When I really get down to analyzing my
own personal comfort zone I have to admit that it’s the part of me that I have
not yet surrendered to Jesus. It’s the small, precious part of my life that I
just want to hang onto and keep for myself.My comfort zone is the last bit of
ground where I keep my own dreams, my own personal territory where I hoard the
things that I am afraid to give up to God.
The one thing in the world that Jesus
wants most from me is exactly that part of me that is still unsurrendered. He
wants the part of us that we don’t want to let go of. More than anything else,
He wants that last piece of our heart that we’re afraid to give to Him. Maybe
you know what I’m talking about. Maybe you have that one small part of your
life that you’re still afraid to give to Jesus, because if you do you’re not
really sure what He will do with it. Maybe God will screw up your life if you
surrender that last bit to Him? Will He ruin your plans? Will He jack up your
dreams? Are you sure you can really, really trust God with this one, precious
thing?
Our comfort zone is that last part of
us that we’ve yet to lay on the altar to Him. Maybe we’ve given him 99% of our
selves, but it’s that last 1% that we’ve held back, whatever it may be, that
Jesus wants most of all. It’s what He suffered for. It’s what He died for. It’s
all of you. I think really our ability to trust God is a huge issue in our day
and age. We have difficulty trusting
God because so many of us have been
abused by people in authority over us. We’ve been exploited, even by the people
in the Church who should have loved us and empowered us.
Somehow we’ve got to reach a place in
our walk with Jesus that we trust Him with everything. Do we love God more than
we love our comfort zone? We cannot remain in an attitude of fear.
We cannot be afraid that we’re going
to loose what we’ve been given in Christ. We cannot build containers to hold
onto the blessings of God. We are called to give it away. We’re called to give
away the blessings. We’re called to give away the Kingdom. We’re called to give
even our very lives away to others so that they might see the love of God and
turn to Him.God can be trusted. He’s demonstrated this upon the cross. He
humbled Himself and became a servant to us all. He submitted Himself to us. He
bowed down and became a servant to us. He emptied
Himself of His power and position. He
willingly surrendered to our brutality and He endured the shame that was
intended for us. His cross demonstrated that even though He has all power and
all authority at His command, He will not use it to exploit us or to harm us.
If we can look upon the face of Jesus,
beaten and humiliated in our place on the cross of shame, and still doubt His
love for us, or doubt that He wants what is best for our lives, then we have no
hope of every fully trusting and loving anyone in our lives. “Freely you have
been given, freely receive” -Jesus (Matthew 10:8)
”Whoever finds his life will lose it,
and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” - Jesus (Matthew 10:39)
Don’t let that one simple thing you’re
holding on to keep you from fully receiving the great riches that God has in
store for your life. Let go of it. Surrender it to Jesus today. Receive the
treasure He has buried for you along the way.
“The Kingdom of heaven is like a
treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in
his joy he went and sold all he had and bought that field.” - Jesus (Matthew
13:44)
The truth is that God does ask you to
give up something when you come to Him. It’s called “Everything”. That’s all He
wants from you. Just everything. The Good News is that what you give up will
never compare to the boundless riches of His Kingdom. When the Rich Young Ruler
went away from Jesus because he was unable to sell all that he had to give it
to the poor, Jesus turns to His disciples and encourages them by saying “With
man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible” (Matthew 19:26).
What is the thing that Jesus says is
impossible for man? It’s giving up our material possessions in exchange for the
Kingdom of God. What is it that He says is possible with God?
It’s the ability to let go of our
worldly wealth and possessions in order to gain the incomparable treasures of
The Kingdom. The response of the disciples to these words from Jesus is also
worth noting. Peter asks Jesus what will become of them since they have left
everything to follow him (in Matthew 19:27).
It was true. Each of the disciples had
walked away from their day job to dedicate themselves to Jesus as apprentices.
