Too Comfortable

We know that God wants to bless us. Better home. Better life. Higher salaries. Make us happy. Give us comforts in life we never had before. He is such a wonderful God. Right?


I don't want to blow this out of proportions, but I think we may have missed the point about blessings and the comfort we expect from God. Maybe God’s definition of blessed and ours is not congruent?


Remember Abraham? God asked him to leave his family, friends, home, to go to a place he didn’t even know the name of and then, to top that off, God demands the sacrifice of his only son? If we were there, we would be yelling at Abraham and trying to convince him that he wasn't doing the will of God!


For Moses and Joseph, they went down from their familiar and comfort zone. Can the will of God be for anyone to take a lower position in life? Many leaders look at those who do so today and declare, “I think that God is going to elevate you in his will, you may need to wait for the next opportunity where your benefits aren’t taken away…”


All the heroes of Hebrews “Hall of Faith” were incredible! They had a God who was totally in control of their lives! They must have had SSS benefits, comfortable living, increased blessing, and bliss! Let’s take a look….


Abraham was in the perfect will of God, promised lands, nations, and blessings. The only ground he ever owned after he went through all he did was the small parcel of ground on which he and his wife were buried.


Noah… but he ended up building a boat in the middle of the desert and was misunderstood by his generation and ended up with a church of 8 members.


Jacob… and ended up being tricked and deceived by an ungodly relative who stole years of his life.


Joseph… having dreams from God, yet abandoned by his family, tossed in a pit, sold into slavery, accused of rape, imprisoned.


No one was ever in the will of God like Jesus Christ. He was born in a stable, almost murdered by a king, the most misunderstood man of his day, didn't have a bank account or business, forsaken, beaten, abused, crucified and laid in a borrowed tomb. He never married. He never built a new home, never saved money, never built a real kingdom… he lived a life that was obviously NOT blessed!


God is more interested in our walking by faith than in our comfort! The life of faith will not always give you palaces and pleasantries, raises and royalties.


• Have you ever been changed by a comfortable message?
• Have you ever been healed by a comfortable prayer?
• Has anyone ever been transformed by a comfortable altar call?
• Has there ever been a soul born again and discipled via comfortable means?
• Has there ever been a financial miracle not preceded by uncomfortable and sacrificial giving?
• Has comfortable worship ever launched you into his presence for long term transformation?


We need to rid ourselves of this “the will of God is comfortable, pleasing, smooth sailing” mentality!
We are crying out for comfort. We like our salaries, our vehicles, our clothes, our styles, our ideas, our fashions – AND GOD SAYS WE ARE POOR, NAKED, AND LUKEWARM!


He said we are to receive a “New Comforter”… A Comforter granted by heaven that gives us the only comforts we should be thriving on!


Maybe when we think we are under an “attack of Satan” we are really under an “attack of God”. I need more of those. So Lord, move me from my comfortable place. Maybe I should understand that if I am not walking with some sort of limp, Jacob, I have probably not experienced the blessing that God really wants me to have.


I NEED AN ATTACK OF GOD!


Are you to comfortable for God?

Unlucky Me

A few weeks ago, while doing errands for a friend’s wedding I encountered what seemed like a bad predicament.   In my hast that morning to do the assignments given me, I failed to put my wallet in my pocket or get the lose change from the pants I had worn the day before. I did though have the money needed to purchase the items I was assigned to get for the wedding.  As I was paying for the items, it suddenly dawned on me that I didn’t have my wallet.  There I was 6 or 7 train stations from my point of origin and to get there would cost 15 pesos. I dug into my backpack and was joyously relieved to find 18 pesos. Feeling very lucky,  I walked to the train station, my precious 18 pesos in hand.  As I was crossing the street to enter the station’s terminal my arm was bumped and a 5 peso coin flew out of my hand, and began rolling away.  In disbelief I scampered after the rolling coin. As I was about to grab it, it rolled into the sewer.  What luck, now I was 2 pesos shy of getting on the train.  I had to walk two train stations over to grab a train worth 12 pesos.

Learning To Receive

It was on Christmas eve, and I was traveling on a bus to my apartment in Cavite--quite sleepy. As the bus was departing a man boarded  and starting singing a Christmas song, it was actually done quite well under the circumstances. He sang solo accompanied by an a egg shaker. After his rendition he passed out some envelops soliciting passengers a donation for the “less fortunate”. After giving a short talk about sharing the blessings with “less fortunate”  saying that those who are fortunate should share with those who have so little, he then walked back down the isle collecting the envelops.  As he was about to step off the bus, he turned around and gave a Thank You, and ended by saying, “It's better to give than to receive” and because of the giving “you will receive blessings.” 

Next Level

Whenever I get a chance, I would play some challenging & mind-teasing games on my ipod . Many of them give me hints about making my next move, guiding me to more advanced levels of play. Often, however, I allow my independent spirit to take over, and I ignore these hints, trying to master the game with my own moves. As a consequence, my progress is much slower — or I fail completely and have to start over. But when I take advantage of the built-in help features, I improve my skills and move on to more difficult challenges.

Point a finger

Did you know that as a leader, God will hold you accountable for the spiritual condition of the people you lead? You are a steward of the leadership responsibilities and the people He has entrusted to you (1 Peter 5:2, 3) and you and I will someday give an account to Him (Matthew 25:19; see vv. 14-30 for the entire parable).

In Hosea 4, God held the spiritual leaders accountable for the spiritual condition of the people. 

"Don't point your finger at someone else and try to pass the blame! Look, you priests, my complaint is with you!" (Hosea 4:4, NLT). 

If you're a leader, don't point fingers at the people you're leading. Look in the mirror first. God's complaint may be with you!