God's Prescription for Work Life Balance

As a supplying joint in an apostolic church, work-life balance has at times evaded me like a star point guard who weaves his way through the defense and dunks the basketball in the face of his frustrated opponent.

In other words, I chased after balance but couldn’t seem to catch it. All the while my adversary, the Devil, donning his roaring lion persona, chased after me with lying accusations designed to discourage, depress and derail. “You are never going to get all this work done!” whispered the Slanderer. “You may as well forget it!”

“The Devil is a liar,” I would tell myself. “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me!” Indeed, but I soon discovered the key to that oft-quoted Scripture. We can do all things that Christ has called us to do. Unfortunately, what He has called us to do and what we are actually doing are sometimes opposing forces that cause us to lean too far in one direction like Italy’s famed Tower of Pisa.

When we weigh ourselves down with dead works – you know, those good things that are not necessarily God things – we quickly get out of balance because the burden is too great. We work harder and longer to complete the tasks. Since God’s grace doesn’t cover those dead works we wind up exhausted and heading straight for burnout. Instead of healthy fruit, we can wind up with a resentful root.

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It seems that Lucifer has an insatiable appetite for fruit – the fruit of our labors, the fruit of our family relationships, the fruit of the Spirit in our lives. That’s one reason why the Apostle Peter charged believers to be well balanced: “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” (1 Peter 5:8 AMP).

So we see that where there is fruit, there is a gluttonous devil with plans for lunch. It is the imbalances in our lives that leave a door wide open for the Devil, who is poised to rush the gate every chance he gets. We are not born with balance, nor are we born again with balance. We must be vigilant and cautious at all times to find and maintain balance.

Consider the meaning of the word “balance.” Balance connotes stability and equality. Imbalance, or a lack of balance, connotes unsteadiness, instability, lop-sided, eccentric or irrationalness. Burnout begins with an imbalance and ends with rotten fruit. We will always pay the price for excess.

Determined to be a doer of the Word and not a hearer only, I began to cry out to the Lord for balance in my life. Apart from Him I knew I was washed up, but I also knew His grace was sufficient. Unfortunately, my travailing prayers didn’t seem to do much good. The problem only worsened.

Fires sprung up every which way I looked. I felt like that frustrated defensive squad member who couldn’t stop the star point guard from slam-dunking in his face. Of course, the accuser of the brethren was ready and waiting for the opportunity to tell me I couldn’t do anything right because I was doing too much. (Sound familiar?)

Oftentimes there is some seed of truth in the devil’s accusation, so instead of just launching out into spiritual warfare with a noisy session of binding and loosing, I took the accusation as an opportunity to examine myself. What I found was that I was not necessarily doing too much. (Work is good. The Bible says we work six days and rest one.) Rather, I was doing too much of the wrong thing.

How do you know if you are into dead works? One way to is judge the fruit of the works. Does it bring you peace, joy, and a sense of accomplishment? Does it build the local church, save souls, and make disciples? Does it establish the Kingdom of God? Does the fruit have a sweet smelling aroma? Or does it look good on the outside and stinketh on the inside?

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Some of the fruit of my labors was like those succulent grapes the Israelite spies brought back from the Promised Land. It would have taken two strong men to carry it. But some of the fruit was just plain rotten to the core. Those were the dead works; the “good” things that led to burnout and hindered me from giving my all to the God things.

Thoroughly convicted of the imbalance in my life, I cried out to God once again for instruction that would thwart condemnation. The Holy Spirit told me “Balance is a learning process.” Then He showed me three simple visions that washed away the anxiety.

First, He showed me a large room. Anybody can walk in a large room carrying a heavy basket of assorted fruit, even if some of it is rotten. Next, He showed me a balance beam. As we mature in Christ and take on more responsibility, it becomes harder to balance without stumbling if we are carrying non-fruit bearing activities.

Finally, he showed me a tightrope. At this level, the way is so narrow that our sole focus must be staying on the path. There is no room for bunny trails of unfruitful activity in the midst of God’s perfect will. It takes supernatural concentration on His purposes. So I discovered that balance is a learning process and we have to learn new skills at each level. One of those skills is pruning.

Balance began manifesting in my life when I pruned some of those non-fruit bearing activities that Christ did not call me to do. Pruning is a constant in our lives. God prunes us if we aren’t bearing fruit and He prunes us if we are bearing fruit so that we will bear more abundant fruit. It doesn’t always feel good at the time, but the progress is worth the price.

So be encouraged. Whether you are in a large room, on a balance beam or walking that tightrope, the Holy Spirit, your Teacher, will show you how to make adjustments to your activities that will help you remained balanced and stable – and fruitful – so that ravening devil will find no opportunity to seize upon your destiny.

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God's Prescription for Work-Life and Family Balance