Starting Right
Starting Right is a 5 minute Day Starter to help keep you motivated, encouraged, and focused throughout your day. DannyMac is a pastor, teacher, motivational speaker, husband, and father. His years of leading and training people have given him vast experience in helping individuals to accomplish change in their lives and meet their goals. He can help you set the course for your day by offering practical advice from God's Word in a positive and fun way. There is no better way to begin your day than by Starting Right with DannyMac.
Starting Right
Chase the Lion
What would drive someone to chase a lion into a pit on a snowy day? Courage, desperation, or divine purpose? In this episode of Starting Right, we explore the fascinating biblical account of Benaiah, a valiant warrior who did exactly that—and how his story challenges our approach to risk, fear, and opportunity.
Today's episode highlights numerous biblical risk-takers who changed history by stepping out in faith. We share the compelling "Lion Chaser's Manifesto" that challenges listeners to "quit living as if the purpose of life is to arrive safely at death" and instead pursue God-given passions with boldness.
God has placed abilities and plans inside you beyond your wildest imagination. Don't let fear keep you from discovering them. Remember, if the best results were always found on the easiest paths, everyone would achieve greatness.
Good morning and welcome to Starting Right. I am Danny Mac and I'm going to be here every Monday to Friday to help you get a great start to your day. So grab your cup of coffee, sit back and relax for the next five minutes as I help you start your day by starting right. Mark Batterson is the senior pastor of National Community Church in Washington DC. He has recently written a book called Chase the Lion, in which he challenges Christians to get over the fear of failure and to take steps of faith to accomplish some great things for God's kingdom and for God's purposes. The scripture verse he uses as a basis for this comes from the book of 2 Samuel, chapter 23 and verse 20. This portion of scripture is talking about David's army, his mighty men that are in this battle with King Saul. It says there was also Benaiah, son of Jehoiada, a valiant warrior from Kebzil. He did many heroic deeds, which included killing two champions of Moab. Another time, on a snowy day, he chased a lion down into a pit and killed it. You have to picture this whole scene that it's talking about here. The snow is falling, it's cold, it's miserable. Benaiah and this lion cross each other's path and Benaiah gives chase to the lion. The lion doesn't chase him, he's chasing it and somehow the lion falls into a pit and Benaiah goes in there after it and kills the lion. That could have weighed as much as 500 pounds. He should not have been able to do that, but he did. That took a lot of guts, that took a lot of courage to say I'm going to go in there and I'm going to defeat this thing. There are some scholars who believe that the lion had been a problem. It had been killing people, it had been raiding some of their camps. It had been doing things. Benaiah was wanting to get rid of it and when he did, he became a local hero, which gave to him a special place in David's army.
Speaker 1:In all of our lives there's a time where we get to a place that's really scary for us. We don't know what the answers are, we don't know what to do, we don't know how to move forward, but it's really a fork in the road. If we go one way, it's safe, it's easy and will be okay. If they go the other way, there may be a risk involved, but the rewards could be really great. Really great for your testimony, really great for your ability to share what God is doing in your life. But it's risky. It's a risky way to go. What I do know is that we will never accomplish anything great if we don't take a risk. If the best results were always the easiest results, everybody would have the best results, but we don't.
Speaker 1:Often our lives require that we take risks, that we step out, do something that may not make a lot of sense, but in the end it produces something special, often something incredible. Christians are often nervous about this risk and reward concept, but the Bible is full of them. In the Old Testament it's Abraham putting Isaac on the altar. It's Moses saying to Pharaoh let my people go. It's Rahab harboring the Jewish spies. It's David taking off Saul's armor. It's Esther walking into the king's court uninvited. And in the New Testament it's the wise men following the star. It's Andrew dropping his fishing nets. It's Zacchaeus climbing the sycamore tree. It's Peter getting out of the boat. God rewarded them and through their obedience to his plan and his purpose for their lives, they literally changed the world simply because they were willing to take a risk.
Speaker 1:Mark Batterson in the book gives us this what he calls the lion chaser's manifesto. It goes like this Quit living as if the purpose of life is to arrive safely at death. Run to the roar. Set God-sized goals, pursue God-given passions. Go after a dream that is destined to fail without divine intervention. Stop pointing out problems. Become part of the solution. Stop repeating the past and start creating the future. Face your fears, fight for your dreams, grab opportunity by the mane and don't let go. Live like today is the first day and the last day of your life. Burn sinful bridges. Blaze new trails. Don't let go. Live like today is the first day and the last day of your life. Burn sinful bridges. Blaze new trails. Live for the applause of nail-scarred hands. Don't let what's wrong with you keep you from worshiping what's right with God. Dare to fail, dare to be different. Quit holding out, quit holding back and quit running away. Chase the lion.
Speaker 1:I encourage all of you to look at the dreams and the plans that God has placed into your heart and your life, the opportunities that are before you. Don't disregard an opportunity or plan simply because it might look hard and scary Sometimes. That's the way to the biggest reward for you and for his kingdom. God's placed abilities and plans beyond your wildest dreams inside of you. Never, never, let yourself think that you aren't worthy to accomplish something. Great for God, he does have a plan for you. Have a great day, my friends, and we'll talk. Thank you for listening today and I invite you to join me Monday to Friday, right here on, starting Right with Danny Mac.
