Finding Grace Outside Your Comfort Zone

Lately I seem to be finding myself doing a lot of new things...things that are not exactly within my comfort zone. To be clear, they are really little things. Due to my husband's busy ministry schedule and his upcoming knee replacement surgery in less than a month, I have taken on the job of mowing the lawn and keeping up with everything in the yard. I know that for a lot of women, this would not be something new or different, but in the 40 years that we have been married mowing the lawn is just something that my hubby has always done so I have very little experience in this area. Another thing I recently did for the first time was take our car to be serviced. Again, it was something new and different for me and because of that, I was nervous. What if they asked me a question I didn't know the answer to and thus revealed my ignorance when it comes to vehicles? I was imagining all kinds of scenarios! You may be laughing at me, but if you are honest, there are probably lots of things that I do that would be completely outside your comfort zone - speaking to large groups of women, teaching a class, counseling women and girls in crisis situations. I used to drive long distances by myself to visit family or pick up kids from college when we lived in the midwest, and a lot of ladies told me they didn't think they could ever do that! In short, we are comfortable with the familiar and with that which comes easily for us. When we are asked to do something unfamiliar or for which we feel inadequate, we can quickly and easily become very uncomfortable. And we as women like to feel safe. We treasure the secure and the familiar.

Different seasons of life require stepping outside of our comfort zone. Young women might need to leave home and attend a college that maybe isn't as close to home as what they had planned on, or their husbands take jobs which mean a move away from their family. Older women may find it necessary to care for aging parents or ill husbands, or raise grandchildren. In our churches and ministries we can be asked to mentor someone, teach a class, be in charge of an event, or share our testimony and we resist because it means stepping outside our comfort zone.

Did you ever consider that sometimes God puts us in situations where we feel inadequate and uncomfortable in order to teach us more about humility, depending on Him, and the sufficiency of His grace? God asks us to do the unfamiliar and the uncomfortable in order to stretch our faith.  Grace is defined by Jim Berg as "God's enabling strength," and I like that definition. Grace is also God giving me the desire and the power to do His will. Philippians 2:13 is one of my favorite verses - "For it is God (emphasis added) which worketh in you both to will and to do His good pleasure."

A spirit of humility is the first step toward being in the right position to receive God's grace. In 1 Peter 5:5, we are told that "God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble." That same thought is repeated in James 4:6 - "But He giveth more grace. Wherefore He saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace to the humble." God's grace is always there, but He can only give it to us if we humble ourselves and admit that we are unable to do this thing without His enabling strength. Pride says we don't need God's help, so we are not in a position to receive God's grace. That is why situations which are outside our comfort zones are often God's way of humbling us so that we learn to depend on Him and His grace - which truly is amazing.

Thoughtfully,
Kathi