Written by Katie Finch
A week or so ago I was struggling with the idea of being comfortable. I had been in Colorado for a week interning for IRSM when a longing for familiar people and places really hit me. Prior to the internship, I was home for only a week after returning from three months in Chile with a study abroad program. This longing isn’t unusual but it was the first time in my life I could truly understand what Jesus was saying when he told us to deny ourselves and take up our cross to follow him (Matt 16:24).
The life he calls us to is meant to stretch us and bring us out of our comfort zone. But I still struggled to understand how we can best serve him if we are nervous or scared because we don’t feel secure in where we are or what we are doing. It was at this time that God showed me his comfort. I had a group of friends from school start a prayer group over texting and I was able to share my struggle and received an immense amount of love and encouragement from them. Then later that night, I went to a house church full of loving and passionate people that reminded me of the joy you can receive from God just by communing with him and his people.
Yes, God wants us to live lives that are not grounded in this world and that push us to places we never would have gone, but he also wants to know that we can find true comfort in his love, grace and power.
C.S. Lewis once said that “In religion…. comfort is the one thing you cannot get by looking for it. If you look for truth, you may find comfort in the end: if you look for comfort you will not get either comfort or truth -- only soft soap and wishful thinking to begin with and, in the end, despair.”
I challenge you today to look at your life and ask yourself these questions:
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How comfortable are you with being uncomfortable?
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How do you push yourself out of your comfort zone for God?
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Are there things in your life that you are placing your comfort in instead of relying of God’s?
It is not bad to find comfort in the things around us, but we must FIRST find true comfort in our Lord and Savior before anything else; for this world is not our home and we must not be conformed to it.
Do not conformto the pattern of this world,but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasingand perfect will.
-Romans 12:2 (NIV)