STEP 13 - Works and Balances.

Works require balance otherwise we fall off His course for our life and our freedom from the chains of this world.

 

Don’t get caught up in doing works to the degree that your purpose becomes malnutrition, and your spirit slowly dies; along with your personal life, which tips the life meter into a negative balance. God wants us to act justly, to love mercy and to walk humbly with Him; He wants us to learn to walk balanced, stay in the positive lane no matter what comes our way.

Many times, you drove somewhere and for most of us our speed was dependent on an expected time of arrival; that’s not always a good measure but it happens.

This measure not only causes us to speed but it can open other doors that we normally don’t walk through unless we are catching up on time, trying to balance something that can throw our moment, hour or even our day completely off.

 

The logical step to take would be to work on the root of the issue, our timeliness.

 

By not acknowledging areas that require improvement in order to receive balance is an automatic set-up to fail.

 

It puts us in compromising positions that affect our character, choices, rest, peace, joy…. I can go on and on, the list is long, and we don’t even realize what we lose in an action that takes us off balance and, in this case, it’s speeding.

 

It’s crazy, if we stood back and gave deep thought on just this area, we’d see there are many factors that can take us off course, preventing us from walking in His balance.

 

Honestly, you can probably use these terms or descriptions in any area of life as well, just shift some of the meaning.

• Stop lights – orange means “hurry up” if you are close enough to avoid an accident or “don’t think about it,” stop, it won’t be safe for anyone.

• Speed bumps – you really need to slow down otherwise you’ll plan a trip to the car doctor to see why it’s off balance. Decrease your speed and cautiously drive over the bumps and not act as though they are not there.

• Slow traffic – it never fails, when you are running behind on time. It’s sort of hilarious; out of nowhere people start driving slower than the norm and even if you go around one car, the next one could be slower.

• Gas light indicator is on – timeliness even means preparation. We can say we didn’t have enough time to get gas, we didn’t think about it, or we choose to do it the next day not knowing we’d be rushing.

• Accidents – something not planned; it wasn’t anything you did this time. Regardless of the “why” you have to deal with someone else’s action that led to cars stopping and sitting while time is moving even quicker and more negative friends are hopping in the back seat, because for them, this party is “happening” and keeps getting better.

Bottom line, another reminder to be timely since this scenario definitely takes our joy and peace away, putting us in a position of frustration, using words that shouldn’t be spoken and our patience level keeps dropping as we drive.

 

Then we arrive at a location with tons of attitude, impatience, and irritation, all of those negative vibes you picked up along the way and brought to your final destination.

 

By not having balance in our planning, it causes a ripple effect in many areas that could have been avoided.

 

Time is the life of a party; it invites many types of characters with good intentions and bad. No matter what is going on, we must seek balance.

 

In order to have balance, we must do the work, be intentional about change, look at it as breaking chains off of your ankle and allowing you to walk lightly and not weighted.

 

Areas that frustrate you the most are the areas to focus on first and find your balance in Him?

 

We don’t have to be unhappy more than we are happy; it’s okay to learn how to walk on a positive path, we don’t have to entertain the negative emotions of learning to be balanced.

 

Psalms 30:4-5

4 Sing to the Lord, all you godly ones! Praise his holy name. 5 For his anger lasts only a moment, but his favor lasts a lifetime! Weeping may last through the night, but joy comes with the morning.

 

Joy comes every morning to wake us up, she’s a gift from the Lord and in order to receive that benefit we must embrace her, she’s a gentle spirit. She won’t force herself on us and if she senses too much stress, she finds the exit door and leaves.

 

Joy is a great example of keeping your peace; she’s not going to sit around waiting for you to come along, she’s not grace.

 

Some of you just heard this differently and a chain fell off your ankle. You realized that you were “joy for others” and in your presence they still didn’t embrace you, yet you stayed around hoping for a positive shift and at this moment realized maybe you need to move forward, take joy to a safer and appreciative space.

 

You are hearing words that can bring you to balance; that’s what I heard as I was typing these words.

