When God Called Me Out of My Comfort Zone

Written By WS Tan

When I graduated some years ago, my goals were to find a stable career and see myself progress in it. While I don’t recall aspiring to be exceedingly wealthy, I did desire to own an apartment, hopefully buy a small car for transport convenience, as well as enjoy a little “luxury” like watching the movies occasionally.

It is by God’s grace that I currently have a stable job, such that together with my husband, we are able to finance our apartment and our car today. Just as we are slowly easing into and getting acquainted with this phase of our lives, God recently made known to both of us that He has bigger plans for our lives.

At the beginning of this year, my husband and I were called by God to rest in the year of the Jubilee, and get enrolled in a full-time church course. To cut to the chase, this year is my nation’s Jubilee year (50th year). It also happens to be our seventh year of work. (In Leviticus 25, we read about the 50th year being a year of release and liberty, where people are to return to the land that belonged their ancestors and the land is given rest.)

Although I’m really excited about taking up this course, knowing that I’ll get to know God in a deeper way, it also means that I have to get out of my comfort zone and leave my job, which I have been progressing well in, and not be salaried in the immediate future, for at least a year. As my husband also received the same word from God to take a year of no pay leave for the same studies, the reality of our decision has started to sink in. Mathematically, a year without pay for a family of two will be a stretch for anyone. Moreover, with our 30-year housing loan, five-year car loan, and several insurance policies to finance, it doesn’t make sense that both of us should be taking a break from work at the same time.

But after much prayer, God reminded me that this is His will and that He will instruct and teach me in the way I should go; He will counsel me with His loving eye upon me (‭Psalm‬ ‭32‬:‭8‬). While I don’t know what is to come for the rest of this year and the next, I do know that I need only hold on to God’s promise that He will instruct and teach me, and I should move forward in faith. As 2 Corinthians 5:7 says “For we live by faith, not by sight.”

If God has called me to rest in Him, surely He will provide for me. I will continue to trust in the Lord and humbly ask that you’ll pray for my husband and I to grow stronger in our faith and be of good courage for Him!