At the gym we tell our athletes that they must be comfortable being uncomfortable. In other words, we ask them to get out of their comfort zone. This phrase is cliché, but, simply put, if a gymnast is not willing to push herself beyond what she feels safe doing she will not be able to progress in this sport. I am not suggesting that a gymnast take undo risks to succeed. But what I have noticed is that a comfort zone is a zone of complacency. Gymnasts who are content with their gymnastics will not achieve new skills.
Complacency is a condition we often allow to creep into our faith. We snuggle into our understanding of God and decide that the knowledge we have of God will make us a good person and get us to heaven. However, this thinking does not address our real problem of sin. Any talk of sin or being a sinner makes us uncomfortable, but until we allow the Holy Spirit to address the sin in our lives we cannot move into a deeper understanding of God in Christ.
When God starts moving, our lives become uncomfortable. He convicts the sinful nature within us and makes us confront our sin. We do not want to confront our sin. We want to deny our sin. Denial does not remove our sin. Denial is how we stay comfortable with our sin. God will not allow us to remain in our sin; instead He exposes our sin and insists that we surrender it to Jesus Christ. Then through faith and by the power of the Holy Spirit, God moves us to the cross. There we see what Jesus Christ has done so that we are saved from sin and death.
It is a very uncomfortable feeling to know that Jesus Christ died for our sin. We want anything but that to be true. And this truth agitates our sinful nature, which battles against Christ. A sinner at the cross is uncomfortable until the grace of Christ brings comfort.
“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith” (Ephesians 2:8).
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Godnesia: Keeping God in Mind Each Day – http://amzn.to/2GSquOD
Ordinary Days With an Extraordinary Savior – http://amzn.to/2mFGASB
Life Is a Metaphor: Recognizing God in the Everyday – http://amzn.to/2De1rU2