Is Your Life Out of Balance?
Thursday, November 11th, 2010The audio portion of this broadcast is no longer available on-line.
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Send to friendHave you ever tried to take more out of your bank account than you put in? Well, if so, you know the meaning of the term "overdrawn." You know, lots of us are living emotionally, physically and spiritually in the overdrawn mode. We're out of balance in our lives, because we don't deposit enough in our emotional, spiritual and physical accounts to cover the checks we draw on them. When that happens, we live overdrawn, out-of-balance lives, fighting fatigue, discouragement, and depression.
This type of out-of-balance living is often because we don't deposit the right things in our accounts, and at other times it's because we spend our energy very foolishly. I would suggest that we need to know what it is that feeds energy and strength to us and make certain we're pouring into our lives the right resources and the right amount. Then we have to determine what uses our resources and drains our strength, so that we can balance the two.
This calls for an accounting procedure, and that's something we need to do regularly. You have to do some personal balancing and accounting with your checking account to keep it in good order. Well, the same is true of your emotional, spiritual and physical accounts.
Right now stop and ask yourself: Am I spending more from my spiritual, emotional and physical account than I put in? Frankly, I've really had to face this problem lately, and that's why I decided to talk about it. It's a continual challenge for me to learn that I cannot be all things to all people and I must take time to replenish the accounts if I expect to be able to keep spending.
Now that doesn't mean that I'm never tired, never feel stressed or rushed or stretched, but it does mean that if I'm living in that out-of-balance mode all the time, something's wrong. My priorities are confused, or my discipline has broken down, or my calendar is too full, or I don't know how to stop–or some combination of all of the above.
I'm going to try to give you some help in this process of bringing your emotional, physical and spiritual accounts into balance. And I do this mostly because I need to re-learn this. Wouldn't it be nice if we only had to learn our lessons once! But I find that often I'm have to go through re-training, to remember what God has taught me previously. This certainly is one of those areas where I frequently and easily get sidetracked, and my accounts get out of balance.
In order to stay in balance, we must first make certain we make the right deposits. Think about what we must do to ensure that our account is continually replenished.
We know from scripture that our strength comes first of all from God's Word.
Psalm 119:28--My soul is weary with sorrow; strengthen me according to your word.
The Word of God is our resource to get us through times of weariness and sorrow. The Psalmist said it would strengthen us.
John 15:7--If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you.
This is an incredible blank check, given to us by our Lord Jesus. And few of us ever draw on it. By allowing the Words of Jesus to abide in us, we are given this blank check of resources. Maybe the real problem is we don't want to, don't know how, or for some reason just don't allow God's words to abide in us.
What does it mean to remain in Jesus and allow His words to remain in us? Well, it means time spent reading, meditating and studying God's Word. Significant time. Do you do that regularly? As a child of God, your life will always be out of balance until you have a steady diet of the Bible in your life.
Our strength also comes from the joy of the Lord within us.
Nehemiah 8:10--Do not grieve, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.
Proverbs 17:22--A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.
Joy implies contentment, peace, fulfillment. It's important to remind ourselves that joy is not synonymous with happiness. Joy is that deeper, abiding sense of completeness which is present even when circumstances are not happy or enjoyable.
David prayed, "Restore to me the joy of my salvation." When we've sinned and are out of fellowship with the Lord, we lose our joy and that really drains our account. So, we need to pour that joy in by keeping a clean slate with the Lord. Also, if you think about the wrong things, your joy will be robbed. Negative thoughts, critical thoughts, judgmental thoughts, complaining thoughts–these will all rob you of joy, and joy is an essential for a balanced life.
Another source of strength comes from fellowship with other believers and loving relationships with friends and family.
Acts 2:42--They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.
One of the great things about being a marketplace Christian is that it forces us daily into interaction with non-believers. But living and working with those who do not share our faith and our love of Jesus is without question a large drain on our inner resources. We need times of fellowship to give us strength; we need church every week; we need small support groups of Bible study and prayer.
I want to strongly encourage you to be involved in a small support group. You need a few people that you regularly interact with, where you can be open and honest, where you are accountable, and where you are totally accepted. People you can call in the middle of the night, if necessary, for prayer support. If you have one or two people like that in your life, it will pour enormous strength into you, spiritually, emotionally and mentally.
