I was a comfortable Christian, but I have come to realize these two words don't go together, or at least they shouldn't. In fact, comfortable Christianity is a real oxymoron.
Proverbs 16:27 says that "Idle hands are the devil’s workshop." I see a strong association between the words idle and comfort, so I think the verse could just as easily read "comfort is the devil's workshop."
I believe comfort leads to idleness, and when we are idle, it means we have stopped growing, and as Christians, this should never be the case.
This is where I was. Because I had made comfort my God and viewed it in such high regard, I had become idle and growth had halted. But God, just as any loving father would do for his child, stepped in and showed me a better way to live.
God started changing my heart in ways only He could orchestrate, and I began to see the errors in my attitude and my approach to the Christian faith. I came to realize I wasn't growing or maturing because I wasn't following the example of Jesus. When I started examining the life of Jesus, I saw a man who was always willingly putting himself in uncomfortable situations. When I looked at Jesus, I saw a man who was truly living.
But this certainly wasn't me. In fact, I was doing the opposite. I was running away from anything that had the potential to get uncomfortable (i.e. sharing my faith, taking risks where the outcome depended on God intervening, being counter-cultural, etc.). I have grown tired of this way of living. I want to start living out the faith I claim to believe in, knowing at times, this could result in some uncomfortableness. But also realizing that when I step outside my comfort zone, I start living life to fullest.
