Is Your Life in Balance?
“The worth of a book is to be measured by what you can carry away from it. To be wise, study the Bible; to be saved, believe it; to be righteous, practice it.”
Shortly after God walked into my life while attending the University of Arizona, Navigators, a campus Christian group, heard of my conversion and began to equip me with a powerful tool to maintain a dynamic Christian Life. I made a note of it in my Bible and as I rehearsed its significance this morning, I decided to jot down the visual principles, in the event you girls might have an opportunity to apply them and to share them with your children.
There is a definition (you know I love definitions) for the word Bible that my husband gave me, as a young mom, when I was struggling with survival living and needing to take time daily to get in the Word. It went like this:
The Bible is the heart and mind of God.
One day you will spend eternity with Him, Jackie…get to know Him
THE NAVIGATORS WHEEL was that tool!
THE GOAL: Keep the wheel balanced by keeping the spokes balanced.
THE HUB OR CENTER of the Wheel is Christ. If He is not pre-eminent in your life, your life is already out of balance!
OBEDIENCE IN ACTION manifests itself in humility, growth and maturity. (Phil. 3: 10)
The Key is learning to accept trials with joy and thankfulness!
PRAYER is the first spoke and is me talking to God.
“…Satan trembles when he sees the weakest saint on his knees.”
The evil one laughs at our toiling but he shudders when we pray.
Satan knows that power comes from prayer and…he needs to fear!
The WORD is the second spoke and is the foundation spoke. It's when God talks to me.
Other books are given for our information; the Bible is given for transformation.
I am my neighbor’s bible:
He reads me when we meet,
Today he reads me in my house,
Tomorrow in the street;
He may be a relative or friend,
Or slight acquaintance be;
He may not even know my name,
Yet he is reading me.
II Cor. 3: 2
FELLOWSHIP is the third spoke and focuses on maintaining my relationship with God and man.
Fellowship with God means warfare with the world. Charles E. Fuller Martin Luther is quoted as saying, “To gather with God’s people in united adoration of the Father is as necessary to the Christian life as prayer.” To be in fellowship ask yourself two questions:
1) Do I have any unconfessed sin?
2) Do I have any unresolved relationships?
If you can answer "no" to both questions you are in fellowship with God and man.
WITNESSING is the remaining spoke and is my sharing what I am; what I believe and what I am learning.
A testimony (sharing what I am) is merely translating my weaknesses into a life message for the benefit of another person and the glory of God. Bill Gothard
“What the world expects of Christians is that Christians should speak out,loud and clear…in such a way that never a doubt, never the slightest doubt, could rise in the heart of the simplest man”. Albert Camus
The Provision Comes through The Word
The Peace = Comes through our Obedience
The Power = Comes through Prayer
The Production =Witnessing
This is a new year, new opportunities, new visions, and new goals …
Let’s make 2017 a year that others will speak well of our Lord because of us. Let’s determine to allow His plan for a balanced life to become reality in us…
Will you join me?
~Jackie Johnson - I am a former tribal missionary to the Kuna Indians on the Colombian border in Central America. Fluent in several languages, my husband and I currently pastor a Spanish-speaking church in Southern California. My passion is discipling and equipping dedicated young women for life, marriage, motherhood, and beyond. I am the mother of two daughters and the grandmother of three Princesses and four young Knights.