Peter and his brother, on the day of the largest catch of fish in their careers
as fishermen, left the fish dieing on the beach to follow Him. Matthew, the tax
collector, stood up and left the money on the table in the middle of the day to
follow Jesus.
Each of the disciples, in his own way,
turned away from his life and gave it up to discover a new way of life. In
response to Peter’s question Jesus makes an astounding promise that I’m certain
almost no one really believes. He said, “I tell you the truth…no one who has
left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for
me and the gospel will
fail to receive a hundred times as
much in this present age…and in the age to come, eternal life.” (Mark 10:29)
Here Jesus assures those who give up
worldly possessions and even family relationships, will receive back one
hundred times as much. Not just in Eternity, after death, but here and now, in
this life on Earth. Jesus promises more than a one-for-one repayment for what
is given up for the sake of following Him. He promises more than a ten percent
return on your investment. He promises more than you can imagine; One hundred
times as much, in this life and in the life to come.
Do we believe Jesus? Do we have the
faith to trust Him in this promise? Can we really let go of our dreams, our
hopes, our plans, our security, our comfort, our money in exchange for an
abiding and enduring trust that He is faithful and true to His word?
Like Paul the Apostle, I have yet to
attain this. (If you’ll indulge me a moment I will borrow from him to express
my own struggle within my comfort zone). I endure hardship, sometimes in faith,
sometimes with great complaint. I know the good I ought to do and sometimes I
fail to do it. I am the chief of sinners. I can be the most evil and petty
person you’d ever imagine one moment, and full of compassion and faith the next.
I have not arrived at perfection in Christ just yet, far, far from it, but this
one thing I do with all that is within me, I press on towards the mark of the
high calling of Christ Jesus. I urge you to do the same. I know that, here in
my comfort zone, I am in denial of the power of Christ in me. I know that,
outside of my comfort zone, I have discovered the power of Christ at work in my
glorious weakness. I want to encourage you to embrace your discomfort zone.
Jesus is waiting for you there. He can be trusted and He is faithful beyond
your wildest imagination.
�
Vc �� ��tting or the attending that we
encounter Jesus, or become empowered by the Holy Spirit. We have to be in
motion, we have to “go”, in order to be the Church that God has called us to
be. As I’ve looked through the Scriptures I don’t often notice that the power
of God falls on people when they’re in the meeting. Instead, it is when the
disciples are in the marketplace, or walking along the way, that the Spirit of
God falls on His people in power.
When God pours out His Spirit on us,
it’s for a purpose. It’s not for our personal enjoyment. God fills us up in
order to send us out. The gifts we’re given are for others, and they’re meant
to be spent on others and given away for the benefit of others. I believe this
is why sometimes when a church has grown old, or when Christians have grown
tired, we see less and less of God’s power flowing through the people. It’s
because we’ve started to build reservoirs to hold the blessings, rather than to
trust God to give us more if we continually give His gifts
away to others. The reason God doesn’t
give us more is often because we’ve started to hoard what He gave us to share with others. Much like manna, which
would rot if the Israelites took more than they needed for a single day, the
gifts of God are for sharing, not for storing up. God wants us to trust that if
we give away the blessings, He will supply us with more. In order to
demonstrate that we trust Him, we must
let go of our gifts, our talent, our
time, and even our money, and share freely with those who are in need. God will
make sure we have enough when we need it. Our job, as ambassadors of Christ, is
to develop a discipline of letting go and giving away the blessings God gives
to us so that we can be continually refreshed and blessed with the ongoing
ministry of Jesus.
Whether or not you decide to start a
house church is beside the point. The issue of who we are as Christians is
still just as important, if not more important, than what we say we believe in
our heads. Our message, the Gospel, is only relevant if our lives demonstrate
its power. Following Christ, from the very beginning, was a practice. It was
intended as a way of life, not simply a set of beliefs. The truth is that we
must begin to live out the power of the Gospel in our everyday lives, no matter
what. We must begin today.