 

God is great, He is our provider, He will open doors no man can shut, He will open our blinded eyes so we can take in His glory and be free from any type of bondage that prevents His words, His Spirit to continuously grow in us.

 

His death gives us so many opportunities and His word lead and guides us as the Holy Spirit gently reminds us of what we’ve learned or heard recently in order to keep our balance in Him.

 

Matthew 6:33-34

33 seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

 

Our purpose may not align at times with our thoughts, abilities or capabilities; they’re formed under the umbrella of faith, coming directly from the Holy Spirit.

 

The Holy Spirit is part of the Trinity, a gift our Heavenly Father left for us after His resurrection.

 

The Holy Spirit now serves as our teacher, counselor, comforter, strengthener, inspirer, and revealer of scriptures since Jesus is now in Heaven.

 

When you hear something in the air, unable to detect or measure the direction it’s coming from; that’s when you know it’s the Holy Spirit.

 

That’s when you stop and listen and sometimes you may only get a word or two; trust and take the first step by faith and be confident that the rest will follow even if it is the unknown to you, remember, He has plans to prosper you and not harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

 

It’s so important to read the word, have formal or informal conversations with the Lord throughout the day, praising Him for those daily victories, not being concerned about tomorrow, just focusing on today and have your spiritual ears opened for the Holy Spirit to bring things to your remembrance.

 

Hebrews 12:1-2

 1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by such great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, 2 fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before Him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

 

Once we start to take credit and not give God the glory for ideals, thoughts and steps we’ve taken toward our purpose, that’s when things become harder to achieve since our only job was to be obedient to what we hear in the Spirit and not look for validation from others, not change the steps we’ve received to make it make sense to us.

 

When that happens, we are not walking by faith; we start to walk by our thoughts, and our ideas of what it should look like.

Samuel is having a discussion with Saul about what happened when Saul decided to make changes that made sense to him versus following the instructions of the Lord.

 

We can relate to Saul; how many times have we made alterations to what we’ve heard from the Lord, even had confirmations and yet we chose another path.

 

 1 Samuel 15:16-25

16 Then Samuel said to Saul, “Stop! Listen to what the Lord told me last night!” “What did he tell you?” Saul asked.

 

17 And Samuel told him, “Although you may think little of yourself, are you not the leader of the tribes of Israel? The Lord has anointed you king of Israel. 18 And the Lord sent you on a mission and told you, ‘Go and completely destroy the sinners, the

Amalekites, until they are all dead.” 19 Why haven’t you obeyed the Lord? Why did you rush for the plunder and do what was evil in the Lord’s sight?”

 

20 “But I did obey the Lord,” Saul insisted. I carried out the mission the Lord gave me. I brought back King Agag and destroyed everyone else. 21 Then his troops brought in the best of the sheep, goats, cattle, and plunder to sacrifice to the Lord in Gilgal.”

 

22 But Samuel replied, “What is more pleasing to the Lord: your burnt offerings and sacrifices    or your obedience to his voice? Listen! Obedience is better than sacrifice, and submission is better than offering the fat of rams. 23 Rebellion is as sinful as witchcraft and stubbornness as bad as worshiping idols. So, because you have rejected the command of the Lord, he has rejected you as king.”

 

24 Then Saul admitted to Samuel, “Yes, I have sinned. I have disobeyed your instructions and the Lord’s command, for I was afraid of the people and did what they demanded.

25 But now, please forgive my sin and come back with me so that I may worship the Lord.”

 

Sometimes we can’t even make sense of what it means and why we are doing what we hear since faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

 

There are times doubt will open the door for fear to walk in and eat the seeds that the Lord planted in our spirit; not allowing it to produce the fruit that’s meant to grow.

 

That’s when we lose focus on what the Lord paved for us prior to our birth; it’s bigger than what we can see or comprehend and it’s not just for our benefit; it affects others in our life.

 

Our obedience to the Lord should walk past the fear of people, what they think, what they don’t like, how they perceive our personal life.

 

Before we make any changes, our only question should be, “Does what we receive from the Holy Spirit line up with the word of God?” We must always test the spirit before moving forward.

 

Philippians 4:6 do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.

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