Good Morning Everyone,
Our theme for this month: “A life that matters”
Our Bible verse for today: “And besides this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; and to knowledge, temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; and to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity.” 2 Peter 1:5-7 (KJV)
Our thought for today: “Strive for balance.”
I once heard someone say that the Bible teaches moderation in all things. Actually, that’s something your grandma used to say. The phrase “moderation in all things” isn’t actually used in the Bible. But the concept of moderation and balance is Biblical.
In 2 Peter 1:5-7 Peter gave us a laundry list of virtues we should try to cultivate in our lives. All of them taken together would constitute a well-balanced personality, but if any one of those virtues were to dominate the person’s character at the expense of the others, then that person’s character would be out of balance.
One of the virtues Peter lists as being an important part of any well-rounded life is temperance. In one narrow sense temperance can be used to mean abstinence, such as when the “temperance” movement in the early 1900’s urged everyone to abstain from using alcohol. But another application of the word refers to moderation and balance. When a person is temperate it means that they don’t over-indulge in, or over-emphasize, any one thing. They are moderate in all things and therefore they have a healthy and proportional balance in their lives.
This is an important understanding for us as we consider changes we need to make in our lives in 2017. We have to be careful that our new objectives don’t get us out of balance in other areas of our lives.
Usually when there are changes that need to be made it’s because we’re already out of balance and need to make some corrections. For instance, perhaps we have been over-indulging in food and under-indulging in exercise. Now we need to make some changes to achieve a healthier balance. Or maybe we have allowed ourselves to become far too busy at work and that has resulted in us neglecting key relationships in our life. So now we need to dial back the work stuff and focus more on our family.
But also, sometimes when we set a new goal or establish an objective we want to meet, we become too enthusiastic about it and we allow the pursuit of that objective to become too dominant in our lives. That then gets us out of balance again.
I recently read a book entitled “Moderation: Defending an Ancient Virtue in a Modern World”, by Harry Clor. In one section, when he was writing about the importance of maintaining a healthy balance in all areas of life, he wrote, “A single object of desire – be it love, family, career, politics, or even self-sufficiency – that is unbalanced by anything else can easily become a narrow fixation resembling addiction.”
Ever known somebody who was essentially “addicted” to this new thing in their lives, be it working out, or a hobby, or a relationship, or whatever, to the point that they gave it an unhealthy amount of time and attention? Maybe that’s you right now.
As you give careful and prayerful thought to how you will spend your time in 2017 – the kinds of activities you will be involved in, the goals you will set, and the plans you will make, I encourage you to strive for good balance in your life.
God Bless,
Pastor Jim
Oak Hill Baptist Church 