B90X wk 5: in a pit?

Text covered: 1 Chronicles, 2 Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah 13:14

Memory verse: 1 Chronicles 16:34: ‘Give thanks to the Lord, for he is Good; his love endures forever.’

1 Chronicles 29:10-14, 17: I know, my God, that you test the heart and are pleased with integrity. All things have I given willingly and with honest intent. and now I have seen with joy how willingly your people who are here have given to you.'

Reading Status: ‘Red’ for almost caught up!

A few weeks ago, a friend of mine game me 5 pod casts to listen to while driving back and forth from work and church. I guess the Lord prompted her to give them to me as I really needed to hear them. The pod-casts are a sermon series by Mark Batterson of National Community Church in Washington, D.C. In the first podcast, titled Defying Odds: Chase the Lion, Mark uses many references to Benaiah, the man in charge of King David’s bodyguard.

In all of my years of church sermons and Bible study I have never heard of this man or his credentials. But he seemed intriguing. Then, as I got to King David’s story in 2 Samuel, lo and behold, there was Benaiah and his resume: ‘He also went down in a pit on a snowy day and killed a lion.’ (2 Samuel 23:20)

Benaiah is listed many other places throughout the Books of History in the Old Testament and described as ‘the son of Jehoiada’ but twice he called out as the man who went down in a pit with a lion on a snowy day.

Have you ever been in a pit? With a lion? While snowing??? A quote from the sermon still sticks out to me:

‘No one asks to be put in a pit with a lion on a snowy day, but it is these experiences that make life worth living.’
Mark Batterson

Think about that; what does it say to you? I realized that I am in a similar type of pit; if job seeking in our unstable economy had a face, paws and roar, I bet they would look and sound similar to that of a lion.

I know I’ve said it before but I will say it again--I know and believe that God has something out there for me, but to get there I must be patient, face the lion and persevere.

What is your lion? How is the weather in your pit? I’m pretty certain that no one reading this can say that their pit is not a pit at all but a beach in sunny California with a sunny and cloudless forecast. If that is you, I promise that the storms will be rolling in before too long. Just remember, we are brought through pits, stormy weather and ugly, giant encounters to build our own strength, character and integrity.

As it turns out, Mark Batterson wrote a book titled In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day: How to Survive and Thrive When Opportunity Roars. I have not read it yet but cannot wait to tackle it. I will let you know how it is; or, better yet, go read it yourself!

In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day, Mark Batterson