01 Sep Are You Ready to Chase a Lion?

2 Samuel 23:20-21 tells about an obscure man in the big picture of the scripture. But his peers woudn’t have considered him obscure. He was the kind of guy you would have looked at and wondered, “What is he thinking?” If you were going into battle, you would be very glad to be on his side. His name was Benaiah.

Mark Batterson, pastor of National City Church in Washington, D.C., wrote a book entitled “In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day.” Benaiah chased a lion into a pit on a snowy day, and then went into the pit and killed the lion.

I simply shake my head in amazement until I begin to apply this story.

I encourage you to consider the Christ who lives in you. “God did not give us the spirit of timidity but the spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline” (2 Timothy 1:7). He wants us to walk with courage and stand for what is right.

This is not a call to the church to simply get on our soapbox about the political issues that we care about, but rather to understand that many people around us need to see Christ’s love lived out in extreme ways. Do the people we rub shoulders with see that we love Christ and each other? They should.

My prayer is that God will fan into flames a burning desire in me to reach others for Him. Lord, let it spread through out your church. Is there anybody out there that is ready to chase a lion?