I Double-Dog Dare You

You know how it goes, the first person says, “I dare you to eat it all”
Second person, “I don’t know…”
“I double dare you”, says the first, ratcheting up the intensity.
“Man, that’s a lot, I don’t know if I can”
Then the gauntlet is laid down with a final taunt, “I double-dog dare ya”

It reminds me of my childhood and the playful challenges of one friend to another.

You might not realize that there are dares in the Bible, several of them as a matter of fact.

From I Samuel 17 it was King Saul who “will enrich the man who kills (Goliath) with great riches and will give him his daughter and make his father’s house free in Israel.” (His daughter, as it turns out was not much of a prize, but that is for another day). It was a young shepherd boy by the name of David who answered the challenge to face the giant.

In I Chron 11 King David is heard making his own dare when he says “whoever strikes the Jebusites first will be my commander”, and it was Joab who took up the challenge

Again, in Joshua 15 it is Caleb, the man of faith, who said, ““The one who attacks Kiriath-sepher and captures it, I will give him Achsah my daughter as a wife.” And it was Othniel who answered the dare.

One more to consider is in Malachi 3.10 where it is the Lord himself who says, "Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, so that there may be food in My house, and test Me now in this”, I dare you to give as I have instructed you to.

The application I want to suggest is this.

There are many in the body of Christ who, though wanting to be used will wait for an invitation.

But there are others who, when seeing an opportunity, will just go for it. Like Joab, they will find a way in, like David they seize the opportunity, like Othniel they will go for the prize; and, even as Malachi 3.10 challenges the reader, they just act in obedience according to God’s Word.

May I encourage you… don’t wait for an invitation.

Listen if the Lord has put something on your heart, if the Lord has asked you to get involved, if the Lord has given you gifts - the time to use them is now. We can’t allow something like “no one asked me” to get in the way of fulfilling God’s calling on our life.

We have to go for it.

When is the last time you took up a dare, accepted a challenge; when was the last time you said to the Lord like Isaiah did, “Here am I Lord, send me”.

Even within the ministry right here at LSC there are so many ways to get involved, take a chance, go for it, don’t wait around to be asked, use your gifts, find a way in… I double-dog dare you!