Saturday, November 21, 2009
Balance
I hate the word balance. Everything in life, and in the Christian life specifically, is about balance- work/rest, recognizing sin as sin/receiving grace, relationship/autonomy, talking/listening, etc. etc. etc. There is nothing I struggle with so much as I do with balance. I especially am aware currently of my struggle for balance between fighting for a deeper, purer relationship with Christ, and simply receiving and abiding in His gift of relationship and spiritual blessing. Everything in me wants to "do" for God. I want to fight for joy, strive for godliness, pray for others more, read the Bible more, and so on. Don't get me wrong- I think all of these things are good. But there needs to be balance. They need to be balanced with abiding in His steadfast love, listening to His voice in prayer, receiving the gifts of His Spirit, resting in grace.
I want to find the balance. I want to live in the balance. One without the other seems to me to be either trying to earn God's love/salvation by works, or dead faith ("faith without works is dead"). So how do we more or less achieve such a balance- that we are living out our faith, yet trusting in God's grace?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Love begets faith. Faith begets works...or rather faith begets more love for God and for others. Don't think of it so much as a balancing act. That still leaves things in your hands. "If I could only balance it just right..." I don't think this is a helpful outlook. Its definitely not good to be anxious about whether or not your being faithful. I'm not saying you are anxious, but I've definitely sinned this way. In the past I use to say my greatest fear is not being faithful with what He has given me. I'm realizing that I don't need to fear that. I need to believe the gospel more. I need to revel in the love of Christ, to be constantly blown away by God's beauty and power. As I rest on him as my anchor, rock, strong tower...as I'm filled with the complete joy of knowing Him, the rest follows. (in both senses of rest) I think its a question of motivation. We love because He first loved us. Are we working to please God because we are overwhelmed by His forgiveness, His love, His glory? Or are our "good works" an overflow or something else? I don't think its a balance. I think its a constant process of living in the reality of God. Remembering Him. Knowing Him. Abiding in Him. As we do this, His Spirit moves through us and produces great fruit.
ReplyDeleteI hope this is helpful. I've tried to balance and sometimes I still try, but I'd much rather walk assured that He is right here with me holding my hand.
Hear are the last lines of a prayer I read today that really encouraged me.
I wish not so much to do as to be,
and I long to be like Jesus;
If thou dost make me right I shall be right;
Lord, I belong to thee,
make me worthy of thyself.
Thank you for your thoughts. You are right that even in my attempt to balance, I still place the emphasis on something I do. But the point is ultimately to simply abide.
ReplyDelete