True Balance
In the developed world we are comfortable talking about balancing “all” the areas of our lives:
• Our work life.
• Our family life.
• Our physical health.
• Our minds.
• Our love life.But a lot of the time we forget or are uncomfortable about exploring our spiritual life. This reticence is a strangely Western and “modern” phenomenon. In fact, studies and census data show that around 92% of people believe in the existence of a higher power. All of the world’s major religions teach that God is capable and interested in interacting with us!
If so many of us believe it, why do so few of us include it in our search for a truly balanced life?
In my opinion, the reason many people do not feel fulfilled and content even after they have achieved and “balanced” their lives is that they ignore their spiritual life.
Nowhere is it more clearly stated than in John 10 v 10 where Jesus said:
“I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.”
This is a key truth for living. All of us want to live life to the full and to live abundantly. What does abundance mean?
• Plenty
• Wealth
• Great quantity
• LoadsSo practically what does this mean?
It is my belief that part of our design is to have a relationship with God. In other words, God designed us so that having a relationship with Him is an integral part of our humanity.
If I am right, it is not possible to live a balanced life without working on our spiritual life as much as we do our hearts, our minds and our bodies:
Mark 12 v 30-31
Jesus answered: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.”
Taken a step further, if you believe what Jesus said, we need to focus our heart, soul, mind and body on God first to find true balance.
This is made clearer in Matthew 6 v 33:
But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.
How does this relate to creating your Perfect Lifestyle? My experience is that a Perfect Lifestyle requires perfect balance. As such it is not possible to perfect your life unless it is God-centered.
Let me be clear. It is possible to have a good life without God. It is possible to have a fun life without God. It is possible to have a great life without God.
But it is not possible to have a fully abundant life reaching the potential and level of contentment you were created to have, without a God-centered life.
In my life and having observed hundreds of others, a God-centered life gives a level of direction, vision, hope, peace, joy and fulfillment that takes you to another level.
Does this make me feel smug? Superior? Proud? Absolutely not! Am I so certain that I am dogmatic? No.
Am I judgmental or narrow-minded in my faith? No.
I am just like everyone else on this journey called life, trying to find the perfect balance and the perfect life.
True Balance
Again, Mark 12 v 30-31:
Jesus answered: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.”
In the Christian sense, this is true balance; to love God with:
1. Our heart – the part of us that loves. This includes our emotions and the things we love in an emotional way.
2. Our soul – the part of us that will exist forever. This is the part of us that communicates with God and has a relationship with God. If you believe God exists and you will (in some form) exist in 1,000 years – this is the most important part of who you are. Sadly, this is the part of us we are most likely to ignore or feel uncomfortable about.
3. Our mind – the part of us that thinks and reasons and makes decisions.
4. Our strength – our physical bodies; our actions and our movements; the things we say and do and cause to happen.
The purpose of this chapter is to emphasize the importance of complete balance, which means working on your spirit as much as you work on your body or your mind. If everything else is in balance but you still do not feel content or feel you are living life to the full, it is very likely that this is the area of your life you have been ignoring.
My Advice
If you have not worked enough on your spirit life here is my personal advice:
1. Pray
Praying is simply talking to God.
If you haven’t talked to God for ages, find somewhere quiet or, go for a walk and just talk to Him!
Ask especially for wisdom, and help in re-establishing communication with Him. Ask for good things; both for yourself and others.
Ask for Him to make His presence felt in your life.2. Read the Bible
The Bible is God’s word to us. It reveals His character and His message to humanity.
3. Listen
Make time and space in your day for God to “speak” to you – through the Bible, through books, through people or more directly through feelings or impressions in your mind.
4. Spend time with like-minded people
Find a church or group of people who share your beliefs or share your interest in searching out spiritual truth. No-one, and I mean no-one has “arrived” in their spiritual life. We are all on our own personal spiritual journey; learning and growing on the way.
5. The Cross
The story of the New Testament is simple. God and humanity have been separated by all of the wrongdoing in the world (if you don’t know what I mean watch the evening news or think about the worst, most selfish thing you have ever done).
Our wrongdoing carries the death sentence.
But God sent his only son Jesus to die on the cross, in our place.
Now that Jesus has paid the price and made the ultimate sacrifice on our behalf, we simply have to acknowledge God’s gift to us and start living our lives for Him.
I have to say from experience that no half-hearted measures work with God. Either you give your life fully to Him or not at all.
But remember, there is absolute truth in the universe. Your main purpose on earth is to find that truth.
Jeremiah 29 v 13
You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.
Relationship With God
If you who don’t know how to begin a relationship with God, it begins with knowing that you need God. As it says, in John 15:5 – I can do nothing without God.
“I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.”
I had to give up trying to run my own life, to be God in my life. I am not God. I am His child. It is crazy for me to think I can know how to live life without my Creator. In order to become His child the next thing I need to do is turn away from my sins and my rebellion and ask for forgiveness for that sin, that rebellion against God.
Romans 3 v 23-24
For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.
John 1 v 9
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.
The reason we can be forgiven and cleansed from all of that is because Jesus paid the penalty for your sins and mine.
He was the one who could defeat sin and the death that those sins bring. He died on a cross for you and me. He was willing to do that because He wanted us to experience the life we can have with our Heavenly Father.
John 3 v 16
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
So we accept that gift of forgiveness and the chance to begin a relationship with our Creator. What we need to say is:
“Jesus, thank you for giving me a way to know God again. Thank you for dying on the cross for me and destroying the power of sin and death in my life. Come into my life and show me how to live.”
Revelation 3 v 20
“Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.”
Once you have given your life to God, you need to begin building a private world with Him. He has so much to teach you and show you. If you like to walk, go for a walk and talk to God about everything that is going on in your life. Listen to the Bible on your MP3 player while you walk. Write down what you feel challenged by. And then apply what you are learning to your life. Don’t leave it as nice theory you are learning. Ask God to help you to live out the kind of life you read about in the Bible. Whether you like to walk or stay at home or go somewhere else, begin to bring God into every aspect of your life. Ask Him to teach you about how to make decisions, how to look at your future, what relationships to have, etc. He is your God. He wants to teach you what life was meant to be about.
Become part of a church where you can study the Bible with others and pray for each other and listen to each other. Together find the calling God has put on your life.
When you give your life to God through Jesus His son, you have an incredible life waiting for you. I cannot begin to tell you how grateful I am to God for the relationship He has given me with Him. He is the one who has given me hope. He leads me day by day in His beautiful plan for my life. Best of all, I have the Almighty God walking alongside me in every step I take and that will never, ever change.
True Sacrifice
In Chapter One I said lives that achieve greatness always require sacrifice.
Sacrifice is what is required to have an extraordinary life. Every one of us was created for a mission and to do something important with our lives. We were not created to just live selfishly and surround ourselves with material things. Jesus said that if you want to save your life you need to lose it. But if you lose your life for His sake you will save it.
True liberation and purpose comes when we deny ourselves take up our cross and follow Jesus.
I won’t say “Good luck” on your journey but I will say “God bless you and lead you”.