A Balanced Life

A Balanced Life

Scripture: Matthew 4:1-11; John 9:39; Second Corinthians 4:3-4

Good morning Strangers Rest. The title of my message today is “A Balanced Life.” So far this year I have stood before you and talked about getting our thoughts in line with the Word of God and then acting on those thoughts to fulfill what God’s Word says about us and what we are to be doing for Him. I have delivered three messages on faith and how we are to be walking in faith in every season that we go through, which will be evident in our lives and visible to others. To walk in faith that is visible because of the good works we are doing for the Lord we must implant God’s word into our hearts. This morning, we will see the application of everything I have said to date as we examine Satan’s efforts to tempt Jesus. But before I go further let’s examine what it means to be balanced.

When I think of balance, I think of opposites. Have you ever heard the saying “opposites attract”? It is believed your “opposite” brings you back to the middle. Now think about a scale that is balanced. Whatever you add to one side must also be added to the “opposite” side for the pole to remain balanced. I remember going to the doctor years ago before they had the electronic scales. They had what was known as beam (balance) scales. With those scales you stepped on it and the level automatically shifted up and you heard the clink sound. Then the nurse would begin guessing your weight as you patiently waited for her to get the level balanced by shifting the dial more and more to the right until the level floated. Do you remember sweating as the nurse kept moving the lever to the right? I hated those scales.

Also, have you ever eaten something so sweet that you craved something salty afterwards? We often crave salt after eating sweets because it acts as a flavor contrast, essentially "resetting" our taste buds after the sweetness overload; our tongue perceives the saltiness as a more stimulating taste compared to the lingering sweetness, leading to a desire for something salty to balance out the flavor profile on our palate. The same applies when you’re too cold or too hot. When you’re cold your first response is to put on more clothes to warm yourself and the opposite happens when you’re too hot. Again, this response is to get your body back in balance.

According to Webster’s dictionary, balance “is bodily or mental stability; a weight, value, etc. that counteracts another; equality, to bring into proportion.” When you’re balanced, you are not swayed to the right or to the left. You are walking a straight path. Balance is acquired and maintained based on the choices we make. Our daily choices demonstrate our understanding of who we are in Christ and our position as children of God. Acquiring and maintaining balance requires not only that we understand who and whose we are, but also what we have in our possession – what we have been given. When we understand this, our choices will change.

I want to demonstrate this to you, but first I want to read a Scripture to set the stage for the demonstration. Jesus said, “…. For judgment I have come into this world, that those who do not see may see, and that those who see may be made blind.” (John 9:39) Paul wrote in Second Corinthians 4:3-4, “(3) But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, (4) whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them.” In these verses we find that understanding God’s Word allows us to see clearly and be balanced. However, we become blind and unbalanced when we closed our eyes to God’s Word. Now let me demonstrate what this looks like in the natural. I am going to ask for my volunteer to come forward.

What you have just witnessed is a demonstration of how our eyes (our sight) keep us in balance in this natural world. As long as he had his eyes open, he had no problem standing on one foot but that changed when he closed his eyes. When his eyes closed he started swaying and getting off balance and quickly opened his eyes to steady himself. This happened because the body’s balance system works through a constant process of position detection, feedback and adjustment using communication between the inner ear, eyes, muscles, joints, and the brain. Deep inside the ear, positioned just under the brain, is the inner ear which one part enables hearing while another part, the vestibular system, is designed to send information about the position of the head (dynamic or static) to the brain’s movement control center, the cerebellum. Without getting too technical, dynamic equilibrium lets us know the direction our head moves while static equilibrium helps us detect the positioning of our head relative to gravity. Simply put, you can stand on two feet with your eyes closed all day long, but you cannot do this standing on one foot. Our eyes working with our inner ear gives us what we need to maintain physical balance. Likewise, spiritually, it is God’s Word and our heart working in unison with God’s Word that keeps us spiritually balanced.