Obedience Outside Of The Comfort Zone

Every new year I pick a word I want to focus on and kind of make it a goal on its own. In 2017 my word was growth. That word was shown a lot in my relationship with God, and that’s what I wanted that word to mean for that year. I wanted to grow as a person, but most importantly grow in my relationship with God. And that’s what I did, growth was the only thing that I wanted to focus on that year, and it definitely worked out in that way. I focused solely on God, who He is, what He wants, and how I can grow closer to Him.

That was last year, this year my word is– obedience. I am just now picking out that word, and it is March, God seems to show up on His timing which I am good with that. I kind of went into this year thinking “I am just going to keep focusing on my relationship with God and it’ll be all good.” But then God hit me right where it counts, my spirit, the Holy Spirit, I mean it was conviction time. He told me “oh no, no, no. you’ve got some things you need to improve. That whole obeying me when I call, you aren’t doing it, and girl I am commanding you to that in my Word, so lets set this straight and get you out of this little comfort zone you’ve created for yourself.” My spirit seems to be a little sassy sometimes, or its just me, not sure. Either way it seems to be working since I am trying my best to listen right?

Getting back on track to obedience, that is my word for 2018. To me it goes right along with growth. I am pretty good at obeying, I would say anyway. but when it comes to the thing I have to do to obey being out of my comfort zone that’s when I tend to step back and question. “Ah well you see, I don’t think that was really God, I totally heard him wrong. He is fine with me staying in my comfort zone. This is where He has called me to stay.” Here is where I messed up with that thinking– 1. Questioning God talking to me, He loves talking to His children. 2. Thinking God was fine with me staying in my comfort zone, but that’s now how we grow. You can’t grow if you stay in a comfort zone. 3. Using the term “this is where He called me” to my advantage when really that term is only to be used for His advantage.

“For God is working in you, giving you the desires to obey Him and the power to do what pleases Him” Philippians 2:13

I hope so far this year I have stepped out of my comfort zone IN obedience to Christ, for His will, for His plan, and for our relationship. I never really thought I would get out of my comfort zone. I was comfortable and happy there, imagine that, a comfort zone I was comfortable in. It wasn’t until I got that kick in the butt to take that first step of faith that I realized the freedom and peace that stepping out gives us. I then knew it was never meant to be some place to stay IN but a place to grow OUT of.

What if when we are in a comfort zone God voice is very very soft? Because we are so content in our comfort zone we are only wanting Him to give us blessings, not challenges, so then we are only listening to what we want to hear and not what He wants us to hear. Most likely He is calling us to do something that is not that comfortable at all, so it really doesn’t fit in that little box we’ve created.

That hurts though,as His children we do long to hear Him, we do strive to always be in His presence, because we know the truth He is, we know the power He has, and we know the strength He can give us. Our souls crave to have that connection with Him and cutting off that loving voice cuts you off to the Savior of our souls. That is why Jesus came, so that we can have that eternal connection with God Himself. It is a powerful blessing to be able to have the opportunity to talk to God through the Holy Spirit. Why would we ever want to belittle that by not obeying?

A COMFORT ZONE WAS NEVER MEANT TO BE SOME PLACE TO STAY IN BUT A PLACE TO GROW OUT OF.

“I will instruct you and teach you in the way which you should go; I will counsel you with My eye upon you.” Psalm 32:8

Think of your comfort zone like a box, the box is a certain size or shape only letting a certain amount of things to fit. Our box, or comfort zone, is not going to let us fit anything extra in it. No more people, no more growth, no more blessings, and no more God. He is so glorious and wonderful how can we except to let Him fit inside such a small box? We can’t let our spiritual growth be stunted by the certain amount of space we give it to flourish in. We have to listen, ask, receive, obey, and then grow. Step out with obedience and humility, just like Jesus, to do what God is calling you to do.

LET OBEDIENCE BE THE WATER TO YOUR SPIRITUAL GROWTH AND LET YOUR COMFORT ZONE BE FULLY DEPENTED ON CHRIST.

Obedience is not easy, to me it is one of the hardest things to do as a follower of Christ, because wow are we stubborn human beings, thank the Lord He has a lot of patience. For me the hardest things to obey are the simplest, like knocking on doors to invite people to church, going to a nursing home to pray for them, or leading a young girls Bible study at church. These are all things He has told me to do in the past few months, and I am trying my hardest to obey, but of course he has picked things that are completely out of my comfort zone. And they all have something in common, talking to people. That is where I start to wonder if God is really telling me to do something, when it has anything to do with talking to or in front of people. But once I did obey, like finally knocking on that door, finally praying over that person (talking with others listening, scariest thing of my life basically), or actually teaching young girls how to study His word. I saw growth, I saw freedom in Him, I felt peace, I spoke about Him, but most importantly I obeyed Him.

“If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.” John 14:15

I am not saying I have been obeying Him my entire life, because He knows I haven’t. Just recently in this past year I have stepped out in faith to His obedience. firstly I recognized He was talking to me, nope He wasn’t talking to the person next to me to go knock on that door, He was telling me too. And there were and are times where I don’t obey, but luckily I am starting to realize as long as His word says it I am to obey. I am to listen. and I am to grow in Him with everything I do. The obedience causes growth, it causes you to see freedom in what He calls you to do, and it causes you to hear Him even louder now, because you weren’t silencing Him in your comfort zone anymore.

I am still listening, asking, and trying my best to obey, because I want to grow. The only way you can grow is to get out of that box and let the Holy Spirit move you in the direction He wants you to go. Let the Spirit kick that box out, let Him show you what it is like to fully rely on His commands and love. Because that’s what you see when you obey. You see His love and hear Him even louder then you ever did when you were in that box. And isn’t that we as believers long for? To hear His voice? To feel His presence? In our box His voice is muffled, muted, and we feel alone. But outside of that box we get to hear Him, and know Him even more.