balance

Good Morning! 

I pray your day is off to a great start.

Me – I have been up since just before 4AM. And I don’t have to work today! It would have been nice to sleep in … but my body has a mind of its own at times.

As I am sitting here – however – I got to thinking about my post yesterday 'WHATSOEVER'. If you have not had an opportunity to read it, please go take a look. In that post, I noted how some of things that we experience may not be pleasurable, but that they may be exactly what we prayed for … a part of the process in God bringing about responses to our prayers.

Well – that post, combined with a conversation with a co-worker yesterday and a post I saw this morning, brought me around to this subject of – BALANCE

YOU SEE – Sometimes we pray for something good

But the process of bringing that thing to fruition can appear more a curse than a blessing

AND THEN – There are times when God gives us something good

But that gift – in its raw, undeveloped or misused state – can appear more a curse than a blessing

YET – In both situations, for all who trust in the LORD, YOU ARE STILL BLESSED

‘Blessed coming in and blessed going out’ Deuteronomy 28:6

It just might not feel that way all the time

YESTERDAY – it was about what is going on around you to bring forth God’s perfect will

TODAY – it is about what is going on in you to bring forth God’s perfect will

IT IS ABOUT THE NEED TO HAVE BALANCE IN BOTH PERSPECTIVE AND APPLICATION

From the time my youngest son was very young – he has had an extremely strong will

I would even dare to say that it is a quality he possessed before he was born

The pregnancy with him was nothing like what I experienced carrying his two older brothers

And, he was almost two weeks late! He was determined to do things his way, on his timetable

It was a constant struggle, a war of wills, a tango of temperaments

My son determined to have his way – and me determined to control the situation

HOWEVER – everything changed one day

I was praying about/against that willfulness in my son when I heard the LORD so clearly, it might as well have been audible:

Stop praying against that trait … I gave him that characteristic

It does not need to be rebuked. It needs to be trained and harnessed

Because when he wants what I want – HE WILL BE UNSTOPPABLE

MY MIND – completely blown away

MY EYES – completely opened to a new perspective

MY HEART – completely broken over the frustrations I had caused my son and over wasted time

But this is what can happen when we lack balance in perspective and application

We can end up praying against the very thing that God has given, the thing that God is using to usher us toward the magnificent purpose that He has for each one of us.

In every situation –

Whether it be circumstances, personal characteristics or emotions – there must be balance

In every situation –

There exists the opportunity to go too far left or right

He allows circumstances – yet He desires that they shape us and not destroy us

He has given us emotions – yet He desires that we utilize them and not be ruled by them

He has given us personal gifts & traits – yet He desires that we mature in them and employ them for His kingdom purposes and not misuse, abuse or discard them

WE HAVE A CHOICE

IN ALL THINGS – CHOOSE BALANCE

“Is it not true that if you do what is right, you will be fine? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at the door. It desires to dominate you, but you must subdue it." Genesis 4:7 NET

Have a Blessed … and Balanced Day!