I believe God calls us to be comfortable but not in the way the world interprets the word. The world gets comfortable in a plush recliner. Jesus never said, “Take up your couch and follow Me.” The world defines comfortable as the absence of stress or anxiety and by the possession of adequate resources so as not to be deprived. Paul said, “I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want” (Philippians 4:11b, 12). For the Christian, to be comfortable means to believe that the grace God apportions me is all I need for life on this world with the expectation that I will live forever in heaven with a new body free of pain and sorrow and in the presence of the One Who loves me with an eternal love.
Jesus said, “Peace I leave with you; My peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid” (John 14:27). The world can only give wishful pronouncements. Anything it gives eventually dies and everything it gives is conflicted by the ravages of sin. Jesus gives hope. His gift cannot be taken away. His love transcends our sensory needs of taste, touch, sight, sound and smell to massage our hearts. To be comfortable means to recognize that in Christ I have all I need.
Meditation
Acts 1:8—But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you and you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.
We see that God views comfort differently than we do by the way in which He works. He filled the believers with the Holy Spirit but they did not move with His power outside Jerusalem. It took persecution to scatter them for the gospel to reach the ends of the earth. The Lord anoints us with the Holy Spirit with the implicit understanding that we are to tell people about Jesus! To be comfortable is to be obedient to His calling and not enamored with our surroundings. Too many times I have watched churches close their doors to ethnic groups and new works because members complained that the carpets were getting soiled, toys were not put away, the music was too loud, etc. In essence what is eternally irrelevant has replaced in priority what is eternally essential. God is not interested in us living “the good life.” He is interested in us living godly lives revealed by the expansion of His Kingdom! Many of our brothers and sisters around the world worship God and share their faith knowing they may be tortured or lose their lives! If safety in our manmade structures and contentment with our Christianese culture makes us cold to our community, callous to the greater Body of Christ, and clueless to the meaning behind Jesus’ instructions, than we need to relook what it means to be comfortable. May God give us eyes to see as He sees and the courage to live accordingly!
Inspiration
The point is that Jesus saw life from God’s standpoint, and we don’t. We won’t accept the responsibility of life as God gives it to us, we only accept responsibility as we wish to take it, and the responsibility we wish to take is to save our own skins, make comfortable positions for ourselves and those we are related to, exert ourselves a little to keep ourselves clean and vigorous and upright; but when it comes to following out what Jesus says, His sayings are nothing but jargon.—Oswald Chambers in The Highest Good
