Comfort

The other day I went to the store to buy some jeans. I admit I hate jeans, I think they are uncomfortable. However, I was in need of a pair, and I was in a hurry. I get to the store and they are sized weird, so I found a sales lady who measured me and told me where to start.

I started with a seven and made my way down to a four. When I got to the five, the lady said, oh yes, I forgot to tell you, you want the pants to be skin tight, they adjust to you and will be the most comfortable things you have ever wore as you begin to move around in them. Honestly, I was thinking she was nuts and that I hate tight clothes. But I was in a hurry, I tried them on and I bought the jeans. I must say the jeans were everything the sales lady said they would be. Those jeans reminded me of our walk with God.

So many times in my life, I have asked God to deliver me from a problem, instead of giving me comfort as I go through it. In the midst of problems I will hear Him saying "Be still my child and know that I am God. I am in control, and you will make it through this." I admit that it is sometimes hard to listen to that voice over the waves crashing in around me, but when I take the time to - I always find his comfort. I am sure that if I took time to get rest in His comfort I would see it expand and grow as more of my will is submitted to God.

Like that favorite pair of jeans that you put on at the beginning of the day and they just feel so restrictive, but as you move around and start to live, they just kind of loosen up and expand into comfort. I think that is how God is.

We first have to chose to put on the things that He gives us. Just as we put on a pair of jeans, we must put on God. I can remember being so uncomfortable in jeans that I did the bear minimum I needed to do just so I wouldn't have to move around. We can take the minimum God has and live for Him, but never feel the total comfort that we can have in Him.

And just like when you first start moving around in a pair of tight jeans, it can be unpleasant. Sometimes we decide to change because we want immediate comfort. In our walk with Christ, we feel that little bit of unpleasantness as we start to move, and we become immobilized and never go any farther. Or we decide that it must not be right, so we change what we were doing even though God didn't tell us too.

But when you decide to stay in your jeans, by the end of the journey, it is as if they were taylor made and the most comfortable thing you own. So it is, if we chose to live our life, despite the circumstances surrounding us, in God's perfect will. We find a comfort that surpasses everything. We can chose to have the attitude that God will never take us where his grace can not keep us and begin to live in the comfort that is afforded to us through the sacrifice that Christ paid.

So put on God, move past the pain, and just live in His comfort!

Written Nov 8, 2008.