Uncomfortable

“Then He said to them all, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself,

and take up his cross daily, and follow Me.” - Luke 9:23

We all have our comfort zones. The difference between each of us is what they look like. Some people would loathe the idea of someone being in their home for a visit. Others have an open-door policy. Some people can't stand big gatherings of people, while others thrive in them. Those comfort zones dictate how we live our lives. They govern our lives to the point that they dictate to us when we go to the grocery store and which one to go to. They determine even where we sit in bible class and worship. They even have a say in what we do for work. Often, those zones are created by our own personal desires, trauma, experiences, and/or beliefs about humanity. Over time, those concepts cause us to create a bubble of desired space around us. We become picky about what, when, and who may enter. Although without those things, we as naive children should have very small comfort zones and bubbles. Life often changes that. Healthy assessments of a person's needed comfort zone, based on available information, are not bad. It becomes bad when we can never turn it off.

God doesn't care what your comfort zone is. In fact, God never said to follow my commands, but only do what is comfortable to you. No, He just said do them. Can you imagine how uncomfortable a new Jewish convert would have been sitting in the Corinth congregation or any Gentile group? A once Gentile homosexual teaching a Jewish rabbi the gospel? Or an idol priestess prostitute sitting next to Lydia in worship? Or a Jew eating dinner in a Gentile home before a bible study? Whoa, hold on there! That is a lot to ask. It is what God asked. Once we obey the gospel, we are all the same in Christ. Before we obey the gospel, we are all the same outside of Christ. The only thing that makes a difference is Christ.

God said you must "deny yourself." That means you must set aside your comfort zone and do what God has asked of you. One of our most significant life issues is that we become too comfortable. Then the uncomfortable becomes unbearable, and we self-destruct. When we grow past and push through those uncomfortable things, it's supposed to make us stronger. How many times have you failed to do everything you could for Christ or take an opportunity to do good because it was uncomfortable? How many souls have suffered due to the simple fact that someone was just uncomfortable? Get comfortable with being uncomfortable, so great things in Christ can be done through you.

- Steve Johnson

#MaysvilleMessenger