In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day: How to Survive and Thrive When Opportunity Roars

by Mark Batterson

When I’m not in prayer mode, I have good ideas. But when I’m in prayer mode I have God ideas. And I’d rather have one God idea than a thousand good ideas.

Seizing an opportunity usually feels like swallowing a whale or chasing a lion. But at the end of our lives, we won’t regret the mistakes we made nearly as much as the opportunities we missed. It will be the “what if” questions that haunt us. What if Howard Schultz hadn’t swallowed the whale?

you work like it depends on you and pray like it depends on God,

you. CHAPTER 7 REVIEW Points to Remember • Our destiny is determined by whether or not we seize the God-ordained opportunities presented to us.

Lion chasers don’t let what they can’t do keep them from doing what they can. • If you want to see and seize God-ordained opportunities, you’ve got to live in prayer mode. • If you wait for perfect conditions to seize an opportunity, you’ll be waiting till the day you die. • You don’t have to get it right the first time, but you do have to start somewhere. A dream becomes reality one opportunity at a time.

“God deliberately chose things the world considers foolish in order to shame those who think they are wise.”

If anyplace ought to celebrate diversity it ought to be the church.

tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”

The kingdom of God is child-centric.

Spiritual maturity is becoming more like Christ and more like a little child.

We internalize limits. We grow up and grow old. What is worse, we become small people with a small God. I think part of Neos is regaining the limitlessness of youth. Regaining the idea that we have been created by a limitless God to have limitless dreams and imaginations.

Remember this: we serve an unlimited God with unlimited resources. A God who looked at a few loaves and fishes and saw a banquet for five thousand people.

Part of taking God more seriously is taking yourself less seriously. The holiest and healthiest people in the world are those who laugh at themselves the most. And I’m guessing David and his men laughed for years about this flash dance.

It’s not about what we can do for God. It’s about what God has done for us.

And that understanding produces the greatest freedom in the world: having nothing to prove. Instead of trying to prove himself as the king of Israel, David was consumed with worshiping the King of kings.

The word enthusiasm comes from two Greek words, en and Theos, which together mean in God. The more we get into God, the more passionate we become.

Self-consciousness isn’t just a curse. It’s part of The Curse. • Part of spiritual maturity is caring less and less about what people think of you and more and more about what God thinks of you. • Christ followers ought to be the most passionate people on the planet. To be like Jesus is to be consumed with passion. Starting Your Chase Mark says that lion chasers “live life to the fullest because they are willing to look foolish.” Do you feel like you’re missing out on blessings because you’re too afraid of looking like a fool? Try doing one important “foolish” thing for God today and see if the

You have to face your fears, or they’ll hold you back forever.

And remember, you must take risks. That is the essence of faith. Then you’re ready to seize the opportunity.

And finally, you have to accept that you’re going to look foolish sometimes. Chasing a lion usually looks pretty crazy to everyone else. But following Christ is doing the will of God no matter how foolish you might look in the process.

each small step will be a giant leap.

believe that God created us to chase lions, but too often that chase ends in miscarriage or misdirection. We stop chasing. Or we chase the wrong things that lead us down the wrong path.

God-ordained dreams are orthodox seeds. They have the ability to survive any and every circumstance, and they stand the test of time. Even when you die, your dreams do not. Long after you are gone, your dreams have the potential to impact nations and generations. You may think I’m overstating the power of a single seed, but maybe you’re underestimating the God who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine!

It gives you wisdom beyond knowledge, power beyond strength, and gifting beyond ability.

The Holy Spirit doesn’t make you better than anybody else. He makes you better than yourself! He helps you become the best version of you!

Faith isn’t linear; faith is exponential!

If you want God to do something new, you can’t keep doing the same old thing.

God has a new anointing for you. And by new I don’t mean just a fresh anointing day after day. I mean different. He wants to anoint you in a way He never has before. But you have to dare to be different. You have to choose to step into your anointing.

Big dreams are the by-product of a big God, and they make big people in the process. The goal isn’t accomplishing the dream God has given you. It’s who you become in the process.