Many believers get sidetracked and begin to live a life that does not honor God or the calling upon their lives. In these detours from a life of faith, the choices they made are never powerful enough to permanently erase the anointing on their lives if they become repentant. Paul wrote, “For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable” (11:29). In the process of their disobedience they may pick up wounds and lose a good reputation, but their gifts and callings are always present and ready to be reactivated.

Most of us are familiar with the life of Samson. We know about his unfaithful wife and his lusty lifestyle. Samson’s choices are considered a bit too rough in some religious circles to assign to him the label of a man of God, but those are the very people God chooses to work through. Samson’s long hair was the sign of his anointing. When he allowed his wife to dupe him and cut his hair, his life fell apart. He was made a court jester as he stumbled around with his eyes gouged out among his Philistine captors.

The writer Hebrews was not so reserved about Samson. He listed him in the hall of faith. “How much more do I need to say? It would take too long to recount the stories of the faith of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel, and all the prophets” (Hebrews 13:22). 

After Samson’s hair grew back so did the anointing upon his life. Samson prayed for the Lord to extend mercy to him one more time to finish his life in an act of obedience. “Sovereign Lord, remember me again. O God, please strengthen me just one more time” (Judges 16:28). God answered Samson’s prayer. Samson finished his life obedient to the gifts and calling God originally placed upon him.

In his final act of life, Samson asked to be positioned between two pillars in the large assembly room where his Philistine tormentors had gathered and celebrated. When Samson pressed against the pillars, the building collapsed killing all the Philistines. Samson also perished. As a final note on Samson’s life, “He killed more people when he died than he had during his entire lifetime” (Judges 16:30).

The life we live is filled with personal failures, some more visible than others. God is never done with us at the point of a single failure or after living a life of repeated failures. His mercy is always ready to meet a repentant heart. Be careful to not reject a failed believer. In the past, some of these individuals have been listed in Scripture as examples of how to live this life after we experience our worst failures. What sets these people apart is a willingness to repent and once again engage the calling upon their lives. Those moments of re-engagement can produce results not seen after living an entire life of obedience. That is how God’s mercy works.