Would you agree that often the most difficult person in your life—the one who holds you back and keeps you saddled with your past; the one who gets in your way of moving forward to do great things for God; the one who floods your mind with the wrong thoughts, continually sending you wrong messages about yourself—is you?

If we’re honest, I think most of us will answer, “My biggest problem is ME!” Reminds me of the old song:

 Not my brother, not my sister, but it’s me, O Lord

Standing in the need of prayer. (Standing in the Need of Prayer – Hymn) 

At the core of most of our “issues” is our own self. We either create or exacerbate most of our troubles. Now, this really should come as good news, because we can do something about ourselves with God’s help. That means that we can be set free from ourselves if and when we decide to take God at his word and claim the victory that is ours in Christ.

The Truth About Truth

Jesus said, “Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (John 8:32).

Truth sets you free—free from error, free from bad choices, free from the consequences of untruth. If indeed truth sets you free, then the converse is true: Error keeps you in bondage. In any area of your life where you are in bondage, it is because you are believing something that is not true or refusing to believe what is true.

And yet, if you look around you, if you look in your own heart, you'll discover that frequently we don't seek after truth. In the Bible we find that people suppressed the truth, exchanged it for lies, rejected the truth, refused to love the truth, denied the truth, just to mention a few. That has been going on through all of history, and it certainly continues today.

In fact, in our culture truth has become relative. Believe what you please, most people think, as long as it works for you. But that doesn’t change the truth about truth. You're entitled to your own opinion, but you're not entitled to your own truth!

Satan, our enemy, is a masterful liar. He knows how dangerous truth is to him and his schemes. He can't trap you if you know and obey the truth. He can't get you off on the wrong track if you know the truth. He can't tempt you to sin if you know the truth. Truth sets you free from satan's power in your life. The last thing he wants you to know is the truth as found in Jesus and the Word of God. Therefore, he throws up every roadblock he can think of to keep you from the truth.

There are three things about truth that I want you to remember:

Truth hurts. When Jesus asked a crowd "If I am telling you the truth, why don't you believe me?", they got very angry with him because he had just told them the truth about themselves, which was that they were not of Abraham but of satan. He told them that truth and, as you can imagine, it hurt their feelings and enraged them, and so, as is often the case when truth hurts, they wanted to kill the messenger.

Now, if they had listened and believed that truth, even though it hurt them greatly, it would also have set them free. But they were too shortsighted to realize that, and so they rejected the truth.

I find that there are areas in my own life where I reject the truth because it hurts. I recall a phone call I received where someone told me some truth about myself that was painful. My first reflex was to drown it in busyness—just get busy with all I had to do and forget it. I wanted to tell myself it wasn't that important anyway. I wanted to think good things about myself and convince myself this information was not accurate. The truth hurt, and nobody likes pain. In fact, our natural reaction is to run away from pain of any sort.

Finally, I talked to myself and said, "Mary, this is the truth about you,

As we face the challenge of trying to keep our lives in a biblically balanced state, we have to be sure we’re making the right deposits into our lives and then that we’re not wasting our strength and energy by making foolish withdrawals.

What is it in your life that drains your strength unnecessarily? If you could learn to plug up the energy leaks in your life, then you would have enough left to do what God has called you to do.

Here are five ways you may be draining your strength unnecessarily.

Your strength is wasted when you try to do more than you can do.

God has not called us to be all things to all people. Have you got too many irons in the fire? Maybe you have a hard time saying "No.” Whatever it is that causes you to over-commit, you need to get this area under control.

Learn to say “No.” No is not a four-letter word. Don’t let false guilt cause you to say yes when you should say no.

Your strength is wasted when you have too much stuff.

Did you know that the more you have, the more energy it takes out of you? You can save a lot of energy by just not accumulating so much stuff. Now you may not have to get rid of things, but just change your attitude toward them. But check it out: Are you spending a lot of your energy on things?

Your strength is wasted when you allow yourself to be negative.

Every time you get mired down in negative thoughts and words, you are wasting valuable energy and adding lots of stress to your life. We are to rejoice in the Lord always, and that means stay out of negative territory!

