver Spring, MD: General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, 2018), 14.
4 Ellen G. White, Testimonies for the Church (Mountain View, CA: Pacific Press, 1909), 6:47.
5 Nicolas Carr, The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains (New York: W. W. Norton, 2011).
6 Ellen G. White, The Ministry of Healing (Mountain View, CA: Pacific Press, 1905), 511.
Dwain N. Esmond, PhD (Stud.), is an associate director of the Ellen G. White Estate at the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, Silver Spring, MD, USA.
