Recommended Reading

I recently started reading a book by Mark Batterson called, “In A Pit With A Lion On A Snowy Day.” I’m only 36 pages into it, but I’m ALREADY feeling the life-changing power of the author’s words. To give some background, the title and premise of the book are based on II Samuel 23:20-21:

“And Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, the son of a valiant man, of Kabzeel, who had done many acts, he slew two lionlike men of Moab: he went down also and slew a lion in the midst of a pit in time of snow: And he slew an Egyptian, a goodly man: and the Egyptian had a spear in his hand; but he went down to him with a staff, and plucked the spear out of the Egyptian's hand, and slew him with his own spear.”

The New Living Translation of the bold portion states that “on a snowy day, he chased a lion down into a pit and killed it.” Although seemingly hidden in scripture, once brought to my attention by the author, the magnitude of this act amazed me. Cause really, who chases 500lb lions that run up to several miles per hour and kill for their food??? We all know that normal people don’t. Doing something like that takes guts, nerve…any adjective short of insanity. But this guy did it and not because he believed he could, but he believed GOD could.

In our walks with God, He is creating us to be just that…gutsy, fearless, challenge-craving lion chasers. Not because of any ability of our own, but because of His presence on the inside. In reality, we don’t physically find ourselves in a pit with a lion. However, we do find ourselves in seemingly “bad” situations where the odds stacked against us are given more emphasis than God’s ability.

The author made a statement I thought was very profound. He referred to Bible scholar, author and preacher named A.W. Tozer, who said that the most important thing about a person is what comes to mind when they think about God. Furthermore, the complete answer to that question could predict, with certainty, the spiritual future of that man.

The truth is, “God loves impossible odds.” He likes going to bat for us in seemingly impossible situations because that’s when His glory shines the brightest. Your faith determines if you’re a “lion chaser,” choosing to make God inside of you bigger than your biggest problem.
But it all starts with an adequate perception of God…so what is yours??