I start a series today on Pursuit!! I reckon one of the goals I have every year is to remind the fellowship that thanksgiving is not a holiday…it is an attitude. It is something we need to be passionate about pursuing. This first message is about Chasing Lions. I admit that it is a take-off from Mark Batterson’s book In the Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day. I even stole borrowed some of his thoughts. Here is what I am going to be focusing on this morning as we look at Benaiah and 2 Samuel 23:2-23:
God is in the business of strategically positioning us in the right place at the right time. In God’s economy no Christ-follower is ever put in a place by accident or luck (I despise that word). Sometimes God will ask us to step out in faith and take on tasks that are beyond our ability.
God-given opportunities are all around us. See them not as obstacles but as opportunities for greater challenges. There is a saying in sports: “No guts, not glory.” To be a successful athlete that athlete must be willing to pay the price. It is high time for Christ-followers to be proactive instead of reactive. It is high time for us to be known for what we are for rather than known as complainers and what we are against.
Sometimes God won’t intervene until something is humanly impossible. In Benaiah’s case chasing a lion is unheard of. We need to be known for taking risks, for stepping out in faith. But when we do God wants and deserves full credit for His work in our life.
You cannot rest on the past if you plan to make a difference in the future. God has a plan for His church and it is not to sit on our…past…and stare inward at each other’s navels. He wants to do incredible things through us if we would only allow Him.
The ultimate question every Christ-follower must face is this one: how big is your God? And so I ask you…how big is your God? Let me know what you are thinking.
The small group I lead in my home is reading in a pit with a lion on a snowy day. The topic of how big God is was all through chapter two and created much discussion and debate.
We too often live with a small g god and not a big G God.
Hy Jim! Thanks for stopping by. Sounds like an interesting discussion. Hope it leads to some “big faith.”
Bill…God gets bigger for me every day…I think He used to be far bigger when I was a child…then, as an adult, I’ve put him into compartments that limited Him. But, the more I get to know Him, the less I can do that…
Hi Bill,
I’d change the last sentence of the first thought to read “Often God will ask us to step out in faith and take on tasks that are beyond our ability.”
Otherwise they are just man-sized tasks and we don’t need God to accomplish them. But the God-sized ones, only He can accomplish them through us when we’re fully trusting in Him.
Steve: Glad to hear God is getting bigger for you. May He expand hugely for you.
Will: good point well taken. Thanks for the good words.