Many of us are constantly looking for balance in our lives. This daily devotion looks at where that balance can be found.
Nuggets
- We gain balance by gaining knowledge of God.
- God works in our lives to give us balance.
Devotions in The Meaning of Life series
In this hectic world, it is easy to get our lives out of balance. Part of the problem is that we are looking at the wrong things to give us balance. Let’s take a look at what Solomon said when he was talking about the meaning of life
Let's Put It into Context #1
Here is a running list of what we’ve discussed previously.
Let's Put It into Context #2
- Wisdom is an enlightened acceptance of God’s principles that leads to knowledge, discernment, and good sense that is put into practice through salvation, increasing our goodness and virtue.
- Discernment means we can evaluate the situation and recognize right from wrong.
- Salvation is the gift of life through the deliverance from condemnation and sin to acceptance and holiness and changes us from being spiritually dead to spiritually alive.
- Sins are actions by humans that disobey God and break one of His reasonable, holy, and righteous laws and commandments, goes against a purpose He has for us, or follows Satan’s promptings.
- Holiness is the transcendent excellence of His nature that includes elements of purity, dedication, and commitment that lead to being set apart.
- Purity means possessing God’s moral character, having eliminated the stain of sin.
- Spiritual death is the spiritual separation from God that occurred as a consequence of Adam and Eve’s original sin. The spiritually alive are those who have ABCDed, so they are no longer separated from God.
- God’s goodness is His holy, pure, and righteous behavior.
- Holy means to be set apart, perfect, and morally pure while possessing all virtues.
- Pure means not being sinful or having the stain of sin.
- Righteous means we are free from sin because we are following God’s moral laws.
- Virtues are standards of moral excellence.
The ABCDs of Salvation
If you have not become a believer in Christ, please read through the
Plan of Salvation and prayerfully consider what God is asking you to do.
A – admit our sins
B – believe His Son Jesus is our Redeemer
C – confess God as Sovereign Lord
D – demonstrate that commitment by making any changes needed in our lives to
live the way in which God has called us
The Disciple’s Job Description
Glossary
Knowledge Brings Balance
“Wisdom is as good as an inheritance and an advantage to those who see the sun, because wisdom is protection as silver is protection; but the advantage of knowledge is that wisdom preserves the life of its owner” (Ecc. 7: 11-12 CSB)
We gain balance by gaining knowledge of God.
Patterson argued that education gives people much more than just providing for outward, physical necessities, as it is a defense. He felt this was especially true of religious knowledge. He noted “that wisdom giveth life to them that have it.”
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Wisdom also gives us an intellectual life. But we have to remember that this isn’t wisdom according to the world. “For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God’s sight. As it is written: ‘He catches the wise in their craftiness’” (I Cor. 3: 19 NIV).
It isn’t the need for knowledge that God is poo-pooing. We know that we need knowledge to know God. Patterson wrote, “It is ‘the key of knowledge’ that opens the kingdom of heaven; and if this be the constitution of the Gospel, very plain it is that the state of a human soul abandoned to utter ignorance is that of a soul devoted to inevitable death.”
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We said something along that line in Elaine-speak a while back. We don’t get anywhere on our path to salvation without knowledge.
The knowledge that the Holy Spirit gives us is said to quicken us. That means it enlivens or animates us. It gets us going from spiritually dead to spiritually alive.
Melvill wrote that it also gives us the feeling of “… having thrown off the bondage of corruption …” A lot of that has to do with being new creations. “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come” (II Cor. 5: 17 ESV).
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Glossary
We can’t try to use knowledge to make it our god. We can’t look for an explanation that will replace God as Sovereign God.
Patterson had a lot to say about those who grew up uneducated. He called them wasteful and immoral.
I am sure worldview people would probably take exception to that. Whatever they do is a waste because, unless it is done for God, it is temporary — even if they think it is good. This world will end, and unless the service is performed for God, all the reward will end when the earth does.
We’ve talked about the worldview morals not being enough. They need to be kicked up to spiritual graces. They have to come through our faith. Faith is the conviction that the doctrines revealed in God’s Word are true, even if we do not understand all aspects of them, a belief which impacts our lives.
