Let’s face it we all want to live comfortable lives. Our human nature is to seek pleasure and avoid pain. But as Christians God often will want to take us out of our comfort zones in order to use us to build up His kingdom. We read in (2 Corinthians 4:17): “For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.” You see God will often use trials, which are the enemy of comfort, to allow us to turn our difficulties in life into opportunities to glorify His name.
I like what Joni Eareckson Tada said about comfort zones and the Christian when she remarked: “God is more concerned with conforming me to the likeness of His Son than leaving me in my comfort zones. God is more interested in inward qualities than outward circumstances – things like refining my faith, humbling my heart, cleaning up my thought life and strengthening my character.”[1]
As I stated in the beginning of this devotion it is our human nature to seek pleasure and comfort and avoid pain. But praise God we, now as believers in Christ, have a new nature and a new capacity to override this natural tendency for comfort in order to go through the trials of life that are often necessary to bring glory to God. As I have shared in past devotions, for the Christian, life is the training grounds for eternity and we must not allow too much comfort to cause us to remain ineffective in doing the will of God. While comfort is pleasurable it can be very dangerous in that it will often prevent us from taking risks for Christ and embracing the trials of life that God sends our way which are necessary to build us up in Christ and make us strong and vibrant believers.
And while comfort is often linked to happiness, when we sacrifice our own comfort to be a blessing to others we will find that we transform happiness into something much better – joy! Living for Jesus means we become servants of Christ who are willing to sacrifice comfort and happiness in exchange for character and holiness. And when we live for Jesus we will experience something far better than comfort and that is the knowledge that we are doing things that please our Savior. And the closer we stay to Jesus the more we can make (Psalm 16:11) one of our life verses: “You will show me the path of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy; At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.”
As the psalmist states in (Psalm 119:71): “It is good for me that I have been afflicted, that I may learn Your statutes.” Affliction, trials, and yes even tragedy, are God’s training tools that He uses to build up our character and faith thus making us fit to be useful citizens of His kingdom. Christian, are you willing to sacrifice your comfort for something far greater – bringing glory to God! I know in my own life that the times I have experienced the greatest joy are when I have sacrificed my own comfort to bless others and God. And in the last analysis is it really a sacrifice when we forfeit our comfort for, in my opinion, the greater blessing of experiencing the wonderful joy of the Lord. May I challenge you to take a leap of faith from your comfort zone into the awesome presence of the Lord and the sheer joy that I guarantee you will find there!
[1] The Case For A Good God | Christianity’s Unique Solution | True Horizon