SEARCHLIGHT
Do you need to have a good life, a happy life, or a balanced life?
SCRIPTURE
We ought always to thank God for you, brothers, and rightly so, because your faith is growing more and more, and the love every one of you has for each other is increasing. Therefore, among God’s churches, we boast about your perseverance and faith in all the persecutions and trials you are enduring. 2 Thessalonians 1:3,4 NIV
SPOTLIGHT
Do you remember the TV comedy show called “Friends”? All the actors portrayed people who wanted to experience the good life, or happy life. However, when you listen to the first verse of the theme song it reads: “So no one told you, life was gonna be this way…your job’s a joke, you’re broke, your love life’s D.O.A… It’s like you’re always stuck in second gear…when it hasn’t been your day, your week, your month or even your year…”
People often want their religion to give them the good life. Such a life is filled with ease and pleasure. Other people want their religion to offer them the happy life. This type of living is painless and sorrowless. Both the good life and the happy life are without grief, sadness or trouble.
Neither the good life, or the happy life are real. And they can never be. Why? Because life is filled with twists and turns along with ups and downs. Pain, suffering, and heartache are unavoidable. You cannot go through life without experiencing problems and getting hurt.
The question to answer is, "how should a person handle life’s twists, turns, ups, downs, pain, suffering and heartache?” Jesus Christ never promised either the good life or happy life. Instead, He offered the Christian life which is the balanced life. This is when a person becomes whole in spirit, soul, and body. Balanced living is when a person allows God to develop him/her into a complete human being. Have you invited God to do that in your life?
A complete human being is composed of spirit, soul and body. Read 1 Thessalonians 5:23,24. You are like a three-legged stool. If all 3 legs are not attended to, you will never experience a balanced life. Most likely you will be headed for many falls. You need to give equal emphasis to your spirit, soul and body.
Often people will only focus on developing their body or soul, to the neglect of their spirit. This leads to imbalanced living. The trials and tribulations of life are not well maneuvered. People can only learn how to move skillfully and carefully through life by developing their whole person. What are you doing to develop your whole personhood, and not just the emotional and physical parts of who you are?
When Paul had written his first letter to the Thessalonian believers, he taught them how God would bless them with a well-balanced life. [read the previous devotion] What they had to do was to allow God to develop their spirit, soul and body. Now in this second letter, Paul commended them for LIVING A BALANCED LIFE. The Thessalonian Christians were not seeking to live the good life or the happy life. Instead, they had chosen to live a balanced life in a world that was filled with negativity, opposition, pain, and suffering. What were the signs that indicated this? What were they doing to allow God to develop their whole personhood, namely their spirit, soul and body?
In today’s Scripture focus, the Apostle Paul praised them for their growing faith in God, their increasing love for people and their enduring perseverance to live a Christian life while facing persecutions and trials. These were the 3 signs of living a balanced life.
You can develop a well-balanced life just like the Thessalonian believers. Commit yourself to:
#1 Grow your faith in God. Daily spend time with the One who knows you best and loves you the most. This allows you to see the future in spite of troubles and trials.
#2 Increase your love for people. There are both lovable and unlovable people in your life. God made you to love, not fight. In spite of who crosses your path, allow God to make you a peacemaker. All the unlovable people you encounter need to see God’s love through you.
#3 Endure persecution. Allow God to make you “steady and determined in your faith despite all the hard times that have broadsided you.” [Message] Why? Because what is eternal is far more important than what is earthly. This world is not your home. You are headed to heaven.
Religion cannot give you a balanced life. Neither can personal achievements or financial success. Balanced living is God’s gift to anyone who will make Jesus Christ the center of his/her life. Only by allowing Jesus Christ to develop your spirit, soul and body will you learn to LIVE A BALANCED LIFE.
SOMETHING TO DO
What can you do to be better balanced when walking life’s tightrope?
SOUL TIME PRAYER
Lord Jesus Christ, I want to live a balanced life, rather than a good life or happy life. For too long I have been unrealistic in living my life. Today I would ask You to make Yourself more real to me, and help me to love the way You love. Thank you for giving me faith to see beyond my problems, sadness, and persecution. AMEN