Is Your Comfort Zone Killing You?

Your comfort zone could be killing you: not just naturally, but even spiritually. Trying something new in order to get different results could be something that you avoid because the unknown frightens you. Although your situation might not be the best, it beats trying and failing at something you’ve never done. Most of us have settled for whatever/whomever we can get because reaching for more would cause us to get out of a position we’re comfortable being in.

The divorce rates are astronomical and they can be disheartening to someone who wants to get married or even those who are already married. When statistics tell you that more than half of the people who said “I do” actually don’t, it makes you rethink the decision you have made. Television and media have led us to believe that happy marriages just don’t exist. Even the people who do stay together until death separates them don’t always have positive things to say about their union. Why would God create something to describe His love for us that seems so hard for any of us to be successful at?

Galatians 1:4 Jesus gave his life for our sins, just as God our Father planned, in order to rescue us from this evil world in which we live.

Marriage can only represent Christ’s love for us if it requires us to give ourselves up. Our personal agenda can no longer be the focus because that only pushes us towards comfort. Your marriage won’t make you comfortable because it will challenge who you used to be and push you to becoming the person God planned for you to be. Marriages don’t just end because of infidelity; they end because people can’t stand to feel uncomfortable.

Before I got married, I was accustomed to doing things my way and they worked out the way I wanted them to…most of the time. But when I became a Mrs. I had to learn how to let go of the way I had always done things. That was so uncomfortable for me because I was raised to be extremely independent and to do things on my own. I had to realize that my temporary discomfort was a sign that my marriage was going somewhere that it had never been. Giving up my old way of doing things paved the way for God to do the miraculous. 

When I stepped out my comfort zone, I walked right into God’s will.

Every kind of discomfort you feel doesn’t mean you’re headed in the wrong direction. We are taught to not even sip from the bitter cup of change. If it requires us to do something we’ve never done, we shy away from the opportunity. But the mentality that someone has to accept you for who you are but you don’t have to accept them is KILLING us.  A tree that doesn’t produce fruit (growth) has to be cut off. Your relationships can’t progress if all parties are pursuing comfort instead of God’s plans.

The challenge of marriage is to get both people to give themselves up for the sake of the other. You can’t wake up every day with a list of how your spouse can please you. You must wake up every day with a list of how you can please your spouse in a way different than yesterday. In other words, you have to make yourself uncomfortable so your marriage can survive. Without moving beyond your comfort zone, you suffocate your marriage’s ability to grow.

Try waking up every day, eating the same breakfast, listening to the same music, wearing the same clothes, driving the same way to and from work, eating the same lunch, and eating the same dinner. After a while, that gets boring. You may have gotten comfortable with boring but you’ve also stopped growing. Apply the same theory to your marriage. How can your marriage flourish when you haven’t watered it or given it room to grow?

Do not place your comfort over the needs of your marriage. It’s grown all it can under the conditions you’ve placed it in. Now is the time to position yourself where you have no plan but God has a purpose. Don’t let your marriage die because it requires you to do something you’ve never done. Stretch beyond the usual and watch how God’s plans come alive!

With All My Love,
Mrs. Truscott