if you want to grow in any capacity, comfort becomes highly over rated. if you want to obtain a six pack and delts like an olympian, it doesn’t come by being comfortable on the couch eating cheetos. if you want to be a great employee, you don’t get there by being lazy and not doing your work. if you want successful and healthy relationships, you don’t get them by neglecting them and always getting your way. your comfort becomes null and void at least for a season.
it is the same when you want to grow spiritually. Tozer wrote, “for a man to make real spiritual progress, he must deny himself.” i have to admit that is not the most fun idea. not even a little.
it has been an interesting season in my life. a season of feeling like i am perpetually giving up anything of comfort. that is me being dramatic. in reality the comforts i so desire and do not have, He ever reminds me that it won’t always be this way. it won’t always be this season.
and then i think of acts 1:7, “it is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority.” i know this is talking about the restoration of the kingdom but as i heard it last week, it hit me! this season won’t last forever but it isn’t about the season ending, it is all about how i respond to Him in this season.
and my heart is shown a little more of my need for Him. He is faithful even though i wander. even though i gripe. even though i don’t respond to the mercy given so freely. i am desperate for Him in the season when i don’t have what i perceive as need. when i don’t know how things will turn out. when i want to, but don’t, believe that He can be faithful to His promises even though the time frame seems impossible to me.
i grow ever more thankful as i listen to “whom have i”. He is ALL my hope and stay. He alone is my righteousness. my peace. my joy. He alone satisfies. provides. sustains. He is worthy of all praise and glory and honor!
yesterday David Adair preached out of acts 16. something that really stuck with me is the idea that how we react to hardships, lack of comfort, straight up sucky situations, is how we introduce people to Christ. if we believe Him to be all the things in the previous paragraph, our attitude is quite different than if we don’t actually believe.
what do people think of God when they see your reactions to things going on in your life? are they falling more in love with the King of the Universe or are they saying “screw this!”?
