"A WELL-BALANCED LIFE IS A HEALTHY LIFE"

Good Evening to All!

Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour. 1 Peter 5:8 KJV

The Amplified Version states it this way: Be well balanced (temperate, sober of mind), be vigilant and cautious at all times; for that enemy of yours, the devil, roams around like a lion roaring [in fierce hunger], seeking someone to seize upon and devour.

According to the Message Bible it states it like this: Keep a cool head. Stay alert. The Devil is poised to pounce, and would like nothing better than to catch you napping. Keep your guard up.

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Just like our temporary physical bodies need the right kinds of food, the right amount of sleep and plenty of exercise to stay healthy and balanced, so our does our spiritual and natural side. For it to be balanced, it needs the Holy Ghost, it needs to be fed from the Word of God, and it needs prayer in it. Without these very
important elements in our lives we will be lost.

There are a combination of ways to stay balanced in EVERY area of our life. Several of them are to read God's Word, to Pray, and to allow the Holy Spirit to guide us. The First two are very important in the respect that by reading and studying His word, and Praying, we will get to know God better and become closer to Him. Then we develop an intimate relationship with Him, we will receive the Holy Ghost within us. When this happens, Hew will keep us in balance (if we let Him by letting us know when we are spending too much money whether what we are spending it on is
worthy of our hard earned cash, or whether we are throwing it away. He will tell us if we are not speaking up enough or volunteering to much information. The Spirit will tell us if we are resting enough or too much. He will tell us if there is too much of one thing in our life or not enough of something else.

The point is we must stay balanced. If we allow ourselves to get out of balance, this gives Satan the chance to take advantage of us. This is where our troubles start. For example, he whispers in a mother or daddy's ear, you didn't have this when you were a child, your dad couldn't make enough money to buy you this or that. So, you say to yourself, my child isn't going to have to do without like I did. Therefore, you start working harder, longer hours and at first it's one night a week then 2, before you know it, your working on the week-ends all in the name of "giving

your child what you didn't have. The thing is, your children would probably rather have you spend time with them much more than the "substitute" toy that you work so hard to be able to give them which is more than likely over-priced anyway. Ok, I got on a rabbit trail. let's see if I can rein this back in.

Just as you can be out of balance with work and family, you can easily get out of balance with your physical and spiritual life.

When you take time away from God by watching tv instead of having prayer time, or play computer games instead of reading your daily Bible reading, that's being out of balance. (Yes, I'm using my downfalls as an example) I'm definitely going to start working on them tonight after this post. I am definitely feeling conviction. LOL! (Which is a good thing). Like I said in last night's post, I like getting my "toes stepped on" and feeling convicted, because that means God is working on me.

I am so thankful for the Holy Ghost. I know that without Him it would be impossible for me to "keep my eyes on the Prize" let alone change into person God wants me to be. I'm a far cry from it, and I know that I will not be completely changed until He takes me up with Him, but at least with the Holy Ghost I can continually work toward it.

Staying balanced is the key. Many years ago, I worked for a company that dealt in professional weight scales. We sold scales to truck weigh stations, grocery stores and many other places. It was also our job (the service tech's) to do regular checks on them to make sure they weighed correctly or were calibrated.

We are the same. We must keep ourselves calibrated and in check so that our lives will stay in balance. We need to keep ourselves tuned in to the Holy Spirit so that when His still small voice speaks and tells us what we need to work on, let go, or add to, we will hear Him and obey. Yes, I said OBEY. Hearing Him will do no good if we don't OBEY.

As I'm sure you know, sacrifice is very high on God's list, but obedience is even more important.

I know that in today's world, we have so much going on, it's easy to run out of time. In my case, it's easy to procrastinate, since I only clean a few houses, I really have too much time, so I procrastinate. I keep thinking, I 'll do it after this tv show, I'll do it after I finish supper, I'll do it after my bath, and my favorite, I read my Bible after I finish my post. I do read it after my post sometimes, but by then I'm tired and I can't concentrate, so I need to find a better time. Yes, I do read some before my post, as that is where my posts come from, but I don't count that as my "daily Bible reading". I'm trying to read my Bible through in a year, and if I don't get with it, it's not going to happen. I keep procrastinating. I'm out of balance, and I need to dig my heels into the ground and obey the Holy Ghost and start reading my Bible BEFORE my post. I can't help but wonder how much richer my posts would be.

I would like to make a kind of challenge for each of my readers. Think about your daily schedule, then find 30 minutes during the day (0r night) to dedicate to God. In an ideal world, I would say spend 30 minutes reading your Bible, and thirty minutes in prayer, but I fear that would be too much for some who aren't use to doing either, so I just ask that you dedicate 30 minutes to God, in prayer, or reading or both.

This will help us in so many ways. It will put God's Word in our hearts, so that when the devil comes sneaking up we can make him flee. After all the Bible says he trembles at the mention of God's name. Reading God's Word will help us to know when someone is deceiving us by quoting false scriptures. It will bring us CLOSER to God because it will help us get to know Him better.
It will also help us to realize why we need the Holy Ghost in our lives and what all

He will do for us if we let Him. He and ONLY HE can help us to stay in balance. Without Him, our lives would be chaos.

I hope you will take this challenge seriously, because I feel so strongly that we all need a little more balance in our lives in this day and time. It gets away from us so easily.

I know by doing this we will feel more peace, and will definitely get a blessing from it.


Good Night to All and May God Bless!