Living Among Lions: How to Thrive like Daniel in Today's Babylon by David Benham & Jason Benham

Author:David Benham & Jason Benham [Benham, David]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: Thomas Nelson
Published: 2016-06-27T16:00:00+00:00

As he studied Scripture, Daniel fully understood that the Jews were to stay put right where God had placed them and that His Word clearly contradicted anyone trying to convince them otherwise. With this understanding of Scripture, Daniel didn’t just survive—he thrived. He was able to navigate through the clouds as God’s man in Babylon.

PASSION FOR THE PAGES

Dad told us when we were kids that if we read the Bible just five minutes every day, we’d still have twenty-three hours and fifty-five minutes left to do whatever we needed to do. He said that eventually our hearts and minds would transform to be like Christ’s—if only we would commit to consistent time in His Word.

By the time we graduated from high school, five minutes was no longer enough time. We craved much more of God’s Word. This commitment was the single best decision we ever made as Christians to transform our lives.

In the same way that people don’t find precious jewels just sitting on the surface of the ground, we had to dig deep in the Word and spend time alone chiseling away before valuable nuggets of truth emerged. And once we started discovering, we couldn’t stop digging. The more we read and meditated on His Word, the more we realized why Dad had spent so much time reading his Bible. Every morning, we’d see him either praying on his knees by the couch or sitting on his kitchen stool reading his Bible. So we began forming the habit of doing the same things each morning, not because we had a natural desire to wake up early, but because we knew this was best for us as disciples.

Commit to consistent time in God’s Word, and the motivation will follow. In time your heart will catch up with your habit.

God taught us that action often precedes motivation. We had to force ourselves to get out of bed, and eventually the motivation followed. The conviction was already there, but we needed the raw commitment to put it into action. Then, over time, our hearts caught up with our habit. We began to experience motivation to wake up and spend time with God in His Word. And the more time we spent with Him, the more we wanted to spend with Him. By the time our motivation finally kicked into gear, the habit had already been formed. Boom! More transformation.

We often tell kids, “Don’t wait until you want to spend time with God. Just do it, and keep doing it until you want to do it—then you won’t be able to live without your time in His Word.”

SHOOTING DOWN THE LIES

Have you ever noticed of all the armor of God in Ephesians 6, the “sword of the Spirit,” which is the Word of God, is the only offensive weapon? Here’s the context:

Therefore, put on every piece of God's armor so you will be able to resist the enemy in the time of evil. Then after the battle you will still be standing firm. Stand your ground, putting on the belt of truth and the body armor of God’s righteousness.

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