There is a faux version of Christianity that asks nothing of you.
It requires no sacrifice. No surrender. No discomfort. No urgency. It fills buildings but rarely empties hearts of pride. It produces attendance, but not transformation. It creates spectators instead of disciples. This is the comfortable church. And it is one of the greatest spiritual dangers of our time.
Every Sunday morning, the casual Christian wanders into church. We put on our robe of righteousness and glad-hand fellow followers on our way to the seat where we always sit. This is the routine that we have established and it's comfortable. We know what to expect.
The issue isn't that we are being openly rebellious, it is that we have become quietly asleep.
For some reason, we continue to protect our comfort as if it were holy. This issue is, Christ never called us to comfort. In fact, it was the very opposite. He called them to die. “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.” - Luke 9:23
The cross was not a symbol of convenience. It was a symbol of death. To follow Christ meant to abandon self-preservation, reputation, and personal comfort. The early believers understood this. They risked imprisonment, rejection, and execution. Yet they followed with joy, because they had encountered something greater than comfort, they had encountered truth.
Today, many people have encountered church culture, but not the cost of discipleship. We have somehow evolved in learning how to attend without surrendering. To sing without yielding. To listen without obeying. And slowly, without realizing it, comfort has become our master.
Somewhere along the way, our church family traded the narrow road for the wide path. We exchanged the weight of the cross for the comfort of padded chairs and pews. We swapped the fire of the Holy Spirit for the lukewarm waters of cultural acceptance. But why? To what end? Church was meant to shape culture, not to be shaped by it. God is eternal and unchanging, so should we be.
The Danger of Spiritual Sleep
Scripture speaks directly to this condition: “Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.” - Ephesians 5:14
Think about this for a moment- you cannot wake someone who is pretending. But you can wake someone who is sleeping.
Many believers are not rebellious, they are dormant. Their faith has grown quiet. Their conviction has softened. Their urgency has faded. They still believe, but they no longer burn. God cannot use them because they are asleep at the wheel. This is the most subtle form of spiritual drift. There is no dramatic fall. No public collapse. Only a gradual settling into spiritual neutrality. Prayer becomes occasional. Scripture becomes optional. Obedience becomes conditional. We just drift along...
And over time, what was once alive becomes routine. Jesus warned the church in Sardis of this exact condition: “You have a reputation of being alive, but you are dead. Wake up! Strengthen what remains and is about to die.” - Revelation 3:1
They looked alive. They appeared healthy. But spiritually, they were fading. Reputation had been replaced by a new reality- that comfort numbs conviction.
Comfort convinces us that we are fine when we are not. It whispers, “You’re doing enough.”
But "enough" was never the standard. Surrender was. Comfort avoids difficult obedience. It resists repentance. It delays action. It keeps faith contained within safe boundaries.
But we know in our heart that following Jesus was never meant to be safe. The disciples left careers, security, and stability. They walked into uncertainty with confidence because they trusted the One who called them.
Today, many want the promises of God without the surrender to God. But there is no resurrection without a cross. No awakening without disruption. No transformation without surrender.
God Is Still Calling His People to Wake Up
Throughout Scripture, awakening always begins with discomfort. God called Abraham out of his homeland. Moses out of obscurity. Gideon out of fear. Peter out of his boat. Paul out of his former identity. God disrupts comfort because comfort preserves the present, but God calls us into the future.
Paul writes: “It is high time to awake out of sleep. For now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed.” - Romans 13:11
This is not a message of condemnation. It is a message of urgency! God has not abandoned His church, He is awakening it. The Church was vever meant to be comfortable- it was meant to be alive!
An awakened believer prays with conviction. Loves without hesitation. Obeys without delay. Speaks truth without fear. They do not follow Jesus casually. They follow Him completely.
Comfort produces spectators. And the world is not changed by spectators. Awakening produces disciples. It is changed by believers who are fully surrendered.
The church today is sleeping. Lulled by entertainment, distracted by prosperity, silenced by the fear of man. But the Spirit is calling us to wake up. We are activated into service. We are called into evangelism and to perform acts of love and kindness to others.
This is the hour to wake up.
Not tomorrow. Not someday. Now.
God is calling His church out of routine. Out of neutrality. Out of comfort and back into life.
Will you answer His call?
~ Devin
Devin Osborne
