Run Away Or Run Towards
There has been talk around the water cooler recently about running away from things and how running away can save your life! I’m thinking things running away from the room when dishes are need cleaning, spiders in the house, the dark room into light, from other runners in a race etc. Running away is a normal part of life…..
Right…?
Running away from things can save your life! There are numerous animals on earth that we would lose to 100% of the time in a fight. So running away from those situations are good! Running away from snakes, a savage monkey, foaming by the mouth wolf, a scorpioin, a puffer fish that has puffed its way on shore next to your towel! It’s endless!
Lions. Have you heard the news!? When Lions hunt it’s the male that most animals see and then run away from. But at the same time, the vicious females are hiding and ready to prounce on there next meal the moment that poor antalope turns around to run away! How cool is it that the females do the killing! Learning this and then having conversations about running away has sparked me to turn to the Bible.
My favorite Lion story lasts only a few verses and is found in Judges 14. Sampson’s story is found in verse 5-6…
“Suddenly a young lion came roaring toward him. The spirit of the Lord came upon him in power so that he tore the lion apart with his bare hands as he might have torn a young goat.” (NIV)
What!? Lemme break it down for you…imagine a goat, no a young goat. And tearing it apart in general. Then take the tools away that you used to do it. Things just got a lot harder. With your bare hands tearing apart a goat…..then lets make it a lion! How in the world! But this Lion is attacking you, he wants your life. But Solomon took the lions life. With no earthly weapons rather heavenly weapons that can perform the impossible! This story gets me every time, I can’t imagine being filled with the spirit where I can tear apart a lion as if it were a young goat! Sampson is a boss!!
Lets paint the scene shall we. When you go back and read the whole story of Sampson, he never ran away from anything. There was no need and not a bone in his body desired to. If he would have ran away from the lion, you better believe that females lions would have tore him apart as if he was a young goat. This story is excellent example of what it looks like to run towards rather then running away.
Running away can save your life, but running towards can make your life! God has given us the capabilities to slay the giants and lions of this world just like they did in the Bible!
—Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these— John 14;12
Heavenly weapons in a earthly battle is a recipe for success.
I have been trying to be more like Daniel this month. He is one of my favorite people from the Bible and models what it looks like to run towards things very well. He has his faults like any man but the part that I wanna touch on is when he is fighting Goliath. We all know the story, if we have seen the movie Troy, they portray the one on one battle that this looked similar to. David verse Goliath. There were numerous opportunities for him to run away. When he was told NO he cant fight, his armor not fitting, when his sling shot was his weapon of choice, etc. But look what it says in 1st Samuel Chapter 17 verse 48 —
“David RAN QUICKLY TOWARD the battle line to meet him”
With hast as Gandalf would say! He knew that running away might save his life, but running towards would make is life!
Even when he got to the line, which no other man for forty days had the kahunas to fight Goliath, he was made fun of and ridiculed for the way he showed up to battle. Then all the action happens and he cuts off the head of Goliath. Which they never talk about in Sunday school, conveniently leave that part out I guess.
But this is what running towards something looks like. Running towards your problems and towards solutions that impact more then just yourself but impact the Kingdom of God.
Are you gonna let the lions in your life out roar you?
If Goliath was 20 feet tall, David still would have won. Because it doesn’t matter what the enemy looks like it matters what the victor looks like. Who the victor is and why He wins every fight. And remembering we were made in the victors image and have heavenly weapons that slay a lion as if it were a goat and can take the head off the giants that cross our path!
Run Away Or Run Towards