If you don't, cultivate such a support group. Start it yourself. I'm sure you can find one or two others who feel like you do and need your support, as you do theirs. It will strengthen you immensely.
We also need those personal relationships from which we gain strength. Some of you are married to people who truly strengthen you. Marriage was intended by God to be a source of strength.
We need close relationships with friends and family. You don't have to have a lot, but you need one or two. Do you have that person who really cares about the details of your life, to whom you can "spill your gut," where you can let your hair down, and be understood and accepted even when you don't have it all together? If not, I encourage you to pray for that relationship. And to be that kind of support to someone else.
Where do we get the strength we need to give to others as we want to, to keep from being burned-out and frayed around the edges all too often?
Shakespeare said something to the effect that no man could be a philosopher when he had a toothache! A. W. Tozer puts it: "While it is possible to be a weary saint, it is scarcely possible to be weary and feel saintly."
When our bodies are not in the best condition, either from sickness or fatigue, our strength can fail us. That's why we must be good stewards of the bodies we have, doing everything we can to preserve them and keep them vital.
Now, let me point out some things which drain our energy. First, there are the inescapable drains on our energy, such as getting up in the morning! Children, mates, family, housework, jobs. But many times we expend energy, even in these areas, unnecessarily. Let's identify a few of the foolish things that often drain our strength:
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Our strength is used up when we try to do more than we can do.
God has not called us to be all things to all people. Jesus was careful where He went to minister. He didn't try to go to every city; He didn't heal every sick person; He didn't preach to everyone on the face of the earth. Yet He could say at the end of a very short three year ministry that He had accomplished what His father had sent Him to do.
Have you got too many irons in the fire? Are you trying to prove something to yourself by being all things to all people? Or perhaps, like me, you just have so much you want to do that you can't resist. Maybe you have a hard time saying "No." Whatever it is that causes you and me to over-commit, we need to get this area under control.
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Our strength is used up when we have too much stuff.
Did you know that the more you have, the more energy it takes out of you? Cleaned your closet out lately? Might be a good idea. A home or apartment full of valued "treasures" is a real drainer of energy. Now I'm not suggesting we can't have things that we enjoy, but the question is, do you enjoy them or are they just sapping your time and energy?
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Our strength is also used up when we have money problems.
Credit cards can be our downfall. Maybe some of us need to get on a budget and stop this drain on our lives.
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Our strength is used up when our lives are not disciplined.
Proverbs says that we die from lack of discipline, and I believe with all my heart that many of us are drained of energy because we refuse needed discipline in our lives.
I've started to think about it this way: Each day I start out with a certain amount in my emotional, physical and spiritual account–and they are very much interrelated. I must learn to spend that amount wisely. Let's say I start with $100 in that account today.
Now, early in the day I get frustrated because of traffic problems and I foolishly spend $20 energy on it. As I arrive at work, I encounter a rude customer on the phone, and I spend $25 emotional energy on that. Then that co-worker who irritates me, irritates me again, and without realizing it, I've spent $15 there. My boss puts another deadline on me, and that stress costs me $30. Then I make a mistake and get mad at myself for that failure and spend $20 on that, and before noon I'm broke! I'm overdrawn!
Now the rest of the day I'm living out of balance, so I'm much more likely to say things I shouldn't say, react poorly, have a bad attitude, feel fatigued, depressed, discouraged, etc., etc., etc. Tell the truth, did you ever have that kind of day where you foolishly spent your energy on things that didn't really matter?
Well, we have to get better, by God's grace, at spending our energy. Pick your fights; don't let the little stuff beat you down. Pray at all those points of irritation and ask God to give you perspective, and put that energy back into your account so it's there for the important things.
So, remember, to live in balanced mode, not overdrawing your emotional, physical and spiritual accounts, you've got to make the right deposits and then spend your energy wisely on things that have some significance. This will help us to make better choices about priorities and to keep our perspective on what's important and what isn't. I encourage you to make it your goal, by God's grace, to live in a balanced way.
