What is spiritual balance? Maybe a better question is what is spiritual balance in the Bible?
I love potatoes. Mashed potatoes, twice-baked potatoes, baked potatoes, Texas potatoes, purple potatoes, russet potatoes, golden potatoes, red potatoes, you get the idea. Give me any sort of potatoes, especially during pregnancy, and I will gobble it up.
Yet potatoes are quite a heavy carbohydrate. Still packed with nutrition and still good for our bodies, yet maybe not so slimming to most people when consumed on a regular basis.
There are things in life that are similar. If consumed on a regular basis, they will weigh us down just like regular consumption of white potatoes have a tendency to pack on pounds.
What is spiritual balance in the Bible? Let’s scratch the surface a little bit and explore this concept of living a life where our affections are turned toward Jesus as we balance our spiritual lives.
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Good Things and Best Things
Lately, I’ve been thinking about the heaviness of the lifestyle we choose. You can insert your own description into this. Maybe you are a person who prefers all organic food, a certain diet, or a heavy exercise routine. Maybe you work outside of the home, stay at home all day with your kids, or are a grandma who does daycare. Maybe you run a business or have a demanding job. Maybe you homestead, homemaker, or homeschool. All of which are good things. With all of them, chances are it means you are striving forward toward something. You are working toward a goal.
There are things in life that are hard, but worth it.
Isn’t gardening that much food hard? Yes. Isn’t homeschooling hard? Yes. Isn’t raising your own meat hard? Yes. Isn’t running a business and working outside the home hard? Yes. These are things that are hard, but I’ve decided they are worth it.
Bible Verses about Balance in Life
Before we go much further, let’s look at some Bible verses in the Word of God that illude to this idea of spiritual balance and spiritual growth.
The Apostle Paul in his writings seems to use the metaphor of physical health and exercise quite frequently in his writings.
“For while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come.”
1 Timothy 4:8 ESV
We do the hard things because of some sort of gain, but as the Apostle Paul points out, those things we strive for that are good are of ‘some value’ but the thing that holds ‘value in every way’ is godliness. It holds a promise for the life we are currently living and eternity.
“Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air. But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.”
1 Corinthians 9:24-27 ESV
The hard things in life are often worth it. Oftentimes, doing those hard things means we will grow in character and spirit.
Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5 and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
Romans 5:3-5 ESV
But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
Matthew 6:33
When the Best Things are Replaced
Yet what happens when the good things of our lifestyle or goals become our primary objective? Our healthy balance is shaken with sin.
When eating healthy takes away the joy of consuming food.
Or when preparing healthy dishes takes away too much valuable time from our families?
When exercise becomes an obsession instead of a constructive outlet.
When my cloth diapering obsession becomes a pride issue instead of a helpful habit?
When cleaning the house becomes less about providing a cozy home for my family and instead is a trigger of anger.
When buying groceries that are considered ‘natural’ becomes a stress factor instead of an enjoyment.
There are many more scenarios than the ones I just listed. We each have our own trigger points within our homemaking or lifestyle that can cause a sin issue in our hearts.
Do you see where I’m going with this? I’m sure you do because there has been countless sermons, devotionals, and books written on the topic of replacing the good things with the best things.
A balanced life starts and stops by turning our affections and hearts toward Jesus in every way.
You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.
Deuteronomy 6:5 ESV
How to Gain Spiritual Balance
How do we gain spiritual balance when we are pursuing good things in life? When good things turn into a heart issue, they produce sin. That’s when we have a spiritual imbalance.
Spiritual balance in the Bible is actually quite straightforward. The Deuteronomy 6:5 passage above summarizes it perfectly. Whenever something rises above loving the Lord our God with all our heart, we have a problem to resolve.
Here are two questions to ask yourself about spiritual balance as we look at our spiritual health.
Where are Your Affections?
Ask yourself, where are your affections turned to right now? When I was listing those good things that turn into a heart issue above, I mentioned cleaning a home turning into an obsession or point of anger.
Finding a good balance in my life for a clean home has a point of sanctification for years and I suspect for years to come. You see I lose my mind when things are out of order in my environment. I can’t find peace when things are not in their proper place, and that’s a problem. I actually talked about this in my devotional Cultivating a Healing Home. I referred to the result of my desire for a neat, tidy, and organized home as an “idol of unrest in my heart.”
Having a clean home is good work. The human beings that live in my home value a clean environment, maybe not as much as I do, but they notice when things are out of order. Finding a middle ground in my quest for a tidy, organized, and clean home is proper balance.
When my husband and I were first married he did an experiment and placed a leaf on the front rug of our living room. He did this to see how long it would take me to notice. I’m ashamed to tell you how fast it was, so I won’t. Although I’m a long way from sanctification in my spiritual journey of a clean home, I will tell you that right now my entryway is riddled with shoes, dirt, and grim, and that’s something 7 years ago would have put me into a panic.
I’ve learned to let the moments of a dirty home be a starting point for a conversation with Jesus. Fighting the good fight of faith is often lived out in these tiny moments of turning a blind eye to the things of the world that lead us astray and opening our eyes to focus on our savior.
Easier said than done when these ‘good things’ in life (like a clean home) weigh us down more than they aid us in turning our hearts back to Jesus. Our spiritual thirst should be for Jesus. Maybe that is how we evaluate if a good thing is turning our hearts away. Is this ‘good thing’ consuming our hearts with heaviness by its disciple? Is it turning our affections back toward Christ?
What Choices Turn Your Heart?
What choices turn your heart away from God?
Potatoes can be heavy. They are heavy because they are starch full of glucose (sugar). The glycemic index rates food based on how fast its sugar raises our blood glucose levels. Normal table sugar has a glycemic index of 59 and yet the popular Russet potato ranks as high as 82!
Yet there are many varieties of potatoes, including those like the purple potato or sweet potato, which depending on how you cook can rank as low as 40 on the glycemic index. That is a huge variance.
A small choice as simple as the color of potatoes that we cook has an incredible impact on how our body reacts to them. A russet potato has the power to quickly raise our blood sugar levels yet a deep purple potato has the power to gently raise our blood sugar levels and consequently treat our body gentler.
Could it be that simple choices impact our spiritual health as well? A balanced approach may mean that we take time to read scripture instead of rushing to make the healthiest breakfast possible. Maybe a balanced approach means playing with our children instead of obsessing over our cloth diaper stash. Going on a nature walk with our children and basking in the creation of God instead of cranking out a harsh three miles at the gym.
Ask yourself what choice will result in a right balance instead of a false balance.
What is Spiritual Balance in the Bible?
Spiritual balance is about our heart. It’s about the choices we make that turn our affections toward God instead of toward ourselves.
Anxiety in a man’s heart weighs him down,
Proverbs 12:25 ESV
but a good word makes him glad.
Spiritual balance involves aligning one’s life with the Word of God and the will of God, as guided by biblical teachings and bible study. When we look at spiritual balance, our actions should be in accordance with the Kingdom of God and reflect the name of the Lord Jesus. The will of God after all is for us to increase in joy as we glorify him and enjoy him forever. We can find balance when we look at these biblical teachings and remember the joy that comes from turning our affections and choices toward Jesus instead of our own selfish pursuits.
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