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Bible Studies
RISK : Framed or Reframed?
By Rev. Jeff Dixon
Sep 10, 2007, 07:36

Framed or Reframed?

RISK: Reframing Your Problems

1 Samuel 17:32-37

Now remember where our entire series on RISK began

Rewind and Reconnect with 2 Samuel 23:20-21

Benaiah son of Jehoiada was a valiant fighter from Kabzeel, who performed great exploits. He struck down two of Moab's best men. He also went down into a pit on a snowy day and killed a lion. And he struck down a huge Egyptian. Although the Egyptian had a spear in his hand, Benaiah went against him with a club. He snatched the spear from the Egyptian's hand and killed him with his own spear.

Such were the exploits of Benaiah son of Jehoiada; he too was as famous as the three mighty men. He was held in greater honor than any of the Thirty, but he was not included among the Three. And David put him in charge of his bodyguard.

For most of us landing in a pit with a lion on a snowy day would qualify as bad luck!

But here is something that is important for you to see….

It is adversity that gives Benaiah an opportunity to distinguish himself as a warrior.

If there is no adversity there is no opportunity

Without these extremely adverse conditions, Benaiah fades from the print of Scripture and we know nothing about him

Adversity is often the seedbed of opportunity

Bad circumstances can bring out the best and worst in us

Wild lions make valiant warriors

Rough seas make great sailors

Adversity is often a blessing in disguise

We dream of zero gravity

We imagine or hope for a life that is free of problems, issues, or challenges.

From a biological perspective, zero gravity is hazardous to your health!

Astronauts who spend any length of time in zero gravity experience serious medical complications. Without any resistance they lose muscle mass and bone density, the experience high pulse rates and heart palpitations, and they can barely walk when the reenter the earth’s atmosphere

We dream of zero gravity but what we need is a healthy dose of adversity

We need a few Moabites to fight

We need a few lions to chase

I am sure that Benaiah had scars all over his body

He was probably in the hospital as much as Evel Knievel

But each challenge he faced increased his capacity and fueled his confidence

Each battle prepared him for the next one, and there was another one coming

The total of his experience served him well and equipped him to be the commander of Israel’s army….

We have looked at…

Defying the odds

Now….we look at the next item on our list of "must understand" for RISK Takers....

Reframing problems

After than we will explore these items....

Embracing uncertainty

Seizing our opportunities

Facing our fears

If you were to take an honest assessment of your lives….

Specifically your prayer life (go back and read your prayer journal)

I think we might be amazed at the percentage of our prayers aimed at PROBLEM REDUCTION

Most of us pray that God would keep us out of pits with lions on snowy days

We ask God to steer us clear of large Egyptian warriors

We pray that if we meet any Moabites that the odds would be stacked in our favor

BUT if these problems and situations are really just God given opportunities in disguise our prayers are totally misdirected!

Part of me wonders if David felt a special connection to Benaiah.

David was once a bodyguard like Benaiah, both were a part of the exclusive lion chaser club.

Like trench soldiers whose lives are bonded together in shared experiences, there was a unique bond between David and Benaiah.

They were kindred spirits

And just like Benaiah, it was a lion encounter among other things that prepared David for his big break….

We read this in January as part of our LOST series, now we return there again….

1 Samuel 17:32-37

32 David said to Saul, "Let no one lose heart on account of this Philistine; your servant will go and fight him."

33 Saul replied, "You are not able to go out against this Philistine and fight him; you are only a boy, and he has been a fighting man from his youth."

34 But David said to Saul, "Your servant has been keeping his father's sheep. When a lion or a bear came and carried off a sheep from the flock,

35 I went after it, struck it and rescued the sheep from its mouth. When it turned on me, I seized it by its hair, struck it and killed it.

36 Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear; this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, because he has defied the armies of the living God.

37 The LORD who delivered me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine."

Saul said to David, "Go, and the LORD be with you."

Reframing Feelings

Feeling Forgotten Doesn’t Mean You Are

(32-34a) David said to Saul, "Let no one lose heart on account of this Philistine; your servant will go and fight him."

Saul replied, "You are not able to go out against this Philistine and fight him; you are only a boy, and he has been a fighting man from his youth."

But David said to Saul, "Your servant has been keeping his father's sheep.

Long before becoming king David was a simple shepherd boy

While his brothers were on the frontlines fighting he was tending sheep

There may have been moments that he felt like he had been put out to pasture, maybe some moments where he felt like he had been forgotten, maybe some moments where he felt like everyone else had a life but him….

Hold on…have you ever felt that way?

In the Christian life, nothing, nothing at all, can be purchased at the do-it-yourself shop.

Still, what we discover is that the experience of David as a shepherd had given him some uncanny abilities and skills that would catapult him into the national spotlight

Do you see what is happening in the passage?

