ANSWER TO TOUGH QUESTION 3.

Some weeks ago Josh Baker sent me another 'tough question' - about staying dependent on the Lord once he had returned to his comfortable existence and surroundings (you can see the question in an earlier post). I've just returned to the USA to link up with Third Day, having been home and seen my daughter perform in her High School musical 'Little Shop of Horrors'- well done Bethan, we are very proud of you!
On the plane journey over, I formulated this reply for Josh:
Your situation reminds me of the great words of Paul when he said:
But to keep me from getting puffed up, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger from Satan to torment me and keep me from getting proud. Three different times I begged the Lord to take it away. Each time he said, “My gracious favor is all you need. My power works best in your weakness.” So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may work through me.
Since I know it is all for Christ’s good, I am quite content with my weaknesses and with insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
2Cor. 12:7-10

Just like Paul, you are discovering that the grace of Jesus is adequate precisely because God’s power only really displays its’ full range and strength in human weakness. The more we acknowledge weakness, the more evident the power of Jesus will be. Paul would prefer to boast about the things that expose his weakness rather than pray for his weakness to be removed. He wasn’t glorifying his weakness, but celebrating the fact that his weakness meant that the power of God would be strong in his life and that Jesus would be glorified. I can certainly associate with your feelings of total reliance on God when you have been living ‘out of your comfort zone’. When I travel- either into the USA or on other mission trips, and leave my family behind, I often get a sense of loneliness, vulnerability, even fear, and have to utterly depend on God.
Of course, the heart of your question was about remaining dependent on God when we go back inside our comfort zone.
There is no doubt that comfortable living, material possessions, and a worldly environment can soften our dependence on the Lord, and just like you say, may mean that we aren’t always attentive to what He wants to say to us.
I suspect that the real key to this is not being taken in by our physical circumstances and surroundings, and by always remembering that however ‘physically’ comfortable we may be we should always be spiritually desperate for God and dependent on His Holy Spirit in our lives.
When you bow down before the Lord and admit your dependence on him, he will lift you up and give you honor. James 4:10
Again, Paul talks about surrendering his own independence and being surrendered to the Lord:
Christ’s life showed me how, and enabled me to do it. I identified myself completely with him. Indeed, I have been crucified with Christ. My ego is no longer central. It is no longer important that I appear righteous before you or have your good opinion, and I am no longer driven to impress God. Christ lives in me. The life you see me living is not “mine,” but it is lived by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. Galatians 2:20 Message
In fact, it is when we are at our most comfortable that we have to remind ourselves that we are really ‘aliens and strangers’ in a ‘foreign land’. Indeed, John in his first letter, warns us of the danger of complacency:
Stop loving this evil world and all that it offers you, for when you love the world, you show that you do not have the love of the Father in you. For the world offers only the lust for physical pleasure, the lust for everything we see, and pride in our possessions. These are not from the Father. They are from this evil world. And this world is fading away, along with everything it craves. But if you do the will of God, you will live forever. 1John 2:15-17
That doesn’t mean we don’t reach out with compassion and grace in the name of Jesus to those around us, and that we don’t engage with society, but it does mean we never forget where our allegiance and dependence lies.
So take heart from you recent experiences, grow your dependence on the Lord, and learn to have a desperate inner need for Him whatever your outward circumstances and situation. But also thank him too for His provision and for the pleasantness and safety of your comfort zone! Just never have a spiritual comfort zone in your heart that is happy without the presence of God!