Here’s a riddle for you:
What is it that makes you feel secure while putting your in life in danger?
Answer: Your comfort zone.
Here’s another riddle:
What do you call something that makes you breathe easier while it suffocates you?
Answer: Your comfort zone.
One more and then we’re done:
What do you believe can take you where you want to go, but in reality keeps you from ever going anywhere?
Answer: (c’mon, ya gotta know where I’m going with this by now!)
If you prefer to watch a video, click on this link: Watch the video.
A comfort zone is that certain way of thinking, of acting, of eating, of doing things or believing something that you have always done, and so you feel secure and relaxed with it.
While some people may excuse staying in their comfort zone because it allows them to be efficient and to maintain a standard, the actual descriptive term for what they say helps them to maintain their standards is: stagnation.
The comfort zone most people have is what they were brought up with, it is all they know, and it is all they want to know.
Talk to a bigot who hates a certain class of person, even though they never knew anyone in that class, and you will see the epitome of a comfort zone.
People in a comfort zone are really just maintaining a certain level of ignorance.
For example, speaking religiously, people don’t want to hear that the holidays they celebrate aren’t the ones God told us to celebrate.
They don’t want to know that the commandments God gave about food are still valid for anyone who wants to please God.
Here’s something that’s really hard to understand: people stay in their comfort zone even when they know it is wrong!
In my lifetime, I have met many people who know that they should be doing something differently, yet when it comes down to it, they do what they have always done.
I read a book once that talked about people in a bad relationship, and it said that when one tries to change the relationship to make it better, the other goes out of their way to reestablish the bad one. Why would someone do something so damaging to themselves?
It’s that darn old comfort zone, again.
Here’s an example: let’s say I tell you that after decades of study, I have come to the conclusion that modern Christianity is based more on misinterpretations of what Paul said than anything Jesus ever said, and hearing this makes you feel really uncomfortable- well, that’s a good thing. If something someone says disrupts your comfort zone, then it is to your benefit to examine what was said.
The most dangerous thing about a comfort zone, if you ask me, is that it restricts you from growing in knowledge or ability, and as such leads you to a path of destruction more than a path of salvation.
I am very comfortable with my beliefs, but I still read what others say and verify for myself if what they say makes me uncomfortable that it is biblically valid. And yes- I have had to change things I believed, and when I do it is VERY uncomfortable.
But, it is also very uncomfortable taking yucky tasting medicine that cures my sickness, but I am going to take it because I know I have to on order to get better.
It is very uncomfortable for me to stretch before going on a bike ride, but I do it because I know it is important to be limber before an exercise.
It is very uncomfortable for me to eat only three or four crispy and spicy chicken wings, but that is better for me than eating eight or ten of them.
(OK, I confess, this is one comfort zone I usually stay in.)
The most dangerous comfort zone of all is our spiritual comfort zone.
It’s one thing to be taught all you need to do is be a good person and love each other and you get to go to heaven, and a totally different thing to hear no one goes to heaven. The Bible tells us that we who are saved stay on the new earth.
It is very uncomfortable to be told that our parents may not greet us after we die, or that our loved ones may not even be saved.
And it is totally uncomfortable to realize that we may be doing the wrong things in God’s eyes, even though everyone we ever respected and trusted has been telling us that what we do is fine with God.
So what’s today’s message all about?
It’s about getting a little less comfortable, and making sure that what you have been told is fine with God, really is fine with God.
And how can you know what is really fine with God? How can I be absolutely certain that what I am being told is really directly from God?
Go to where God tells you what is absolutely fine with him, and that is in the first 5 books of the Bible, which is called the Torah (the word “Torah” means learning, not law).
Truth be told, that is the ONLY place in the entire Bible where God (the father of the Messiah) tells us directly, with Moses taking dictation, exactly what he wants us to do: which Holy Days are the ones he says we have to celebrate (for the record, that doesn’t mean we can’t celebrate man-made holidays, just that those days God says we must, we must), how we should treat each other, how we should run a business, it has a penal code, we are told which animals are good for eating and which are bad, and many other things, to include the difference between sexually acceptable and sexually perverted relationships.
Your comfort zone just feels so nice: it is pleasant, it is easy to do, it satisfies your earthly desires, and you know what that sounds like?
That sounds like the definition of sin.
I’m sorry- does that make you feel uncomfortable? Good!
Thank you for being here and please subscribe to this ministry on my website and my YouTube channel, as well. Help it continue to grow by sharing these messages with everyone you know- let’s make them uncomfortable, too.
On my website buy my books, and on Facebook join my group called “Just God’s Word” (please read and agree to the rules).
And one last thing- remember that I always welcome your comments.
That’s it for today, so l’hitraot and Baruch HaShem!