Your strength is wasted when you try to control the uncontrollable.

Learn to let go of that over which you have no control. I’m often amazed at how much time and energy I waste over what I cannot control!

Your strength is used up when your life is not disciplined.

Proverbs says that we die from lack of discipline, and I believe that many of us are drained of energy because we refuse needed discipline in our lives. That means doing things you don't want to do; it means making yourself establish good habits and schedules and sticking to them. It means denying yourself some things you really want.

Discipline is never much fun, but it brings wonderful fruits. And one of those benefits is that it supplies us with energy to do important things.

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Is it possible to live biblically balanced lives? I can tell you that it is possible, but it is not easy.

Pleasing God or Pleasing People?

If you’re ever going to get the right balance in your life—God’s balance—you’re going to have to care more about pleasing God than you do about pleasing people. You’ve got to want God’s approval more than you want the approval of people. You may find that hard to do, because our natural bent is to want the approval and acceptance of people. And we can become absolutely enslaved by a desire to receive the approval of people.

Am I now trying to win the approval of human beings, or of God? Or am I trying to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a servant of Christ” (Galatians 1:10).

This is a good verse to pray into your life. Ask God to develop you into the woman or man who cares more about pleasing God than pleasing people.

Making Deposits

Living balanced lives has to become intentional. So, to help you do this, I want you to think of yourself as a bank account, where deposits and withdrawals are made. Here are two very important deposits that you must intentionally put into your “bank accounts” if you ever hope to live biblically balanced lives:

Deposit the Word of God

Psalm 119:28: "My soul is weary with sorrow; strengthen me according to your word."

I hope you are involved in some kind of Bible study program all the time. You need in-depth study of God’s Word, and you need structured reading of the Bible. His Word strengthens us. I think of a couple who lost six children in one horrible automobile accident in 1993. Janet, their mother, shared with us that the Word of God was her constant source of strength to get her through those horrible days, and even yet, through the sorrow of losing her children. When you consistently deposit God’s Word into your mind, you are adding great strength and stamina to your life. It will get you through tough days.

Deposit the Joy of the Lord

Nehemiah 8:10b: "Do not grieve, for the joy of the Lord is your strength."

How do you keep joy in your life? First, you control your thinking. Negative thoughts, critical thoughts, judgmental thoughts, complaining thoughts—these will all rob you of joy. Secondly, you confess your sins immediately and keep a clean slate with the Lord.

How can we find and keep a truly biblically balanced lifestyle? As Christ followers, our challenge is to get our priorities in line with God’s priorities. For example, we know from Scripture that these things are always a high biblical priority:

Getting to know God

Your marriage – your mate

Your children

Family relationships

Using our gifts in the body of Christ for the good of others

If you are a follower of Jesus Christ, these should be the priorities of our lives. When you allow anything to usurp these responsibilities, then your life is out of balance. Mine was for quite a few years when, in climbing the corporate ladder, I put my career ahead of my responsibility as a mother and took a job that required too much travel.

Zero Budgeting

Zero-budgeting is a fiscal policy which starts the budgeting process each year at zero. For example, just because you had money in the budget last year for travel, doesn't mean you'll have money in the budget this year for travel. You have to show the need for that budget money before it will be approved.

Wouldn't it be good for you to sit down with the Lord for a zero-budgeting session, with no pre-planned agenda, no assumptions, and see what goes and what stays in his plans for you? Jesus was able to say at the end of his short ministry, "I have finished the work you gave me to do.” That's because his agenda was always the Father's agenda. Time and again he said, "I do what the Father tells me to do.”

Zero-budgeting may lead you to some radical changes, or it may confirm that you're to stay where you are, doing what you're doing. But once you give God permission to set the agenda, then you have tremendous peace and freedom and you can say with Jesus, "I am doing what you gave me to do, Father.”

It may be that this zero-budgeting process comes later in life after you’ve already done your own thing and made some messes and you’re forced to live with those consequences. God understands that. You don’t have to live in perpetual regret if that is the case. God is masterful at taking us right where we are to where he wants us to be.

