13/03/2023
DAY 39 of our 40-day LIVE PURPOSEFULLY Program:
A BALANCED LIFE!
Balance is always key to having a peaceful and happy life! God is the only being alive that is perfectly balanced, and becoming a balanced Christian is about making time in your life to devote to your family, your work, and God. However, living life as a balanced Christian is also about finding the middle ground between extreme beliefs. Some Christians tend to focus too much on the law and doctrine, and some focus too much on grace and so forget about living well. Both views are extreme, and either extreme is wrong. Satan tries to drive us to either extreme, but God is often in the middle ground. Here are some tips on how to become a more balanced Christian. The definition of being a balanced Christian will be different depending on who you ask, but it is important to look at the direction that we find in the Bible.
1. See, God's grace and God's justice.
2. Understand free will/predestination. Yes, all Christians are chosen and called "before the foundation of the world", but also remember the verse, "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved." Salvation is an open invitation. It is not just for "the chosen ones."
3. Recognize that Christians can become more filled with the Holy Spirit. Every Christian receives the Holy Spirit when they are saved, but every Christian can be filled more with the Holy Spirit and with His gifts, of the Holy Spirit, in order to share the Gospel, etc.
4. Have the heart of a child, but not the mind of a child. Jesus said in Matthew 18:3, "Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of Heaven." What this means is that we are to trust God with our hearts as a child trusts their parent. It means that we are to have faith that God is real even when we can't see Him or fully understand Him.
5. Understand that there are times to judge and times to not judge. The Bible says "Judge not lest ye be judged." What this means is when Jesus said that we must first remove the plank from our own eye before we can judge our brother.
6. Know that all spiritual gifts still exist today.
7. Understand that Jesus did come to give us an abundant life, but also see that the Christian life can be very hard.
8. See that God does still do the supernatural today, but realize that not every supernatural thing is from God. The Bible says that Satan can "masquerade as an angel of light." Satan can and does imitate miracles or things that God's Holy Spirit can do in order to deceive people.
9. Recognize that God sometimes wants to heal people, but other times God allows people to remain in pain. God allows us to be in pain, or to stay in pain, in order to humble us.
10. See that God does always answer our prayers.