Comfort and Character

Have you ever noticed how often we arrange our lives so that we'll feel comfortable. We avoid the things we don't understand or make us feel uncomfortable. We spend countless hours and energy doing things that make us feel good. Even many of the thoughts we think are all about justifying our "position" so we'll feel better about ourselves.

I'm guilty. Just last night I was confronted with a situation that happened last week. I was able to see it from another person's perspective and when I did - immediately I started justifying, in my head, how they couldn't possibly understand my position. As if my position was superior or if they could see it from my perspective they wouldn't feel the way they do about me. To be honest, I didn't want to behave correctly and that would change their opinion about me, not them understanding my position.

Webster says this, among other things, about character: it's "one of the attributes or features that make up and distinguish an individual." It's as much about how others see me, as it is how I see myself. While others often do misunderstand or don't have enough information to make a judgement, sometimes they are completely right and it's important that we apply the information that we've learned from their perspective and not just "justify" it away.

Romans 12:3 (AMP) says this, "For by the grace (unmerited favor of God) given to me I warn everyone among you not to estimate and think of himself more highly than he ought [not to have an exaggerated opinion of his own importance], but to rate his ability with sober judgment, each according to the degree of faith apportioned by God to him."

God cares significantly about our character development (Christlikeness) and will invest more into it, rather than our comfort. His priorities are different than the priorities of the "flesh." It's pride and foolishness that resists the Holy Spirit and "justifies" bad behavior. It's often temptation for comfort that lures us from the character building exercises that are stratigically placed in our lives.

In applying this, I've come to this strange new understanding, that when stated seems obvious - it's a matter of the heart. Obedience is not optional. You may say, "no, duh," but I wonder if you've applied the principle to your life any better than I have! For me obedience has usually occured when it fit into my definition or level of comfort. Not when I couldn't understand the why's and how's, as if God owed me an explanation. Isaiah 55:9 says (of God), "As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts." Thinking that God owes me an explaination is absurd! In many ways, I couldn't understand His explainations, even if He spent the time explaining them.

It's a choice. Often I bring suffering into my life by not making a choice that reflects God's priorities. My choices often reflect the priorities of my flesh. Those choices will leave a mark! God, through the Holy Spirit, provides us the opportunity for obedience, the power and strength to be obedient, the faith to believe that obedience is in our best interest, and the reward for our obedience as an act of worship. So every requirement that God places on us, He provides the ability to follow through. It is in finding our strength in Him that obedience is possible and our character develops. Strangely enough, the reward of obedience is a deep and abiding comfort that is better than anything we can create for ourselves!

Baby Steps

Are you taking the baby steps that you need to take that will move you towards the future that God has for your life? Are you tired enough of the way things have been to do them God's way?

These are retorical questions - you don't have to convince me. I'm accountable to God to ask you these questions. He knows the truth of your heart and it is His desire that you live in surrender and by the strength of His Holy Spirit, take the steps in the direction that He's calling you to! He is accepting you just the way you are - but He's not willing to let you live the spiritual life as a pauper - when you are indeed a child of the King. Accept it. It's yours because you believe. You do not control it - you simply live in it!

You may not see an immediate change in your physical circumstances. God desires that our surrender comes authentically in our current circumstances - then, as we trust Him to guide us and direct us, He either makes sense of our current physical circumstances OR our obedience "relieves" us of those circumstances - but we often graduate to a new set of physical circumstances that, once again challenge us, and at a whole new level. As we grow and change spiritually, there comes a peace that passes understanding - in the middle of the circumstances - not inspite of OR because of those circumstances.

The apostle Paul said this:

"I know how to be abased and live humbly in straitened circumstances, and I know also how to enjoy plenty and live in abundance. I have learned in any and all circumstances the secret of facing every situation, whether well-fed or going hungry, having a sufficiency and enough to spare or going without and being in want." (Phil 4:12 AMP)

It's our spiritual maturity that affords us the luxury of being content. Contentment is a luxury, because when we are content, our mind is "at ease." I can't think of a better place to live!