There is no one who hasn’t messed up at some point. But there is no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, and if you are now at a place where you can truthfully say that all you want is to know and do God’s will for your life and to spend the rest of your days doing the good works God wants you to do, then you’re in a good place. You’re ready to move forward and move into that biblically balanced lifestyle which he desires for each of his children.

How do we find the right biblical balance in our lives, especially for us workplace women? Think about your grandmother or great-grandmother. Did she have a job outside of her home? Probably not. She probably worked harder than you do, but she had a much more limited role than you do. I seriously doubt that she ever listened to a message on balancing her life. That would have been puzzling to her.

But today, we have many modern conveniences that make housework easier, things she never dreamed of, and as a result, we have accumulated many different roles and our lives are far more fragmented than hers was. For example, consider all the hats you are wearing—or trying to wear. Your hats could include wife, mother, employee, employer, care giver, church worker, house cleaner, cook, chauffeur, counselor—and the list goes on!

The world approves of us based on how many hats we wear and how successfully we juggle them. Our society honors and recognizes people who are busy. We judge people's worth and value by the length of their "to do" list. Too often we brag about our long hours and wear our burnout as the badge of credibility.

So, in trying to wear all these hats, you and I are challenged to make better and better decisions about our activities and how we spend our limited time. I want to get to the end of my life and hear Jesus say, "Well, done, good and faithful servant," and I'm certain you do, too. We will be good stewards of our time and our “hats” as we continually grow in our ability to make better and better choices, based on God's Word, not on our culture, not on other's expectations, not on our own mindsets and prejudices.

My Mom passed away at the age of 95. She led a very simple life as a wife and mom. She was never a soccer mom, never had a career, traveled very little, spent her days in her home—and in the Word of God. At her memorial service, her children and grandchildren called her blessed because she left us such a great legacy as a godly woman who kept her simple life in balance by staying grounded in the Word of God—reading it, memorizing it, teaching it, and loving it.

I know we live in a different time than our grandmothers did, but we still need to keep our lives grounded in the truth of God’s Word. I encourage you to think about what your legacy will be to your family and friends.

We hear a lot about finding balance in our lives, especially those of us who are working women. And for Christian working women, we have a completely different yardstick by which to measure the balance of our lives, because we have—or should have—an eternal perspective: What matters for eternity?

Our dilemma is: How do we know what a balanced life is—and how do we find it? Which of these statements would you say are true? Your life is in balance when:

◊  You accomplish everything we plan to do each day.

◊ You are able to meet all the expectations others have of you.

◊ You never feel pressured or frazzled.

◊ You never have to say “no” to anyone.

◊ You can juggle many balls in the air at the same time.

◊ You are very good at multi-tasking.

Are these the signs of a balanced life? No, not necessarily. We need a biblical perspective of what it means to live a balanced life. So, let’s begin by asking the question: Why am I here?

Why Am I Here?

If you are a Christ-follower, you are here to do the good works he has planned for you to do:

“For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do” (Ephesians 2:10).

You are not to be lazy; you are not here to please yourself; you are to be about the Father’s business. God does not exist to make us happy and fulfilled and solve all our problems. We belong to him, and we are here to do what he planned for us to do.

In the last decades we’ve been programmed to believe that we deserve to have what we want. Well, God’s Word certainly affirms that each individual is special to God, created in his image, and loved by him. But we are not here to be doted upon and fussed over. We are here to do good works.

When you get outside of that parameter, then you’re in trouble. Here are some of the reasons you can get outside of God’s plan for your life:

You start “doing your own thing.”

You plan your life and ask God to bless it instead of seeking to know and do his plan.

You try to do your good works and some others as well.

You fail to seek God’s will.

You allow others to dictate what we should do and be.

If you want to live the kind of balanced life that will count for eternity, you have to be intentional about doing it.

I remember wondering why IBM would choose such a motto for the company—just “Think”. Doesn’t everybody think?, I thought. Now I understand the importance of that simple one-word motto, because often we just don’t think enough. For example, how frequently are we engaging our mouths, saying things without thinking? And that usually ends up causing all kinds of trouble.

