Happiness Vs. Holiness: When Comfort Isn't the Goal
God isn't primarily working to make you comfortable — He's working to make you holy. Your difficult circumstances aren't obstacles to His plan; they're instruments of it.
"But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: 'Be holy, because I am holy.'" — 1 Peter 1:15-16 (NIV)
I love this quote by Paul David Tripp: "We forget that God's primary goal is not changing our situations or relationships so that we can be happy but changing us through our situations and relationships so that we will be holy."
Read that again slowly.
Most of us — myself included — evaluate our circumstances through the lens of happiness. If things are going well, we're good. If they're not, we complain, try to fix it, and ask God to change it. There's nothing wrong with wanting things to be better. But when happiness becomes the measuring stick for whether God is at work, we miss what He's actually doing.
God is not primarily working to make you comfortable. He's working to make you holy. And the circumstances you wish would change? They may be the very tools He uses to shape you.
Think of it as a warning light on your dashboard. When something disrupts your peace — a frustrating relationship, an unexpected setback, a season that just won't lift — that discomfort is a signal. Not that something has gone wrong with God's plan, but that something is being refined in you. The question isn't "How do I fix this?" The question is "What is God forming in me through this?"
That shift doesn't come naturally. It has to be cultivated. One way to begin is to ask God each morning to help you see your day through the lens of holiness rather than happiness. Not to ignore your emotions — they matter — but to hold them loosely enough that God can use even the hard things to draw you closer to who He's calling you to be.
Paul puts it this way: "So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God." — 1 Corinthians 10:31 (ESV). All things — not just the easy ones.
Holiness isn't the absence of struggle — it's the fruit of surrender and trust.
Big Idea
God isn't primarily working to make you comfortable — He's working to make you holy. Your difficult circumstances aren't obstacles to His plan; they're instruments of it.
Questions to Ponder
When something disrupts your happiness, is your first instinct to fix the situation or to ask what God might be doing in you through it? What would change if you began measuring your circumstances by what they produce in you rather than by how they make you feel? Is there a current struggle you've been asking God to remove that He may be using to refine you?
Application
The next time something disrupts your peace — a frustrating conversation, an unmet expectation, or a circumstance you can't control — pause before reacting. Ask one question: "Lord, what are You forming in me through this?" Let that question be the lens through which you enter that situation.
Before the Lord — a daily devotional by Blake S. Crawford. Read more and subscribe free at blakescrawford.com/before-the-lord.
Costly Adjustments: When Obedience Gets Expensive
Following Jesus can require costly adjustments — and the cost isn't a sign that something went wrong. It's the very path Christ walked and the example He left for you to follow. The adjustment isn't the obstacle to your faith. It is your faith in motion.
"For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps." — 1 Peter 2:21 (ESV)
Nobody likes suffering. Most of us avoid it at all costs. But listen closely to what Peter says in 1 Peter 2:21 — we are called to suffer. Not warned about it. Not told to brace for it. But called to it. That's why Peter says Christ suffered and left that suffering as an example. He left it not as a warning or something to avoid, but as something to embrace and follow. Something to live into while on mission.
And that's why following in His steps can often be costly. You can't walk where Jesus walked and remain the same person, keep the same priorities, or hold on to the same things with the same grip. Something has to give. A relationship shifts. A career path changes. A comfort you've relied on is stripped away. What once felt optional suddenly feels urgent — and obedience becomes costly.
Now, following Jesus isn't only disruption and difficulty. God gives seasons of peace, clear direction, and deep joy along the way. But most of us don't struggle to trust Him in those seasons. It's the costly moments — the ones that feel like loss — that test our faith. And that's what Peter is addressing here.
Here's where most of us struggle: we expect the adjustment to be easy. But when following Jesus disrupts our plans, strains a relationship, or puts us at odds with those around us, we assume we've taken a wrong turn. We haven't. Peter's point is that the cost isn't evidence that something went wrong. It's evidence that we're walking in His steps.
Paul understood this, too. In Philippians 3:10, he wrote that he wanted to know Christ and "the fellowship of his sufferings" (NASB). That word — fellowship — is what makes this verse so striking. You don't use a word like fellowship to describe something you're trying to escape. Fellowship means closeness and shared experience. It implies something you draw near to, not something you pull away from.
And that's exactly Paul's point. He wasn't enduring the cost of following Jesus as an unavoidable reality of obedience. He was entering into it — because he understood that the suffering itself was where the intimacy lived. The cost wasn't keeping him from Christ. It was drawing him closer.
That reframes everything. The adjustment you're facing right now — the one that feels costly and uncomfortable — may be the very thing drawing you closer to Him. The cost isn't taking you off course. It's confirming you're on the right path.
Big Idea
Following Jesus can require costly adjustments — and the cost isn't a sign that something went wrong. It's the very path Christ walked and the example He left for you to follow. The adjustment isn't the obstacle to your faith. It is your faith in motion.
Questions to Ponder
What is the costliest adjustment you've had to make in following Jesus — and did you recognize it as part of the journey while you were in it, or only in hindsight? When following Jesus disrupts your comfort or plans, does your first instinct lean toward trust or resistance? What would it look like to see the current cost you're facing not as a burden but as fellowship with Christ?
Application
Identify one adjustment God is asking you to make right now — something that feels costly, uncomfortable, or disruptive. Instead of resisting or resenting it, bring it to the Lord and ask Him to show you how this cost is drawing you closer to Him. Write down 1 Peter 2:21 and place it where you'll see it daily. Let it remind you: the path of following is the path of cost, and the path of cost is the path of closeness.
Before the Lord — a daily devotional by Blake S. Crawford. Read more and subscribe free at blakescrawford.com/before-the-lord.