What is balance?

Matthew 22:37-40Jesus replied, “‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.”

Knowing this greatest commandment is not the same as doing it. Putting God first in our emotional lives, our spiritual lives, and our thought lives requires that we ask ourselves frequently, “Am I doing this for the right person and the right reason?” Our relationship with God provides the only focal point that can keep everything else in its proper, balanced place.

Ecclesiastes 3:1For everything there is a season, a time for every activity under heaven.

As the verses that follow this one illustrate, healthy living consists of doing things at their proper time. Many things in life can’t be put off to a more convenient time. For instance, we can’t wait until our children grow up to get around to parenting them. Balanced living includes doing what we should be doing when we should be doing it.

Matthew 6:33-34“Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need. So don’t worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries. Today’s trouble is enough for today.”

God assures us that he will give us what we need so we can do everything he calls us to do. We will find true peace and contentment when we realize we don’t have to do everything all at once—just those things God wants us to do right now. Then we can leave things undone, knowing that in God’s eyes we have done all we need to do.