A friend once told me that her teenage daughter and she had agreed to each wear a bracelet that says “Think”, as a way to remind them to think before they speak. Well, I got to thinking about that, and decided that was a good idea. Just to remind myself to think about what I’m going to say before I say it. Don’t you think this could have dramatic positive results for all of us—if we just took time to think more?

Psalm 141:3 says, “Set a guard over my mouth, O Lord; keep watch over the door of my lips.” Perhaps wearing a bracelet that says “Think” will help us to set guards over our mouths so that we think about what we say before we say it.

Today I want to give you an acrostic of the word “think,” to help you determine whether you should say what you are starting to say or not.

T is true: Is it true? Do you know for certain that what you are just about to say is true? If not, don’t say it.

If you think before you speak and determine that you’re not sure what you’re about to say is true, this will eliminate most gossip. Gossip is usually something we’ve heard but don’t really know for sure, but we freely pass it on. After all, it’s juicy and we just want to tell somebody that juicy tidbit. But if we start to think before we speak, and ask ourselves, “Is this true?”, we’ll go a long way to eliminating gossipy talk—and that’s a very good thing.

Also, it will keep you from imagining bad things that could happen, like “They’ll probably lay off a lot of us,” or “I’m sure he’ll give me a bad review.” You don’t know those imagined bad things to be true, so don’t say them to yourself or anyone else.

H is helpful. Are the words you’re just getting ready to say going to help anyone? If not, don’t say them.

Ephesians 4:29 is one of the most powerful verses in the Bible, in my opinion, and if we practiced it, we would think before we speak. It says, “Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.”

Some years ago I began praying this verse into my life, and I encourage you to do the same. Then I noticed that when I would start to say something, I would often hear that inaudible voice of God’s Spirit saying, “Is this going to help anyone else; will it benefit those who listen?” That has caused me to stop in the middle of lots of sentences, as I realized that I didn’t need to say what I was planning to say because it wasn’t helpful to anyone else.

Can you even imagine the wonderful changes that would take place on our jobs, in our churches, and in our homes if we determined not to speak any words that were unwholesome, that did not benefit others? That would eliminate griping and complaining; it would keep us from nagging people; it would cause us to stop passing on gossip. My goodness, it would make a difference in the way we live.

So, today, think about what you’re going to say before you say it. It’s so much easier to swallow those unhelpful words than it is to try to recover from them once they are said. If it’s not helpful, just don’t say it.

I stands for inspiring. Will your words inspire the person who hears them in some way, even if it’s very small? If not, maybe you don’t need to say them.

Now I need to make it clear that I’m talking about inspiring someone for good purposes, because it’s possible to inspire someone to do something wrong.

I've been focusing on our race—the race that God has set before each of his children. I've pointed out that we each have our own unique race, and you don't have to run mine and I don't have to run yours. And unlike earthly races, all of us who run can win if we run with perseverance the race marked out for us, and get rid of all the stuff that entangles and hinders us.

But the last part of that passage in Hebrews 12:1-2 is probably the most important:

Let us fix out eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Any successful runner knows one critical rule of running: Stay focused on the finish line. Winning athletes are those who can keep focused no matter what's going on around them.

The longer I run the race that God has marked out for me, the more I realize that if I stay focused on Jesus, if I never lose the wonder of his love for me, if I talk about him and think about him and read about him, if I stay in first love with Jesus, I can run with perseverance. But when I take my eyes off Jesus, I become disappointed, discouraged, and ready to quit.

Have you taken your eyes off Jesus lately? Oh, when you do, that's when you start to get entangled and that's when sin moves in. When you take your eyes off Jesus, you're a sitting duck for all of Satan's flaming arrows that are headed your way to keep you from winning this race. People will fail you. Churches will fail you. Dreams will be shattered. Hopes will be dashed. And if you start looking at those things, instead of Jesus, the race becomes drudgery and dismal.

