How to Have Comfort: Biblical Hygge
Hygge (pronounced as “hoo-guh”): Is invoking or fostering a sense of coziness, contentment, and well-being
Hygge is a Danish and Norwegian word that represents a cultural concept focused on creating a cozy and comfortable atmosphere that promotes well-being and contentment. There are five main parts of Hygge: comfort, togetherness, simplicity, warmth, and presence. Although the word Hygge is not found in the Bible, the concepts of Hygge can be found in the day to day lifestyle of a Christian. So we will cover one of the five parts of Hygge per week for the month of February to learn how these concepts should be found in the lifestyle that a Christian leads. If this lifestyle seems intriguing to you, then continue reading as we cover the first part of Hygge today - Comfort!
#1. Spiritual Comfort:
Bible Verse: John 14:27 - “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.”
For those of us that have committed our lives to Jesus, we have peace. The verse above is about Jesus comforting His followers after He came back to life from His death on the cross and was about to go back to His Father. Jesus WILL bring us comfort, even if we don’t receive that comfort while on earth, those who follow Him WILL receive it in Heaven.
In Hygge, Comfort is the first part of the Danish concept, because it’s about living in a way that you are opening up your life to comfort instead of anxiety, stress, or business. It’s from a change of mindset, and learning to MAKE comfort happen in your home for a peaceful mind and life. So shouldn’t we as Christians also welcome a change of mindset to one of peace and comfort BECAUSE we have Christ? YES!!
Ideas for Spiritual Comfort:
Daily Prayer and time in Scripture.
Listening to Hymns during the day.
Memorizing Scripture.
Gratitude Journaling.
Taking walks with the intent to pray.
Put post-it notes all around your house with Scriptures that bring you comfort.
Listen to Christian podcasts.
Wear faith shirts or jewelry to remind yourself frequently of Jesus.
Send daily Bible verses to a group of fellow Christians.
Praying for help through the moments of anxiety and stress.
#2. Emotional Comfort:
Bible Verse: Matthew 11:28-30 - “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
When I think of the idea of comfort, I think of a warm hug, a kind word, a hand to hold, or a cozy blanket. In Hygge the idea of comfort is by living ones life where YOU make comfort happen, but most importantly its where OTHERS feel comfort from YOU. The Danish people are very big about helping people and also having them over to their house. You can’t truly be in people’s lives without learning how to show comfort to others. The Hygge lifestyle is one that strives to being one that comforts all those who enter in your home. You can’t think of comfort without thinking of the emotional part of it. Spiritual emotional comfort has two parts: What God provides to us, and what we provide to others.
God tells us over and over in the scriptures that those who follow Him WILL get persecution for choosing to do so. But many times, God tells us to turn to Him when we are weary, and He will help us find rest through Him. He knows that because sin is in the world, there WILL be pain, suffering, and burdens. So the verse above shows us that God wants His followers to lean on Him. He wants to make our burdens feel lighter.
The second part of emotional comfort is, what WE can do for others. If God provides US emotional comfort, then are doing so for others also? We need to be the support for our fellow workers of Christ. Have we been that support system for those in our local Church and in also for those in our lives?
Ideas for Emotional Comfort with God:
Letting go of the things in the past through prayer and learning to forgive yourself and others.
Daily time spent in Prayer and Bible Study.
Read a comforting Psalm before bed each night.
Have a playlist of comforting hymns to listen to during the hard moments that remind you of God’s Promise in your life.
Wearing a bracelet with a comforting Bible Verse on it.
Have a daily prayer just for feeling God’s comfort in your life.
Write your prayers to God in a notebook.
Pray out loud, have conversations with God about everything.
Ideas for Emotional Comfort with Others:
Helping others see that we all have struggles, but they are not alone.
Sending encouraging text to others daily.
Getting out of our own lives when we are struggling, and doing a good deed for others. This will help distract us from the struggles that we have.
Attending Church events even if you don’t feel like it, and trying to encourage others while there. Church is about what we can give others, NOT what we get out of it. So be the one to make people feel loved, needed, and comforted.
Setting a personal goal for how many people to encourage in a week.
Praying for all of those that you know are struggling.
Taking someone out for coffee who is struggling, a friend just being there will mean a lot!
Keeping a prayer notebook for all those who need comfort, to help yourself remember who to pray for.
#3. Promised Comfort:
Bible Verse: 1 Timothy 2:3-6 - “This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time.”
God wants ALL people to be saved, as shown in the verse above. Shouldn’t that fact alone bring us the most comfort of all. There is not a single person on this earth, in the past, present, or future that God doesn’t want to be in Heaven with Him. God’s longing and hope for us to return to Him, should bring us comfort even in the hard moments. When we feel unloved, we remember that God loves us. When we are dealing with the trails of life, are we choosing God’s will, and thus returning to Him? When we are dealing with choosing the World or choosing God, will we return to Him? Will we return to the truest Comforter of all. God is our true source of comfort! Will we let Him be our promised comfort?
In the Hygge lifestyle, being a steady comforter is key. It’s being a strong, dependable, and loving source of comfort. It’s being someone that people KNOW they can lean on. This is how God’s promise of comfort is to us. He is the strong, dependable, and loving source of comfort in our lives. Will we lean on Him during the hard moments to seek TRUE comfort, or will we try to seek the fake comfort of the world?
