*There was also Benaiah son of Jedhoiada, a valiant warrior
from Kabzeel. He did many heroic deeds,
which included killing two of Moab’s mightiest warriors. Another time he chased a lion down into a
pit. Then, despite the snow and slippery
ground, he caught the lion and killed it.
Another time, armed only with a club, he killed a great Egyptian warrior
who was armed with a spear. Benaiah
wrenched the spear from the Egyptian’s hand and killed him with it.*
What sticks out to you in those verses?
Then, despite the snow and slippery ground, he caught the lion and
killed it.* seems like a pretty
crazy, significant thing to do in ones life.
Sometimes when we read stories from the bible, it’s easy to
think about them in a fictional way because we know the ending or because they
took place so long ago it’s easy to put them in a fairytale context.
If I was walking around the plains of Africa and saw a lion
(which I’m still hoping for 🙂 ),
I would probably either faint, run the other direction or freeze. Benaiah, on the other hand, chased that lion
down- into a snowy pit none the less- and killed him!
Sometimes it’s easy to think that God puts us in challenging
situations to make life more difficult for us, maybe that we did something
wrong that He’s getting us back for, or to test us to see if we’ll be able to handle it. I believe God puts us in challenging
situations to help us grow into the people He’s intended us to be, to help us
prepare for bigger things and to make our life into the adventure that it was
created to be.
Challenges can be thought of as God ordained
opportunities. God doesn’t want us to
just barely make it through, He wants us to completely and utterly depend on
Him for our strength, courage, boldness, wisdom and discernment so that He can
carry us through and receive all the glory for it.
we’re in the wrong place at the wrong time.
However, it’s through these challenges that we learn more about ourselves, gain confidence
in what God’s capable of and allow ourselves to take God out of the box we’ve
put Him in. The more we depend on God,
the more joy we’re able to have in life because we’re relying on God instead of ourselves. We also have the opportunity to grow our faith in these times. It’s easy to praise God and be thankful when everything’s going smooth, but will you still praise Him and be thankful when going through the hardest times of your life??
Going back to the original story, the odds were against
Benaiah –
·
He chased the lion while not knowing the outcome. He didn’t think up a bunch of excuses to hold
him back.
He didn’t focus on disadvantages.
He didn’t focus on disadvantages. To sum it up, he TRUSTED IN GOD.
God loves impossible odds.
Throughout most stories in the
bible, God doesn’t intervene until things were seen as humanly impossible.
God loves when we’re up against the odds because we FINALLY give Him the control. How silly is it that we know God created the heavens and the earth and everything it with everything perfectly balancing out in every way imaginable – yet, we have a hard time giving him control of the problems we run into. I’m preeetty sure He can handle those a lot better than we could ever do it.
*Benaiah fought and killed two Moab’s warriors which led him
to chase down the lion and kill him which prepared him to fight the Egyptian
warrior which prepared him to be King David’s body guard.
If he didn’t take advantage of each challenge he faced, and
look at it as an opportunity for growth, he would have missed out on a
lot. Ultimately, he could have missed out on achieving the purpose and living out the adventure that the
Lord had set out for his life.
I think it’s pretty safe to say that we would prefer life to
be easy. We want God to reduce the lions
we face so we could go about our business, but God wants more for us. He
wants greatness for us. He wants our lives to be an adventure. He wants our faith to be in HIM when the odds
are against us. *Read the story of Gideon’s army in Judges 6 for more on this.
Impossible situations
offer opportunities to experience more of God.
Through that we come to the realization that it’s nothing
out of our own strength or wisdom that’s going to carry us through. Also, knowing that we’re weak and He is
strong, we’re allowing Him to move in us in bigger ways than we could ever do
on our own. By relying on our own
strength, or perceived strength, we’re not only not giving Him glory but we’re robbing ourselves of walking into
the person He’s created us to be.
God, the more opportunity we have for growth, the more we understand the Lord’s
character, the smaller our lions become and the more we desire the chase.
Nothing is impossible with God. He provides freedom from fear (which seems to
be at the root of nearly all of the challenges we face)- so continue seeking Him
out in that. He is our greatest
strength.
*To be certain of God
means that we are uncertain in all our ways; we do not know what a day may
bring forth. This is generally said with
a sigh of sadness; it should rather be an expression of breathless expectation*
– Oswald Chambers
We don’t know what’s up ahead and that’s an exciting place
to be.
Embrace it.
Trust in
God.
