daySIXTEEN :: Comfort and Trust

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. 

Romans 15:13

When all is going well it's easy to trust God, right?  When your family is all healthy and your bills are getting paid and you even have a little "nest egg" for security, it's easy to trust God.  But is that really trusting God?  For some, definitely.  For most, maybe not.  Throughout the Bible, we see that God is continually knocking people out of their proverbial comfort zones to get them to trust Him.  Adam and Eve are removed from their garden of comfort.  Abraham is asked to leave his country of comfort.  Joseph is tossed from his family of comfort.  Job has his physical comfort removed.  Saul loses his mental comfort.  David loses his moral comfort.  Then in the New Testament, James and John lose their financial comfort.  Peter loses his fighting comfort.  Paul loses his persecuting comfort.  This list is long.  There seems to be something about comfort that takes our focus and dependence off of the Father.  Now, I'm not suggesting that comfort, in itself, is a bad thing, but it does produce in us an environment of apathy and self-sustainability.  And it's in those moments or seasons of discomfort that people discover that their true comfort lies in the One who doesn't shift and doesn't wane.  

In our situation with The Springs, our comfort level is being tested.  We are currently about $15,000 dollars short of the total capital cost for our project.  We are up against deadlines that were comfortably out in front of us 3 months ago.  God has continually blessed us in many different ways - like providing materials and services instead of money, and we are amazed at the sacrificial commitments people have made to see this thing come to fruition.  Now we are in that place of discomfort.  And our prayer is that the God of hope fill us all with joy and peace as we trust in Him.  Why?  So we can pay the bills?  No.  So we may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.  We cannot make the payment of bills the end goal - even though it may be a temporary one.

prayTODAY ::

Pray today for the financial situation of our team.  Pray that new givers will arise and that those who have been waiting for an opportunity to give will see it clearly in these days.  Pray that God will not just send givers, but partners in the mission of our church, and that they too would be Springs where they live and work and play.