“When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory . . . but Christ is all, and in all” (Colossians 3:4, 11).
A young man was sharing his frustration of attempting to grow spiritually and be fruitful in his walk with Lord, to be God’s man in the marketplace, and to deepen his relationship with a young girl. “I see my selfishness and prideful attitudes. I am struggling! I try to spend time with the Lord and I pack my schedule extremely full to be as productive as possible. I know I am out of balance. How do I get back to being balanced?”
Being out of balance is a good diagnostic tool—we almost always can recognize when things are spinning out of control and our gyroscope begins to wobble. Yet the answer is never balance! Trying to achieve balance is usually me seeking to maintain control. We don’t double down and do more of the right things (spiritual disciplines) and less of the bad (flesh, pride, etc.). This may provide temporary relief, yet that will never get us back to balance. Balance is the overflow of an integrated life.
If balance were the solution, we would invariably compartmentalize our life and put Christ in a box, work in a box, relationships in a box, and so on. There is never enough time or margin to achieve success with this approach. Life and proper balance are not about doing more.
Only when Christ is the center of our life and He is integrated into every one of our daily activities can we sense balance. Christ as life is experienced when we receive His love and affection and don’t try to achieve this intimate relationship by more disciplines or doing more ministry. His indwelling life is the source of our spiritual life, wisdom, and power.
Christ as the center becomes our anchor and foundation. Then, when life’s storms hit or life simply becomes too full, we don’t go tilt or sense we are out of balance. We recognize that we are out of control, fully realizing we were never in control—only He is.
“Towards himself a Christian should have a broken spirit, but towards God it should be one of rejoicing always in Him. He rejoices not for its own sake nor because of any joyful experience, work, blessing or circumstance, but exclusively because God is his center.” — Watchman Nee
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Purchase the Entire Devotional – “Experiencing Christ as Life and Leader”
The devotion above was taken from the 52-week Devotional entitled “Experiencing Christ as Life and Leader”.
Many give a mental assent to this teaching yet are often asking, “What do I do? What does Christ as life look like?“ Too often Christians err by moving too far to one side or the other—reducing the Christian life to a list of do’s and don’ts, or they actually do nothing.
These inspiring weekly devotions are just some of the actions that reflect the life of Christ in each of us, and they explore four areas as we follow the One Leader, Jesus Christ –
- A Foundational Focus
- A Personal Focus
- A Relational Focus
- A Missional Focus
Be challenged, encouraged, and spurred on to a deeper walk with Christ.
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