Hurt A Little

We get comfortable in our faith.
And one of the things I've learned is that If you are comfortable in your faith then you are not growing.  We should all be secure in our faith, but the problem with getting comfortable in our faith is that we tend to start just going through the motions.

When you first start exercising, you know that you are making progress because you're sweating a lot, and you're sore.  Your muscles actually strengthen and gain bulk by tearing.  When you're building muscle by exercising, you get little microscopic tears in your muscle fibers.  And it's through the repairing of those tears, that you gain more muscle fiber, almost like scar tissue building upon scar tissue.

So, to gain strength and muscle mass physically, you have to get uncomfortable.

You have to hurt a little

If you sit around and stay comfortable, you're not going to gain any strength or muscle mass.  If you sit around for too long, then you actually start to lose muscle mass.  Through inactivity, your muscles begin to physically atrophy.

This also happens to us spiritually when we have no real spiritual commitments that bring us out of our comfort zone.  We begin to atrophy spiritually.  To grow spiritually and to gain spiritual strength, you have to get uncomfortable, you have to be inconvenienced.

You have to hurt a little.

"So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure." (Philippians 2:12,13)