What Are You Clinging To For Comfort?
What Do You Cling to for Comfort?
Two weeks ago, I was in KY for the Christian Leadership Alliance Outcomes event. On my flight home I sat next to someone who was coughing on and off, although they were wearing a mask I thought: “I wonder if this person has COVID.” Two days later I got it. It was the first time and it hit me hard and my husband as well. Anytime something hits us in life and we feel out of control it’s easy to cling to things of comfort. Being sick these past two weeks has giving me the opportunity to reflect on the things in my life that I do cling to for comfort. A friend and colleague of mine sent me a YouTube video entitled: Cuffed to Comfort, the timing of the message was perfect. It is an hour and a half sermon that I highly recommend by Pastor Mike Todd.
Have you ever walked into a situation and said: “I’m really uncomfortable in situations like this?” Perhaps it’s public speaking, which is linked to fear of judgement or rejection. Maybe you fear conflict? Again, linked to fear of judgement or rejection or maybe it’s a fear of failure that keeps you up at night…this too has its roots in fear of judgement or rejection.
Let’s lean in a little more on the topic of judgement and rejection being that the two-walk hand in hand when it comes to robbing our sense of inner peace, safety and comfort. Consider the flip side of your behavior when it comes to those things you cling to in order to avoid judgement or rejection.
What are those things in your life that you have given a false sense of security over to? I’ll jump in with a personal favorite of mine: the need for control in order to feel safe. Oh, I will send out some trust prayers but deep inside me there is this desperation around my need for control which causes me to seek a “back up plan” just in case God doesn’t pull through. Can you relate?
Many of our “back up plans” rob us of inner peace and comfort from the One whose name is the “comforter” or the Holy Spirit within you. God desires to offer you the comfort you deeply seek which comes from knowing in Christ you are set free from judgement as you repent seek forgiveness and turn in a different direction as did Peter, Matthew, Paul, Zacchaeus, Mary Magdalene, and many more who encountered the love of Jesus. Each time sin meets the Savior, repentance (a turning away from behavior that ultimately harmed the person in some way, emotionally, physically, spiritually) takes over and a resurrected identity emerges. One that does not ground their identity on back up plans but one that has full confidence in God’s saving love, purpose and plan.
How do you know when you are clinging to something that offers temporary comfort? You have anxiety over the thought of losing it. Like control. The thought of not being in control of __________________ causes me anxiety. Another way of saying it:The thought of not being in control in this situation scares me to death.So, I will look for things to cling to in order to give me a false sense of control in my life. Truly the only thing we have control over when it comes to life and death is our choice to choose God in the midst of our not knowing how things are going to turn out or why things happen as they do.
At the end of the sermon: Cuffed to Comfort, Pastor Todd inviting the audience to write down 6 things that you are clinging to (cuffed to) for comfort in your life. Here are few to consider:
- Accomplishments
- Salary
- Health
- Image in the mirror
- Popularity particularly on social media
- Success
- Power over others
- Being the expert
- Bing watching
- Food/drinks
- Control
Take time to write down 6 things that you are clinging to for comfort, those things that offer you momentary hits of psychological ease, perhaps giving you a false sense of security around your identity in some way. Ask yourself how that thing of comfort is distracting you from the calling God has on your life. Jesus is after you. He wants the wounds, the insecurities the fear of rejection and judgement…He wants to heal it all.
Too often it’s not until we come to the end of ourselves, we have exhausted all resources that we wake up to this truth:Those who have God, find they lack nothing. It’s when I came to the end of myself, my resources, my strength, my knowledge, my abilities, my comforts that I encountered the power of the One who makes all things possible for me and along with it all, the peace that passes all human understanding and the comfort my soul has always longed for…for when I am weak, it is then that I become strong in Him. “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.” 2 Corinthians 12:9
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