Comfort Outside The Comfort Zone

I have never been comfortable with change. I’m not very adaptable. Just when I get situated, just when I feel the ever-desired illusion of permanence, life has a funny way of pulling the rug out from under me. But the only way to the fold of a steadfast and unchanging God is to change everything, to drop everything to follow Him, to step out of our comfort zone to enter into the only real comfort - The Great Comforter.

The world is a completely different place than it was a year ago. Drastic changes have a way of making our hearts troubled. When this happens, it’s a good reminder to step back and ask myself who or what my source of peace is. Am I feeling worried, anxious, unsettled, afraid? Generally that means I’m placing my faith in myself, in things here on earth, in other people. While I'm not immune to these feelings, if my source of peace is the Lord, I'm able to deny their hold on my heart. I am able to have true hope regardless of the prognosis of my circumstances. I’m able to remind myself that God has a plan and all things are possible. I’m able to cast my cares on Him and take up His yoke and burden because when mine are so heavy with the weights of this world, His are easy and light.

If you’re needing that reminder today, if you’re needing to make Him the source of your peace once again, here are some passages that I pray will bring comfort to you. The Bible is full of details and beautiful characteristics about the Lord our God, and one of the main characteristics both the Old and New Testaments focus on is his steadfastness and faithfulness. So many people in the Bible needed this constant reminder when life seemed uncertain, and we do too.

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. -Hebrews 13:8

So that by two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us. -Hebrews 6:18

Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. -James 1:17

God is not man, that he should lie, or a son of man, that he should change his mind. Has he said, and will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it? -Numbers 23:19

The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever. -Isaiah 40:8

Of old you laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands. They will perish, but you will remain; they will all wear out like a garment. You will change them like a robe, and they will pass away, but you are the same, and your years have no end. -Psalm 102:25-27

If we are faithless, he remains faithful— for he cannot deny himself. -2 Timothy 2:13

Have you not known? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable. -Isaiah 40:28

Know therefore that the Lord your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations, -Deuteronomy 7:9