WHAT SHOULD I DO WHEN GOD'S LEADING MAKES ME UNCOMFORTABLE? There are times we’re fine with the Lord and then He pushes us in a direction we don’t like.
- Jonah 1:3.
- Our walk with God seems fine. Everything is going ok. We’ve been fine with what He’s asked of us in the past.
- Then He guides us into a situation that pushes us in a direction that we don’t like.
- Often, when we end up there, we do what Jonah did: we run in the opposite direction.
- We want to talk today about some specific examples of this in our lives, why God does that, and the choice that we’ve got to make.
EXAMPLES OF WAYS THAT GOD WILL CHALLENGE YOU:
1. Prejudices.
- Jonah 1:1.
- In Jonah’s case, his prejudice was against the people of Nineveh. And let’s say: as an Israelite, Jonah had reasons (humanly speaking) to be angry with them and want their destruction. But God wanted their redemption. God is not the God of one group; He is the God of all people.
- Examples:
a. Racial prejudice.
- Let’s say there is an older Christian who has an interracial couple purchase a house in their neighborhood. Now, of course, there’s nothing Biblically wrong with interracial relationships, but this older Christian still has some of the attitudes of an earlier era in the back of their mind.
- God is challenging them to look beyond skin color and to love everyone as a child of God, but that’s not something that comes to them easily.
b. A broken family.
- There’s a couple that splits in an ugly divorce and people on both sides of the extended family choose sides. Feelings are hurt, friendships are destroyed, and hurt lingers. A couple years later, one of the family members is diagnosed with cancer. This is someone that was on the other side of the fight. God burdens a believer to go to the hospital to pray with that person. They don’t want to because they still have bad feelings toward the person because of the hurtful things they said as well as being uncertain of how their visit will be received (will they be angrily driven from the room)? They know God is speaking to them about going, but they don’t want to and it makes them uncomfortable.
2. Comfort zones.
- There are ways that we get comfortable and enjoy exercising our faith within those parameters. God wants to push us beyond what’s comfortable.
- Examples:
a. Witnessing.
- A woman has a co-worker who is not a believer. The Lord begins to impress upon the woman the need to speak about faith to the co-worker, but the thought of doing that makes the woman sick to her stomach. She’s never done that before and doesn’t like saying anything that might not be received happily. Still God is clearly pushing her to do that.
b. Serving.
- A man enjoys his church’s worship services. He is a part of the church, but only as a spectator. He begins to feel a push to serve within the church, but he’s never done that before. He doesn’t know if he’d do whatever he did wrong or what he’d even be good at doing within the church. He knows he should step up and begin to serve, but it’s more comfortable to just sit in the pew.
3. Pet sins.
- There are things that we justify within our lives. We get comfortable with our sin.
- Examples:
a. Porn.
b. Gossip.
4. Blind spots.
- This one has to do with God growing us by bringing to our attention aspects of our Christian life where we’re not seeing things that He wants in our lives.
- Examples:
a. Fasting.
- A woman prays and reads the Bible, but then one day she comes across a gospel passage where it says that Jesus expects His disciples to fast. A couple days later, a co-worker talks about fasting for the revival that’s coming up that Sunday at her church. To the woman, fasting is a foreign concept. She’s never done it before and it’s not something that’s emphasized within her congregation. Yet she senses God pushing her to obey Christ in this area.
b. The American Dream.
- A man lives an upper-middle-class suburban life, just like everyone else around him. Reading the gospels causes him to begin to question whether that’s acceptable to God, even though no one else around him really seems to be bothered by it. He finds God pushing him to question the American Dream as being the true “good life.”
WHY WOULD GOD DELIBERATELY MAKE US UNCOMFORTABLE? There are two main reasons: (a) Kingdom impact and (b) personal growth.
- It sounds bad to say that the Lord deliberately puts us in a situation that makes us uncomfortable, but it makes more sense when we talk about why He would do that.
- Two reasons:
a. Kingdom impact.
- In the example that our passage gives us, there is an obvious goal for God pushing Jonah beyond what he’s comfortable with: God wants to give the people of Nineveh a chance to repent of their actions. God would rather bring mercy than judgment.
