Awwww....Comfort!

Awwww....Comfort! It feels so good! Just being able to sleep in late curled up in the warmth of the snuggly blankets feels so wonderful. We all love comfort in some form or another, however, comfort is not very productive even though it sounds and feels so good. When we are in the place of comfort in life, there are not many uncertainties, yet God has not called us, the body of Christ, to live our Christian lives in comfort. There will never be any real growth or spiritual maturity come to our lives when we choose to live in the place of comfort. So many Christians flock to the comfort of religion, but true relationship has a price; it costs us something. As we peer into the pages of the Bible, Paul was once in a place of religious comfort. He had all that one could desire...Honor, prestige, acceptance, and comfort within the synagogue, yet that was not God's will for Paul's life. It was not His will for Paul to be happy and comfortable within his belief system, but it was His will for him to be a world changer; to leave his mark on humanity. Do you think that Paul would have willfully changed his mindset and left the confines of comfort to suddenly be hated, hunted, stoned, and left for dead to serve Jesus without his Damascus Road experience? Most likely not. Actually it is evident by the Word that he had no plan to be converted, and that's exactly why he needed the road to Damascus experience. I'm sure that being struck down & blinded for three days changed his perspective on life. The Word is clear that it was at this point that Paul became willing to serve Jesus even though it meant that he would then become an outcast of those who had once held him in such high respect. He suddenly desired Jesus above the acceptance of men. God used an undesirable circumstance to get His desired response from Paul. He had a plan for him, but it could only happen if Paul would choose to leave the confines of his comfort and blindly trust Jesus in faith. Even though spiritual comfort feels good, it never produces effects that are good, but rather complacency. Complacency means a feeling of contentment and satisfaction. It is more dangerous to our Christian walk than we realize, and keeps us bound by the norm; the safe; the usual. The Lord has not called us as believers to live a life of complacency, but a life of faith. It's easy to be complacent because it feels good to our flesh, but the Word says in Hab. 2:4b, "...The just shall live by his faith." Sometimes God will shake us out of our comfort zone in order to propel us forward into His plan for us, just as Paul was propelled forward into the ministry that made it's mark on history. If you, a born-again Christian, suddenly find your comfy life full of turmoils, just maybe God is trying to bring you out of your comfort zone, challenge you to live in faith, and propel you into His plan for your life.