I think of many people I know who started running their races with enthusiasm and commitment, but they took their eyes off Jesus and became disillusioned. Let me assure of this: Jesus will never fail you. Please, stay fixed on Jesus. The Christian race comes down to this simple—not necessarily easy—but simple priority and that is, fixed on Jesus.

We want to be able to say with the Apostle Paul:

"I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day—and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing” (2 Timothy 4:7-8).  

Therefore: Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith.

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Are you training to run in the Olympics or maybe run a marathon? Not many of us can qualify to run in these difficult races. But we're all qualified to run in the race that God has marked out for each of us. And it's much more important to run in that race than in the Olympics.

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us (Hebrews 12:1).

Can you imagine a runner at the Olympics or in a marathon coming on the track with a coat on and a backpack and a purse? No way! They get rid of anything that will slow them down even a millisecond.

In the same way, if you're going to run your race effectively, you must throw off everything that hinders you. What is hindering you?

Maybe it's laziness and lack of discipline. You just haven't yet disciplined yourself to study God's Word and pray like you know you should. Oh, you keep intending to and you really want to. But somehow, when the alarm goes off, it's just too easy to roll over and go back to sleep or just put it off. Without the Word of God firmly entrenched in your mind and heart, you're never going to run the race to win.

Are you hindered by the cares of this world? Do you let money or people or jobs or other circumstances get you down all the time? If you worry and fret a lot, you can't run the race very well. Don't you hear all those people in the stands encouraging you: "Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God" (Philippians 4:6).

Could it be that you're hindered by busyness? Maybe your life is full of all kinds of things and activities. Not necessarily bad things, but they crowd your life so much that there is no room left for the things of God.

Or perhaps you're entangled with your past, or your low self-esteem, or your failures. Can't you hear Rahab calling to you now. She's saying, "Forget what is behind and strain toward what is ahead."

What sin is entangling you? Could it be lack of sexual purity? Is it an unforgiving spirit? Have you been dishonest or deceptive? Is it a tongue that is out of control, complaining, criticizing, judging? Can't you hear the Apostle Paul saying to you: "You were running a good race. Who cut in on you and kept you from obeying the truth?” (Galatians 5:7).

We're surrounded with the saints of old, watching us run our race, because they know the joy that is set before us, and they know we're going to miss the prize if we keep trying to run with all that stuff holding us back.

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us (Hebrews 12:1).

As you run your race, all around you are witnesses to cheer you on and encourage you.

Who's watching you? Well, Noah is. Noah understands what it's like to be ridiculed while you're running the race. When he set out to do what God told him to do, he looked entirely foolish. "You're building a boat for what—a flood?” Can't you hear their friends and neighbors laughing at him, calling him a fool. Been ridiculed lately? Maybe your family has no appreciation for this race you're running. Perhaps your coworkers think you're nuts for running this Christian race. Remember, Noah is watching you from the grandstands in the clouds. And he's cheering you on.

So is Abraham, that great man of faith. God sent him to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, even though he did not know where he was going. Do you feel like that's where God has you—going some place but he hasn't yet told you where? Abraham kept running that race in spite of his lack of understanding. You see, Abraham knew how to run by faith, not by sight. And he's up there now in those grandstands, just yelling his lungs out to encourage you to keep on running, even though you don't know exactly where God's taking you, but you know he has good plans for you.

Moses is right there on the front row in those heavenly grandstands. Moses understands the fear of the Red Sea that's in front of you right now—that impossibility that appears to be more than you can handle, and it looks like your enemy is going to get to you soon and destroy you. Moses has been there; so he's up there telling you to: "Keep looking at the invisible God. Don't give up.”

Rahab's watching you run your race. Rahab understands rejection. She knows what it's like to be from the wrong side of the tracks, to have a sordid past. But Rahab found forgiveness, and she got right in the race, a transformed woman, and she won big time. Rahab's pulling for you. She's saying, "If I can make it, you can make it! Don't quit!"

For many of you, there's your grandmother, your grandfather, your aunt or uncle, maybe even your mother or father or other loved ones. They're watching you from the heavenly grandstands. Their race is finished; they've won the prize. And they don't want anything less for you. Since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let's run our races to win!