Hope In God The Source Of All Comfort Series

Hope in God The Source of all comfort

We continue in our series on Hope Found Here and this month our focus is on Hope in the Comforter.

Listen to the words of 2 Corinthians 1:3-7

All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is our merciful Father and the source of all comfort. He comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others. When they are troubled, we will be able to give them the same comfort God has given us. For the more we suffer for Christ, the more God will shower us with His comfort through Christ. Even when we are weighed down with troubles, it is for your comfort and salvation! For when we ourselves are comforted, we will certainly comfort you. Then you can patiently endure the same things we suffer. We are confident that as you share in our sufferings, you will also share in the comfort God gives us.

God is meant to be the source of our comfort, the source of our strength in adversity or trouble. Is God your comforter in all things or have you built yourself your own comfort zone?

A comfort zone, an invisible barrier that make you feel safe and secure. All of us have our comfort zones. Some of us surround ourselves with them. Some of us live in them. Some of us visit them. And some of us have learned to ignore our comfort zones and trust God to be our comforter, our strength, our refuge in every circumstance.

When we get used to something, or when we have done something in a particular way for a while, or when we just don’t want something to change, those are times when we can find ourselves in a comfort zone of our own design.

We develop comfort zones to help us feel secure, we develop comfort zones when we do not want the way we do things to change. Sometimes we are so scared of what might, we retreat further into our own comfort zone.

Someone once said that the only people who like change are babies with dirty nappies! I think my grandson would testify to that, the smiles he gives when someone changes his nappy are beautiful. If I’m honest I’m happy to see his smile but changing his nappy would take me outside my comfort zone!

If we are honest with ourselves, it’s easier for us to keep doing the same things - over and over and over again - than it is for us to allow change in our lives!

Even when it is God’s will that change should happen in our lives - or when it is God’s will that change should happen in the life of our church, we choose the comfortable option, the safe option. Have you ever done that?

Have you ever chosen the “safe” option? The option that says, I know God is bigger than this, I know God has said that all things are possible to those who believe, I know God is a God of miracles, BUT...

just in case this situation is bigger than God,

just in case I don’t have enough faith,

just in case God has stopped working miracles,

I am going to stay in my comfort zone and take the option that seems to be the safest.

Do you ever find yourself settling for second best?

Do you ever find yourself choosing the easy option?

What is it that stops you living and serving as God want you to live?

So often we settle for something easy and routine instead of striving for the best of what God wants to give us.

We have been called to trust God, we have been called to follow Him, we have been told that He has promised in whatever circumstance we find ourselves that He will never leave us or forsake us, yet we find ourselves fenced in by our own boundaries, we hide ourselves, we trap ourselves, we convince ourselves that we feel safe in our comfort zone.

In our comfort zone, we can choose to ignore God, we can hide ourselves so deep we ignore His voice, or worse we get to the point where we believe that we are trapped in our comfort zone and that there is no escape from a prison we have created.

Have you put walls around your comfort zone? Have you put a fence around the wall, so even if you try to escape your comfort zone there are additional barriers which prevent you from heading in the direction God is calling you to take?

Has your comfort zone become a prison? Is it the fear of the unknown that keeps you trapped inside your comfort zone? To be free from what has imprisoned you, you need to trust God and open the door.