God-Ordained Opportunities (Part 2)

“And what more shall I say? I do not have time to tell about Gideon, Barak, Samson and Jephthah, about David and Samuel and the prophets, who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, and gained what was promised; who shut the mouths of lions, quenched the fury of the flames, and escaped the edge of the sword; whose weakness was turned to strength; and who became powerful in battle and routed foreign armies.” Hebrews 11:32-34

God-given opportunities often come disguised as man-eating lions. 2 Samuel 23 shares the story of a valiant warrior named Benaiah who chased a lion into a pit on a snowy day. He could have run in the other direction, but he saw an opportunity and went for it. Your greatest opportunities in life will be the scariest. There will always be a part of you who wants to play it safe. You can decide that you are unwilling to take risks, but then you will never know the successes, victories, and destiny God has for your life. No guts, no glory. It takes courage to chase God-sized dreams.

There are two types of regret. There is the regret of action and the regret of inaction. Most of the time, people regret the opportunities they could have taken advantage of, but were too afraid to pursue. Faith is trusting in God no matter how impossible the odds are. God loves impossible odds. Notice there were 12 baskets of leftovers after feeding the 5,000- one basket for each doubting disciple. (Matthew 14) God likes to challenge us with hard things, so we have to use faith. You can have faith and still be scared. But faith is doing it anyway. 

When God allows you to face odds that are against you, it’s because He wants you to experience a miracle of divine proportion. 

Impossible odds set the stage for amazing miracles.

Our scariest moments make our most extraordinary testimonies. When other grandparents put their grandchildren to bed, they may have talked about how they lived comfortable lives. But when Benaiah put his grandchildren to bed, he was able to impart the spirit of a conqueror who saw amazing things in his lifetime because he dared to “chase lions.” He knew that no adversity meant no opportunity. Benaiah would not have held the high-ranked position of serving one of the greatest kings in history if he just backed away from the lion because it was “too risky.”

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