Compulsions

I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do–this I keep on doing. Romans 7:15-19

A couple days ago I found myself thinking about why people (including myself) do the things we sometimes do. We "know better" usually, but sometimes we do the very things we ought not to, succumbing to compulsions, impulses, trading a better, more excellent way for immediate gratification.

A certain man of Zorah, named Manoah, from the clan of the Danites, had a wife who was sterile and remained childless. The angel of the LORD appeared to her and said, “You are sterile and childless, but you are going to conceive and have a son. Now see to it that you drink no wine or other fermented drink and that you do not eat anything unclean, because you will conceive and give birth to a son. No razor may be used on his head, because the boy is to be a Nazirite, set apart to God from birth, and he will begin the deliverance of Israel from the hands of the Philistines.”
Judges 13:2-5
Then Manoah prayed to the LORD: “O Lord, I beg you, let the man of God you sent to us come again to teach us how to bring up the boy who is to be born.”
Judges 13:8
Samson went down to Timnah and saw there a young Philistine woman. When he returned, he said to his father and mother, “I have seen a Philistine woman in Timnah; now get her for me as my wife.” His father and mother replied, “Isn't there an acceptable woman among your relatives or among all our people? Must you go to the uncircumcised Philistines to get a wife?”
But Samson said to his father, “Get her for me. She's the right one for me.”
Judges 14:1-3

Samson was a son of promise, an angel with a name beyond human understanding announced his arrival. Through him the people of Israel would begin to be delivered from the oppression of their arch-enemies, the inhabitants of Gaza, the Philistines.
His parents were so impacted by that angelic encounter and the subsequent meeting when the angel returned that they wanted the angel to give them the "owner's manual" on raising this Nazirite boy.
They did the best they could, but this boy/man grew up spoiled, impetuous, lacked self control, trusted his own strength, (which wasn't his at all, but God-given for a specific purpose), lusty, and compulsive, given over to knee-jerk reactions, generally caused by another reaction to yet another compulsive act of his own doing!
Because he gave into immediate gratification (eating honey from dead lion carcass, repeated involvement with foreign women, giving away the secrets of his strength)... He traded the delayed promises of God and as a result it cost him his freedom. His enslavement to his fleshly nature had already enslaved him, all his enemies had to do was shackle him, and it was game over, or was it?
In spite of these flaws, Samson had ruled as a judge in Israel for 20 years, and he was somewhat redeemed, though it cost him his life, three thousand of his enemies were crushed (literally) as Samson prayed and was strengthened one last time, his last performance for his captors "bringing down the house".
Beloved, submit yourself to His will, rather than our own.
Tread lightly down the narrow path, and prayerfully.