The Work of God Brings Balance
“Consider the work of God, for who can straighten out what he has made crooked? In the day of prosperity be joyful, but in the day of adversity, consider: God has made the one as well as the other, so that no one can discover anything that will come after him” (Ecc. 7: 13-14 CSB)
God works in our lives to give us balance.
Verse 13 starts out with an interesting phrase. It talks about the work of God. Roe talked about several different applications of this phrase.
- “When he finished speaking with Moses on Mount Sinai, he gave him the two tablets of the testimony, stone tablets inscribed by the finger of God” (Ex. 31: 18 CSB)
- “Jesus replied, ‘This is the work of God — that you believe in the one he has sent’” (Jn. 6: 29 CSB)
- “Do not tear down God’s work because of food. Everything is clean, but it is wrong to make someone fall by what he eat” (Rom. 14: 20 CSB).
God works in our lives. He controls what happens.
Jay reminded us that God is the author of life. He wrote, “Nothing can befall us without the permission and appointment of the all-disposing providence of our Heavenly Father.”
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Roe pointed out that it is our duty to be satisfied with our lives. Yes, he said it is our responsibility and obligation to be happy and content — regardless of the circumstances.
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Think about it. We are sinners by nature. Sinners are all people who have not made a genuine profession of faith — who have not sincerely ABCDed.
We are also sinners because we choose to sin. Sins are actions by humans that disobey God and break one of His reasonable, holy, and righteous laws and commandments, goes against a purpose He has for us, or follows Satan’s promptings.
We don’t deserve God’s mercy. We definitely aren’t entitled to it.
Boston said that we can only obtain the balance by faith. We can’t get there by our feelings. He wrote, “For it is the light of the Word alone that represents them justly, discovering in them the work of God, and consequently designs becoming the Divine perfections. These perceived by the eye of faith, and duly considered, one has a just view of afflicting incidents, fitted to quell the turbulent motions of corrupt affections under dismal outward appearances.”
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What is this thing that has been made crooked? “When Adam sinned, sin entered the world. Adam’s sin brought death, so death spread to everyone, for everyone sinned” (Rom. 5: 12 NLT).
We can’t save ourselves. “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God” (Eph. 2: 8 ESV).
The Homilist reminded us that not all crooked things are evil. All, however, are made by God. I loved the reasoning for the crooked things.
- It ensures our desire for something better, i.e. Heaven.
- It allows for temptations to prove our faith.
- It allows for the consequences of sin.
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The Homilist expanded on what was meant by crooked things. Included were natural disasters. Anxiety, fear, sorrow, and bereavement were added. The results of inequitable distribution of wealth and abilities is attributed to sin. Broken character feeds broken relationships.
Unfortunately, we can see it in our relationship with God, too. The Homilist wrote, “No sooner do we begin to try to serve and love God than these roughnesses crop up. Watch the door of your lips and see how much irreverence, how many vain and foolish words come forth. Watch your tempers, and something surely comes to put them out of gear.”
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We can only find our balance by finding it in a right relationship with God. When our relationship with Him is as it should be, our lives will be balanced.
Making the Connections
Jortin compared Solomon’s treatment of the subject with Paul’s. Where Solomon advocated cheerfulness in prosperity and considerateness in adversity, Paul pressed us to rejoice always. Jesus, on the other hand, told us to rejoice and be glad.
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That follows. When we think about God’s attributes of goodness, purity, and holiness, it doesn’t have room for gloom and doom.
How Do We Apply This?
- Melvill reminded us that this knowledge has to be at the heart level. It can’t just be head knowledge.
- We have to look to God to fix us and remake us.
- Ask God to remove any sin in our lives.
- If we have a thorn in the flesh as Paul did that cannot be removed, ask God for relief.
- Don’t fight against God if something isn’t happening the way we think it should. God is working it out.
- See and acknowledge how God is working in our lives.
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We want to find our balance in God. We want to be preparing for our lives for eternity.
Father God. We know we will not find balance in our lives without You. We look to You for purity, holiness, and love. We will find it in a relationship with You. Amen.
What do you think?
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