Ideas for Promised Comfort:
Write one comforting Bible verse about God’s comfort on a calendar for a whole month, so you can read one per day.
Write out a comforting Psalm by hand when you are going through a difficult time.
Memorize the Bible verses above, to remind yourself that God WANTS all of us in Heaven.
Remind OTHERS of this Promise also. When we remind ourselves or others why we are choosing God, then it won’t be as hard during the trails of life.
#4. Forgiven Comfort:
Bible Verse: Hebrew 10:19-23 - “Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful.”
God sent His son on this earth to be the “new and living way” to open up the “curtain” for us to be able to “draw near” to God. We wouldn’t have been able to draw near to God without His sacrifice on the cross because of our sin. Our sins have separated us from God, and only through Jesus’ sacrifice can we have a way back to Him. Only through a washing of our bodies in baptism, and a heart being cleansed, can we come back to Him. We MUST hold fast to that heart change, and cling to the “hope without wavering” after being buried in baptism for the remission of our sins. And once we have done that, we can now have His “promise” of being able to return to God. And knowing that we can return to God, should bring us the most comfort out of anything. If we have been saved through the “pure water” and have cleansed our hearts, then we HAVE that assurance. We have the comfort of being saved THROUGH Jesus’ sacrifice to allow us BACK into God’s presence. We have comfort through our forgiveness!
In Hygge that comfort come from the things that WE can do to make our life better. While there are so many things we can do during our day to bring peace, that comfort is only temporary. Biblical comfort comes from being forgiven for our sins, and helping others to do so. Our creator, the creator of comfort, is the truest form of the comfort that every single person longs for. So how do we start to get that comfort? That comfort is the building block that we need to build everything else upon as Christians. When THAT is our building block, then we can make our daily lives more peaceful and comfort filled. Are we letting God be the foundation to build comfort and peace upon? God is the TRUEST source of comfort, if we build upon Him, only then can we build a comforting lifestyle. When we lean on the world, we only build upon the anxieties, stresses, and burdens of the world. So what will we choose as our foundation? God or the world?
Ideas for Forgiven Comfort:
Being baptized and having a heart change if we haven’t done so already.
Reminding ourselves of our forgiveness when we don’t FEEL God’s comfort.
Starting each day with a prayer saying thank you for Jesus’s sacrifice to allow us to have that relationship with God again.
Praying for God to be our foundation, and leading to a comfort filled life.
Listening to Church hymns throughout the day to remind yourself of the comfort you have through being forgiven.
Use an expo marker (or post it note) to write a Bible verse to put on your mirror to remind yourself of the forgiven comfort that you now have.
Conclusion:
Bible Verse: Isaiah 41:10 - “fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.”
At the end of every day, our comfort needs to come from God. The world is not a place to bring comfort, and often times the people in the world will NOT bring us comfort. The world and it’s people do not have TRUE comfort, because the old curse of sin still remains in the world. Only through our perfect, loving, and comforting Creator, can we find the TRUE comforts of our lives. We have to build on God as our foundation to experience comfort in our lives. Our Spiritual comfort, Emotional Comfort, Promised Comfort and Forgiven Comfort all hinge on us first finding comfort in God. Letting Him be our foundation. ONLY then we can take that comfort to others, by first sharing with them about the Forgiven comfort that they NEED, and teaching them how God is the TRUE comfort of our lives.
Hygge comfort IS a worldly concept, because the world cannot offer us TRUE comfort. Only once we have true comfort with God, can we start to working on finding our own “Biblical Hygge” in our day to day lives. True “Biblical Hygge” Comfort is found in God. If we first build on Him, then we CAN find Hygge in our own day to day lives, that will help us feel His presence. The comfort of Him, can over flow in our lives and onto others. Are we partaking in God’s TRUE comfort, and then sharing His comfort with others? Being home in Heaven is the ultimate comfort that Christians long for. The old curse of sin will always be working on the world and its people, so there will never be true comfort on this earth. Only through God can we find our own little slice of “Biblical Hygge” comfort today.
Ideas for “Biblical Hygge” Comfort:
Carry a small rock, coin, or token in your pocket during the hard days of life, to be a reminder of our comfort found in God.
Take a walk to reflect on your relationship with God.
Decorate around your house or room with Bible verses that remind you that your comfort is found in God.
Set aside time each day to devote yourself to Prayer and Bible Study.
Send out daily Comforting Bible Verses texts to other people in your church.
Carry around a water bottle, and every time you take a drink, take a moment to reflect on Jesus’ sacrifice for you. And how Jesus’ sacrifice is why you can find comfort in God.
About the Author: My name is Katie, and I’m a Church of Christ Preacher’s wife in Kentucky. I am also a proud homeschool mom to two brilliant boys. I love to craft, and make and bind my own notebooks. I also make a weekly podcast show called “Just Bible No Fluff",” where I skip all of fluffy extras and hop right into a short yet impactful exegetical study of the scripture. My mission and vision in life is this: “To empower women Spiritually by enhancing their skills in deep Bible study, equipping them to effectively teach the Gospel to others, and guiding them in cultivating Spiritual growth beyond the Church building.”