In a pit - underlined.

As promised, underlined passages from In A Pit With A Lion On A Snowy Day by Mark Batterson.



"God wants you to get where God wants you to go more than you want to get where God wants you to go."

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"God is great not just because nothing is too big for Him. God is great because nothing is too small for Him either."
(Said in reference to the miracle of Elisha praying over the lost ax head and it floating to the surface of the water. 2 Kings 6)

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"The cure for the fear of rejection is not acceptance. It's rejection. You've got to be exposed to small quantities of whatever you're afraid of. That's how you build up immunity."

It's an embarrassing story to tell, but in foster parent training we were required to write down two of our greatest fears. It was only then that she announced that we had to pass our paper to someone else, who would then give us two more fears -more than likely their fears - then the instructor had each of us add "rejection" to the other persons list of fears as that would be a learned fear that foster children would quickly develop. A fear of rejection. The guy that was adding fears to my paper, quickly looked up and said "What if they've already listed rejection?" I remember, vividly, the teacher stopping and looking at me. And I thought "I'm going to fail out of foster parenting class."
I see more clearly now that some of the trouble from this past month was caused by feeling rejected by God. He's the only one I had come not to fear it from. It's one of the reasons I underlined this passage, and the very next one.

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"So what are you afraid of? What allergens trigger a fear reaction? Those are the very things you need to expose yourself to."

(In a previous paragraph he had used the example of going to his doctor who attempted to cure his allergies by exposing him to them in light doses so they could determine the root of the allergy. Solving the root of the problem would then cure the allergy.)

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"I bet David specifically prayed that God would protect his flock by keeping lions and bears away. Makes sense, doesn't it? But David's prayers went unanswered. On numerous occasions, lions and bears attacked David's flock. I wonder if David ever questioned God: Why doesn't God answer my prayers for safety? The answer dawns on David as he's getting ready to face Goliath."

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"Maybe prayer is less about changing our circumstances than it is changing our perspective."


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"When I get into a spiritual or emotional slump, it's usually because I've zoomed in on a problem. I'm fixating on something I don't like about myself or someone else or my circumstances. And nine times out of ten, the solution is zooming out so I can get some perspective.
So how do we zoom out? The one-word answer is worship."

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"Reframing problems is about shifting focus. You stop focusing on what's wrong with your circumstances. And you start focusing on what's right with God."

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"Complainers will always find something to complain about. Worshipers will always find something to praise God about."

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"To be certain of God means that we are uncertain in all our ways; we do not know what a day may bring forth. This is generally said with a sigh of sadness; it should rather be an expression of breathless expectation." - Quote by Oswald Chambers in chapter 5, "Guaranteed Uncertainty."

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(Maybe you've heard this story before? Mark tells this story of Corrie ten Boom)

"Corrie used to speak to audiences about her horrific experiences in the concentration camps, and she would often look down while she talked. She wasn't reading her notes. She was actually working on a piece of needlepoint. After sharing about the doubt and anger and pain she experienced, Corrie would reveal the needlepoint. She would hold up the backside of the needlepoint to reveal a jumble of colors and threads with no discernible pattern. And she'd say, "This is how we see our lives." Then she would turn the needlepoint over to reveal the design on the other side, and Corrie would conclude by saying: "This is how God views your life, and someday we will have the privilege of viewing it from His point of view.""

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"Good is often the enemy of great."

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"Too many of us are tentatively playing the game of life as if the purpose of life is to arrive safely at death."

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"Work like it depends on you, and pray like it depends on God."

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Thus ends the book. Next I'm starting "Wisdom Hunter" by Arthur Randall .

I'm starting this new book simply because someone told me to read it, and I began "In a pit" because Louie over at Marshian Chronicles recommended it. And since I love to read and don't get enough nearly enough referrals, do you have any book recommendations?