Jentezen Franklin Daily Devotional (December 18, 2024) Chase The Roar!
“Consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow, the Lord will do amazing things among you.” Joshua 3:5
In 2 Samuel 23:20, there is an extraordinary story. The passage says, “One snowy day, a man named Benaiah chased a lion.” Normal people don’t chase lions. Lions chase normal people. But God wants you to have a bold and courageous mentality that will allow you to chase after what has intimidated you in the past. If your dream doesn’t scare you, it’s too little. And the next verse says, “God gave him a great victory.”
God has not called you to be a scaredy cat. He has called you to be a lion chaser. When your life is over, God is not going to say to you, “Well, SAID my good and faithful servant. You thought great thoughts and wrote out a great life plan.” He is looking for people to whom He can say, “Well DONE, my good and faithful servant.” Faithfulness is not just holding down the fort and maintaining the status quo. God has called us to play offense with our lives.
A famous screenwriter from NYC held a seminar for up-and-coming writers. Aspiring writers paid thousands to sit under his teaching, and the biggest takeaway from his seminar was, “If you are going to be a great storyteller, know this: no conflict, no story.” Out of great challenges come great victories. For Davi,d it was picking a fight with a giant. For Elijah, it was facing off with 450 false prophets. For Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, it was being thrown into a fiery furnace.
You may have experienced a challenging season, but you can’t let hardships intimidate you into giving up. God is in the business of helping us overcome our fears. Don’t wait until everything is perfect to try something hard. Most first-time parents weren’t ready to have a baby, but they learned as they went. Faith means you take the first step before God shows you the second.
Psalms 91:13 says, “You will trample the lion.” Run to the roar today! With God, you can do more than you ever imagined.