- He needs someone to go and proclaim that important message. When you weigh the potential repentance of a large city versus a little discomfort for Jonah, it’s obvious which one should win out.
- In our lives, there are people that God wants to reach that perhaps for one of the reasons that we discussed a minute ago you might right now be unwilling to reach out to. God has every right to push you in ways that make you uncomfortable in order to further His Kingdom.
b. Personal growth.
- The second reason is that you need to be pushed.
- I say all the time that the goal of the Christian life is for you to be like Jesus. That’s never going to happen if you stay where you’re comfortable.
- God is less interested in your comfort and more interested in your Christlikeness.
- If we are not obeying God 100%, He’s going to regularly push us in that direction. Doing that requires putting us in situations where we’re uncomfortable.
YOUR CHOICE: Run or overcome?
- Jonah 1:3; Revelation 2:7, 11, 17, 26; Revelation 3:5, 12, 21; Revelation 21:7.
- As you face these situations (and maybe you’re facing one today), you basically have two choices: run or overcome.
a. Run.
- You can look at what God is clearly asking you to do, complain that it pushes you in a direction that you don’t want to go, and turn and take off in the other direction.
- That’s what Jonah did. He ran from the Lord.
- Now, of course, it’s an ironic statement to say that you’re going to “run from the Lord” because God is everywhere so you can’t get away from Him, but that doesn’t stop us from trying.
b. Overcome.
- An essential part of the Christian walk is overcoming. Sometimes we preachers make it sound like God is going to whisk every obstacle out of your way and you’re going to have clear sailing from here on out, but it’s just not true.
- Early in Revelation, there are the letters to the seven churches. To each one of those churches, Jesus says at some point “to the one who overcomes” and then shares some reward that He will give. What’s that tell us? Overcoming is not optional. It’s an essential part of the Christian life.
- If you are unwilling to persevere beyond the obstacles in front of you, you are not going to live a life that pleases Christ. Tying into what we’re talking about today, if you are not willing to be made uncomfortable and to walk forward with God even though you are uncomfortable, you are not going to live a life that pleases God.
- The wrong question is: do I want to?
- The right question is: is God leading?
- If God is leading, then we need to move forward, trusting His wisdom and direction. The question of whether I want to or not is secondary and shouldn’t stop us from moving forward.
A FINAL WARNING (JUST FOR LONG-TIME CHRISTIANS): If this hasn’t happened to you in a long time, you’re either (a) perfect or (b) heading to Tarshish.
- As I close today, I want to share a word to those believers who are here who have been walking with Christ a long time.
- Some of you are sitting there thinking, “This sermon must be for someone else – maybe the new Christians – because I haven’t felt God make me uncomfortable in a long time.” If that’s true for you today, there are two options of what’s going on in your life:
a. You’re perfect.
- You’ve arrived as a Christian. You are perfectly obeying everything He is asking you and have given 100% of your heart to Him.
- In case you can’t figure it out on your own, let me tell you: that’s not true in your life. If you don’t believe me, ask your spouse if you’re perfect.
b. You’re heading to Tarshish.
- The other option is that you’re running from God.
- How can this be true? Well, for a lot of long-time church members, we get used to giving a certain amount and when God pushes us beyond that, we find excuses and ways to avoid it. Slowly, we get comfortable with giving what we’re already giving and not doing more.
- Our hearts become deadened and callous to the continuing push of the Spirit. We’re sitting contentedly on the ship to Tarshish.
- Even if you’ve been a believer for 25 or 50 years, there are still ways that He wants to grow you and push you and use you that are beyond what’s comfortable for you. As I’ve said before, the Christian life doesn’t get easier the further we go. It gets harder because the more mature you become the more challenging things that God asks you to do.
- If you can’t remember the last time you did something for God that was uncomfortable for you, you need to be scared by that fact. If you can’t remember the last time God pushed you in a direction where you had to pray extensively to be willing to walk down that road, you need to be scared by that fact. It most likely means that you’re sailing for Tarshish.
- What should you do if you’re in that boat (no pun intended)?
- Your prayer today needs to be: “Father, I don’t want to be a fugitive from You. I want to do Your will, even if it’s challenging. Speak to me and I’ll obey.”
