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Have you ever tried to take more out of your bank account than you put in? If so, then you know the meaning of the term “overdrawn.” Could it be you are living emotionally, physically, and spiritually in the overdrawn mode? Your life truly can be very out of balance when you don’t deposit enough in your emotional, spiritual, and physical accounts to cover the checks you draw on them. When that happens, you live an overdrawn, out-of-balance life, and you fight fatigue, discouragement, and depression.
This type of out-of-balance living is often because we don’t deposit the right things in our accounts, and at other times it’s because we spend our energy very foolishly. We need to know what it is that feeds energy and strength to us and make certain we’re pouring into our lives the right resources and the right amount. Then we need to determine what uses our resources and drains our strength so we can balance the two.
This calls for an accounting procedure, and that’s something we need to do regularly. You have to check the balance in your bank account and make sure it’s in good order. The same is true of your emotional, spiritual, and physical accounts.
Ask yourself: Am I spending more from my spiritual and physical account than I put in? Frankly, I continually have to face this problem because I often need to re-learn that I cannot be all things to all people, nor can I do all the things I want to do. I must set priorities, learn when to say no, and take time to replenish my accounts so I can keep doing the things God wants me to do.
Now, that doesn’t mean I’m never tired, never feel stressed or rushed or stretched, but it does mean if I’m living in that out-of-balance mode all the time, something’s wrong. My priorities are confused, or my discipline has broken down, or my calendar is too full, or I don’t know how to say no—or some combination of all the above.
This week I’m going to try to give you some help in this process of bringing your emotional, physical, and spiritual accounts into balance. And I do this mostly because I need to re-learn it too. Wouldn’t it be nice if we only had to learn our lessons once! But we’re often in retraining mode.