Hi and welcome back to a new article and to the new series we are about to start: The Mighty God & The Taunting Giant. The first giant we will take about in this new series inspired by the book Goliath must fall by Louie Giglio is the giant and comfort. Why? Mainly because it is the most subtle giant, the one that is the most common across all generations. The most subtle one and yet the most deadly.
I know what you must be thinking: “well comfort is not really a bad thing... Isn’t it?” And you are right. Comfort is not a bad thing and God’s desire for us is to not lack anything. However comfort has the potential to quickly become a double-edged sword that can slowly undo us and the people around us. In his book, Louie Giglio listed a few reasons why comfort can become harmful to us and below are the one that stuck the most with me:
1- We miss a great opportunity because we choose to go a safer, easier route.
The most striking stories in the bible happened because some people dared to take the difficult road. The one that was full of uncertainty and darkness at time. Anybody that God has called to a higher ground had to get out of the comfort zone. Let’s take the example of Abraham. His father was rich. He was living a comfortable life when God called him to leave the place where he was because God wanted him somewhere else. If you have ever had to relocate to a totally different country/ continent away from your family and everything you know for a certain reason in life then you know how difficult it must have been for Abraham. But he, unlike some of us, had absolutely no clue and no plan on how things would happen. He only had a promise, a word from God. Now Abraham was the father of a multitude made of Israel, the chosen people of God, as well as us Christians who have been saved by Grace through faith in Jesus. Abraham could have chosen the safe route. He would have missed out on God’s best and would have probably never been know. The same is true of Ruth the Moabite: she could have decided to go back to her people just like her fellow sister in law who had also lost her husband. Instead, she followed Naomi to Bethlehem, met Boaz and entered the lineage of Jesus. Now she would have definitely missed out on God's things if she had settled for the good thing (comfort and familiarity).
2- If comfort is sought ahead of everything else, including our desire to be available to God’s plans.
Suffer for the cause of God is one of the most difficult things to experience and yet the most noble for us as christian as we see how the souls and lives of the people we pray for are transformed. A very good example is talking to people about Christ. Very uncomfortable. Not only for those of us struggling with social anxiety but more so because of the fact that some of the reactions we get are not the ones we expect. Being in ministry is uncomfortable because the thoughts of God’s heart have to prevail on our own. Church leaders especially know how uncomfortable being called is: the fasting, the praying, the fact that sometimes the needs of your church and the work or for the kingdom of God will pass before your needs and desire. But the results show on those days where people give their lives to Jesus. The results show when the people we have been praying for, fasting for, preaching to and denying our own comfort for are submerged in the water of baptism and arisen as a new creation and a member of the family of God. To me it is a feeling that never gets old. But we can’t see and experience this unless we renounce to some extend to our comfort and make ourselves available to be used by God.
3- If we grow accustomed to our sins and fail to confront and removed them from our lives.
When it comes to sin, our walk with God will constantly require us to fight against what most people have justify as “natural instincts” or “human nature”. However, as christian, we are called to fight the good fight, to die to our old sinful nature (Colo 3:5). Being comfortable with sin in our lives leads us away from God. It is a giant that reduces our field of vision to the “now” as it yells louder and makes us forget all about the “later”, the eternal life God has offered us in Jesus which, unlike the “now”, lasts MUCH longer. Overcoming sin is an everyday work that will be sometimes marked by days where we fall short of God’s grace. It is perfectly normal. But the issue of comfort being a deadly giant comes when out of falling so much, we stay fallen and decide to dwell right there, to the dismay of a mighty God who has called us to higher grounds.
Comfort has ruined lives and destinies, families and relationships but most importantly our relationship with God and the vocation He’s called us to. So how do we overcome the giant? How to we overthrow him from the throne of our lives that so rightfully belongs to God and has been hijacked by a taunting giant that is preventing us from experiencing God and the multitude of great things He has planned for us?
Louie Giglio gave us a road map to quit living life under the blanket of comfort and it is summarized in the following four bullet points.
1- There is no greatness without faith and there is no faith without discomfort
The most epic stories in the Bible were born from a step that was taken in the direction of faith (the battle of Jericho, the splitting of the red sea, peter walking on water, etc…) and those steps in the direction of faith required a discomfort from the people those stories were about. Our salvation happened as a result of the discomfort of one man who left his glory all behind to live as a man. Have you done life on this earth? Do you know how difficult it is? Have you ever had a lot of money and privileges and then all of the sudden you go broke? Add on top of this being crucified knowing you’re innocent for people who have done (and will do) some of the most horrible things. But that step of that one man in the direction of Faith and in the accomplishment of God’s plan for us has been the tipping point that has turned the history of humanity around. It was the birth of the most beautiful love story ever crafted and written. And for us to identify with him in our faith requires for us to go to the most uncomfortable places of our core being and existence, believing in a higher purpose that calls for our ability to leave our comfort in order to meet God in the higher places where he’s called us to be
2- God’s glory shines brightest at our weakest
Stepping out of the comfort zone and crossing that line into the unknown is where we get to truly see and experience God. Crossing that line is this tipping point where the story of our life becomes less about ourselves and more about God. And so when it comes to choosing between God’s great and comfort-good or God’s-thing instead of good-thing, remembering who we want to give the glory to should be what we need to keep in mind. God gets no glory from the things that are under our control: He gets glory from the things and situations we have no control over (2 Co 12: 9). Choosing to step out of our comfort zone (according to God’s plan for us) is taking back the glory the giant of comfort stole from God and giving it back to the rightful owner of it: God himself. Why? Because that’s when God steps in and work things that make no sense to the human mind but shows how powerful and mighty our God is.
3- Align with God
Comfort happens when we lose track of what God expect from us. When following a worldly view or opinion takes over our ability to follow God’s plan for us because it is just easier. aligning ourselves with God is the surest way to get where we are meant to be and living a purposeful, full and meaning life requires us to align with God in order to know the steps to take, which direction to go and what decision to make in order to maximize out time on this earth. Aligning with him doesn’t guarantee that things will be easy, however, it does guarantee that we will make it to where we are meant to be according to God’s plan for us.
4- Keep in mind that you don’t have that much time
The biggest danger of being comfortable can be summarized in one word: later. The thing is later can easily become never, especially if we account for the uncertainty of life. Even though it might seem scary to think we might not live as long as we think we will, we should aim to turn that uncertainty into fuel to live a purposeful and meaningful life, one that goes beyond the safety line of comfort.
Overcoming the giant of comfort is an everyday fight, an ongoing battle to pick God and step on his word when we are presented with the option of pulling the comfort blanket over our head and play it safe. We are not guaranteed that what we will meet on the other side will be pleasant, but we are guaranteed that once we move on God's word and align with him, when we are willing to be available for Him to work with us and through us, when we accept to be a little less comfortable so that He can have the spotlight, he meets us where we stand and adds the "extra" into the ordinary.
Thank you for taking your time to read through the first article of this new series and I will see you soon for another article of The Mighty God & The Taunting Giant series.
Until then,
The Happiness Fairy 👸