Reframing Moments
Connecting the Dots is Important

(34b-36) When a lion or a bear came and carried off a sheep from the flock, I went after it, struck it and rescued the sheep from its mouth. When it turned on me, I seized it by its hair, struck it and killed it. Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear;

David is connecting the dots between his past problems and his present opportunity

David had a job, he was a shepherd

He knew how to do it…he did a great job

He would play music, count sheep, probably talk to the puff balls, and maybe even pray about the situation

Farmers pray for their crops

Would it be unheard of for a shepherd to pray for his sheep?

Of course not, we actually have a strong indicator that this would be normal…Jesus is the good shepherd and we know that he intercedes for us, His sheep…so why would we think that it would not happen?

It would

David would have prayed that his flock be safe

That God would protect them from predators

It makes sense….

But it would seem that David’s prayers went unanswered

Lions and bears attacked David’s flock

I wonder if he ever wondered, Why doesn’t God answer my prayers?

Then the answer dawns on David as he gets ready to face Goliath

David connects the dots

He puts two and two together

He sees his unanswered prayers or unexpected encounters as his preparation for the opportunity of a lifetime!

Every time a lion or bear attacked had gotten David ready for this moment

They were preseason games that got him ready for the sudden death playoff with the Giants, led by Goliath

This may sound weird:

It is our past problems that prepare us for future opportunities

So someday we may be as grateful for the bad things as the good things because the bad things helped to make us ready for the good things!

In his book Hidden in Plain Sight: The Secret of More, author and pastor Mark Buchanan illustrates God's love through the story of Tracy. He writes:

Tracy is one of the worship leaders at our church. One Sunday, as she sat at the piano, she talked about the difficult week she'd just been through. It was chaotic, she said—a mess of petty crises on top of a rash of minor accidents, all mixed up in a soup can of crazy busyness. It had left her weary and cranky. She got up that Sunday to lead worship and felt spent, with nothing more to give.

However, Tracy's 8-year-old daughter, Brenna, helped her gain new perspective earlier that morning. When Tracy had walked into the living room, the window was covered with scrawl. Using a crayon, Brenna had scribbled something across the picture window, top to bottom and side to side.

At first, it seemed like one more mess for Tracy to clean up. Then she saw what Brenna had written: love, joy, peace, patience, kindnece, goodnece, faithfulnece, gentlnece and selfcantrol (in Brenna's delightful spelling).

Mark writes: "Tracy stopped, drank it in. Her heart flooded with light. It was exactly what she needed to be reminded about: the gift of the fruit of the Spirit that arises, not by our circumstances, but by Christ within us.

And then Tracy noticed one more thing Brenna had written at the edge of the window: Love one another. Only Brenna, in her creative spelling, had written: Love won another."

As Mark concludes: "It's what Jesus has been trying to tell us all along. You were won that way. Now go and do likewise."

Mark Buchanan, Hidden in Plain Sight: The Secret of More (Thomas Nelson, 2007)

Reframing Questions

Asking the right thing is essential

(v.36-37) Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear; this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, because he has defied the armies of the living God. The LORD who delivered me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine."

Saul said to David, "Go, and the LORD be with you."

I said earlier that many of our prayers are misguided

We pray for comfort instead of character

We pray for the easy way out instead of the strength to make it through

We pray for no pain when the result would be no gain

We pray that God would keep us out of pits and away from lions

But if God did that it might just rob us of our greatest opportunities

Many of our prayers might actually short circuit God’s plans and purposes for our lives if He answered them the way we asked Him to…

So He doesn’t (and sometimes we get mad)

Maybe we should stop asking God to get us OUT of difficult circumstances before we ask Him what He wants US to GET OUT of those difficult circumstances

Remember last week, when I explained how God is all around us?

He moves where quantum physics can’t be measured

In Cremona, Italy, where most experts believe history's best violins were made, Andrea Mosconi has the tall task of keeping the precious instruments in shape. For the past 30 years, six days a week, the old musician has gone to the museum in Cremona's city hall where the 300-year-old violins are stored in display cases. Each morning, before the museum opens to the public, Mosconi plays each violin for 6–7 minutes. He starts with basic music scales and then makes his way to Bach, Tchaikovsky, and Bartok.

Over the course of an hour, he plays three violins by the Amatis, two by the Guarneris, and four instruments—3 violins and a cello—by Stradivari.

Why does Mosconi do this day after day?

A violin needs to be played to perform at its best level. "The wood gets tired," explained Karl Roy, a German violinmaker and one of the field's top experts. "The strings need tension, the wood needs to be stressed…it is only then that the sound it was created to make sounds beautiful.

It's the same as with a human being. If you just sit and rest in your comfortable chair, when you get up after a while, you will feel crazy."

To watch, listen or download this celebration worship experience, click the link below and follow along