When God calls you out of your comfort zone, do you follow Him? Would you surrender everything you know, everything that makes you feel secure, and obey Him when He says “go”? Are you willing to take that leap of faith believing that He will catch you?
It’s scary, living that kind of trust. That blindly, following the voice of the Lord even if you don’t know exactly what He is doing or where He is leading you, kind of trust. But so often it’s following that still small voice in the hardest moments that leads to the most growth. When we leave behind everything we know, surrender all that is comfortable to us, and step into His will, He meets us there.
God doesn’t call us to be comfortable. In fact, He calls us to be the exact opposite. From the beginning of time until now He has asked His children to live out our faith. To follow Him blindly into the unknown. To press forward and keep walking hand in hand with him through tribulation. To stop holding on to what is comfortable and to start holding on to Him. To be faithful to Him even when we don’t see where He is taking us next.
But the question is, are we really willing to allow Him to take us to those places? Is our heart condition in a state of surrender to what God’s will is for our lives, rather than our own will?
If we are honest, thinking about discomfort creates an anxiety that kind dwells in our gut. We don’t like pain. We don’t like struggle. We don’t like difficulty. It’s easier to avoid these things, or to not step out at the risk of being hit in the face with any of these. Sometimes even at the cost of disobedience to God, we stay put. Denying ourselves, picking up our cross, and following Jesus just feels all too uncomfortable — so in many cases, it’s just easier to not do it. To instead follow God in a lukewarm manner.
But what about the blessing we receive from stepping out in obedience to God? We focus so much on the difficulty or discomfort that it could potentially bring us, and completely miss the fact that, in following God’s call, we will be experiencing more of who He is as we submit to His leading. Every time God calls us to do something scary, something out of our comfort zone, He promises us something incredible: that He will be there with us. Whether it’s something as simple as opening your Bible every morning, sacrificing that little bit of sleep to spend more time in His word, or uprooting your entire life to follow Him to the other side of the world. God promises to manifest Himself to us as we obey.
God is a good Father. He doesn’t call us to situations that cause us discomfort simply because He wants to make our lives hard. He calls us toward uncomfortable obedience so that we can experience His power, comfort, and joy. He calls us to this so we can experience His faithfulness and be conformed to the likeness of Jesus as we do. When God calls us out of our comfort zone, He is inviting us into deep and vibrant joy. A life of faith and obedience isn’t a comfortable life, but it is a rich and vibrant life saturated with the presence of God.
What is God calling you to? Will you allow obedience to God to take you into unknown places, to open your eyes to things you could never imagine doing on your own?
No matter which way He is tugging you, keep your eyes away from the cost of leaving your comfort zone and instead set your eyes on God. Take that first step of faith in the direction He is leading you.
Because whatever, or wherever, it is, it’s worth the cost.
Are you interested in getting out of your comfort zone and doing a Discipleship Training School with YWAM San Diego/ Baja? Click HERE to check out our different options for DTS.
Words by Kristy Lagarto.
Kristy staffs at our Ensenada campus and works in the areas of Discipleship Training Schools and Communications.
Photos by Tiffany Lambert.
Tiffany staffs at our Tijuana campus and works with Communications and leads a Photography Discipleship Training School.