Since coming home from training camp, my eyes have been glued to the book Kingdom Journeys by Seth Barnes, the creator of the World Race. It heavily focuses on abandoning comfort and allowing God to take up that space.
If I could, I would quote the entire book for your benefit..its just that good.. but here are a few lines that got me thinking about the control I try to steal from God and the comfort I have been relying on.
“If we never get out of our comfort zones, we can’t grow into the places God has prepared for us.”
“Jesus knew we would never learn to rely on God unless we walked away from the crutches we’re prone to lean on.”
“We learn to depend on his spirit by breaking unhealthy habits and addictive comforts.”
“We desperately need to exhaust our personal resources. We need to declare bankruptcy, falling on our knees in dependence on our Lord, who is waiting to be more than a last resort.”
Since training camp, there have been two things that have been my comfort, things I have turned to instead of God: my phone and food, here is why:
Phone: We had no access to wifi at camp, which at the time I thought I was totally fine with. I am ok with not constantly scrolling through social media. It was a simple decision for me to not bring my phone on the World Race. I’m not addicted to social media. But coming home, with unlimited wifi, it became my comfort. I had to force myself to not scroll through 10 days of missed Instagram posts. I was constantly refreshing my email and fundraising page. I spent more time on wifi than I did with the Lord. Instead of praising the God, I would immediately text someone else about something God did. My relationship became more about Him rather than with Him.
Food: As some of you know, I can be quite the picky eater. Which you would be surprised and proud to know that at camp I tried EVERY meal given to us. Going from camp with minimal food to home with unlimited and food and sugar, I couldn’t control the constant reliance on food for a comfort that I had missed during the 10 days at camp. I literally ate an entire box of lemon Oreos in like 3 days. I turned to food for comfort rather than the Lord.
I so desire to wholly depend and rely on the Lord by finding complete comfort in him and not these worldly things. I want to turn to Him in times of need and times of praise. I want to believe that He truly is faithful. So I decided it was time to abandon some comfort through a fast.
By abandoning those areas of comfort, I filled that space with prayer, praise, and scripture reading. I wanted to give God the space to move in me, and boy did He move. My fast may not have been incredibly long, but it only took a short amount of time for God to teach me these 3 lessons:
The Lord has not forgotten about me. Behold, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands. Isaiah 49:16. To be honest, sometimes it is so hard for me to understand how the creator of the universe can care so deeply about every single person. But thats the thing, I don’t have to understand. The Lord loves me, chooses me, and pursues me. I am His and He is mine. He is yours and you are His! I am engraved on the palms of His hands, making it impossible to forget
The Lord will Comfort me in a way that Nothing else can. God showed me this in so many ways. Fasting is hard. But when I was able to turn to the Lord instead of food or my phone, He gave me comfort. He filled my hunger and gave me peace greater than the satisfaction of a lemon Oreo. He is my strength. I usually get bad migraines when going a while without food, but not this time. I praise God for that.
The Lord is worthy of my time. Not only is the Lord deserving of my time, He wants it! He actually wants to know me and be in relationship with me! It is such an honor and a blessing that we have a God like this! I found so much joy in filling my time with Him through prayer and scripture. Seriously, it was so cool!
God doesn’t just want us to know everything about Him, He wants us to know Him. Today my relationship with God became more of exactly that, a relationship.
What do you find yourself spending time with more than God? Give that time to Him and he will use it. I am not saying it will be easy and painless, but God will make better use of that time than any Instagram newsfeed ever will.
