There are at least six or seven different things that a skeptic would say to you when you have a word from God. Let’s say you’re on the wrong side of the Jordan, on the wandering side of life, but you are being called across. God is ready to launch you into a Promised Land. There will never be a time in your life when you will experience more anxiety and uncertainty than the time when you are right on the border of possessing what God has for your life.
If you would, take a little journey with me and just picture one of Joshua’s trusted confidents, a co-worker or maybe a general in his army. They come to him and say, “Joshua, I want to talk with you.” Picture this man being a skeptic in Joshua’s life, someone who came to him and said, “Joshua, I see the plan of God. I see the vision, and I hear the passion in your heart, but you have to be wise about where we’re headed. We need to be cautious; we need to be careful.”
The first thing I believe that the skeptic says is “It’s easier where you are.” It is always easier on this side of the Jordan. Why? Because you’ve been there for a while; it’s as simple as that. It’s familiar, even if you are in an uncomfortable place.
Many Christians live under a subtly deceptive belief that if a calling is too much work then it must not be God. If it’s from God, it’s going to be comfortable and easy, and it won’t demand a spirit of fortitude and vitality. That’s a deception from the enemy because he’s going to try to get you to say, “It’s getting too hard; it’s time to give up. It’s getting to be too much work now, and I want to stop laboring.”
Sometimes it’s easier to stay in a bad place, to be settled, comfortable and stuck because you are familiar with the place.
When God calls for movement and we cling to our comfort, we often find ourselves becoming more uncomfortable with the things that had once comforted us. We would actually be less discomforted if we’d gone into the things God called us to pursue. Clinging to the comfortable can become the ruin of the call of God on your life.