Do you like to be comfortable? I do! I’ve got this big easy chair in my office, and I just love to recline in it and listen to a good CD. I also like to have peace in the world, and I like it when my stock portfolio increases in value. But are comfort, peace and prosperity always a good thing? Often they are tools the enemy uses to lull us into a “comfort zone” where we just don’t care about the world around us. The only comfort the early Christians had was the Holy Spirit and the only peace was the peace that they had in knowing Jesus. Frankly, their lives were marked by many different kinds of tragedy and difficulty. So when those moments of comfort, peace and prosperity come I’ll enjoy them for a moment or two, and then it’s back to work! They can never be the goal of a Christian’s life. Loving God and bringing love into the lives of others are our goals. For us, those comfy things are simply luxuries we cannot afford.
“While people are saying, ‘Peace and safety,’ destruction will come on them suddenly, as labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.” 1 Thessalonians 5:3