Stepping out of your comfort zone

As we get older, we start to become creatures of habit.  We get comfortable.  We get complacent.  We develop this thought process that there is always tomorrow or it will change later. 


We like how comfortable things feel.  Change is difficult and we don't want to be stretched.  Yet isn't this what Jesus calls us to do?

Sometimes even the smallest step in faith can have the most profound effects on us and those around us.

What is that first small step for you?  For me it was starting to believe and have faith in a God that I could not see and that I could not hear.  Then it was talking to Him.  It is still a process of believing that God has chosen me to do things for Him.

2 Corinthians 5:17 "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come." (NIV)

Take a moment to reflect on that.  The OLD is gone -

• Whatever you have done in your past is gone - see Isaiah 43:25 
• God has forgiven you

• Because of God's love - see John 3:16 -17 - we have been granted a new beginning, a new salvation, a new mission.
• Read Isaiah 53:5  -  summed up - "by his wounds we are healed" - but don't take my word for it.  Read it.  Read about the story of Jesus LONG before he came

The NEW has come - 

• You are a new creation in Christ - refer again to 2 Corinthians

What a glorious reward.  Yet it is not the ultimate reward.  Remembering that God gave his one and only son (a concept as a father that I cannot fathom) to save each and every one of us, it falls on us to not squander this gift.

This is one time where the sharing of a gift in not only OK but encouraged!!  This is where people get uncomfortable.  Oh, no - he's going to say - "Tell someone about the gift you've been given."  And you are right.

When I found happiness in God, I found happiness in life.  And I want to shout it from the mountain tops.  Just like when my children were born, I want to tell everyone about it.

For many of us, we maybe do not know how.  That is where recently I talked about just facilitating the introduction.  It is up them to then have a conversation with God.  But again, you have to stretch yourself to begin to do that.  We can't just waste our gift by sitting back and enjoying the blessings.  Share them.

God has a purpose for each of us.  God has a plan.  It won't be easy.  Trust me.  I did not know God most of my life, even though He was still with me I realize now looking back.  I falter now with words to describe God's love and gentle hands.  But God guides my fingers as I type, so I do not have to worry.

Step out.  Do something radical for God.  He did for you.

Blessings to each of you this day.  God loves you and so do I.

Pastor Jim