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Daily Devotional – GIFT OF LIFE

By April 5, 2017Daily Devotionals

GIFT OF LIFE

Prayer: Dear Lord, thank you for this great gift of life this day. We want to live for You and with You at the center of all that we do. Amen.

Scripture: The God Who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands. And He is not served by human hands, as if He needed anything, because He himself gives all men life and breath and everything else. From one man He made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and He determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. God did this so that men would seek Him and perhaps reach out for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us. ‘For in Him we live and move and have our being.’ Acts 17: 24-28 NIV


I could not help but laugh when I read the label on a sample of lotion I had been given. It read, “Smooth on this lotion and return balance to your life.” Really? The catch phrase of the decade, thousands of books and conferences later, mankind looking for “balance” in their lives, and all we had to do was smooth on this lotion! Right… somehow I doubt it. It did smell nice, though!

If you have been searching for balance, I want you to stop and define what it is that you are really looking for. Describe what “Balance” would look like in your life. You see the problem is that, when many people start balancing their lives, they turn it into pie; and while any of my close friends could attest to my love of pie, slicing your life into separate segments is not God’s idea for your life.

In sectional life, we have a slice of time for church and God, a slice for recreation, a slice for family, a slice for work, a slice for rest, a slice for friends and social activities, a slice for education or hobbies, a slice for each commitment – you get the idea.

We serve out our days and our lives a slice at a time, and somehow have been convinced that if the slices are cut evenly or proportionally to their priorities we have achieved “balance.” The problem with the slice method is that we compartmentalize or separate areas that could or should be connected. The most obvious example of this is our “God slice.” Time with God at church and our individual prayer time is not meant to be separate from the rest of our life. Today’s verse reminds us that “In God we live and move and have our being.” God is all and we should include Him in all. God certainly does not count our lives as “righteous” if we only have our 15 minutes of “righteousness” each morning and then live for ourselves or even the world the rest of the day.

Our family time, rest time, work time, all the time should be with Him and for Him. He never leaves us so shouldn’t we recognize, rely on, and even glorify Him throughout your day? That is the only true balanced life.

Copyright Kathy Branzell. Email [email protected]