How do I balance life?

God created us to enjoy life, and for this to happen, there are some things that we need to make room in our lives to experience. However, sometimes life can get so complicated that we cannot fully enjoy it. This is when we need to balance our lives to make room for those things we need to live our best lives. So how do we balance life?

For us to have a balanced life, there are four important areas for which we must make room. The first area is work. God has created us to work, regardless of where that is – in a career, as a volunteer, or as a homemaker or something else. In fact, God wants us to enjoy work and tells us in Ecclesiastes 3:22 (NIV), “… there is nothing better for people than to be happy in their work.”

Unfortunately, instead of enjoying our work, we may find ourselves resenting and dreading it as it takes away from other areas. We may be working hard to get to the top of our game and that’s great, but the danger comes when it becomes our entire life and identity. Instead of being happy and successful in our work, like God originally intended, it robs us of experiencing a full life. If we don’t make room for things other than work, we will become miserable and like King Solomon, one of the wisest and richest men ever, who cried out in Ecclesiastes 2:20 (NLT), “… I turned in despair from hard work. It was not the answer to my search for satisfaction in this life.”

Hard work is good, but it can’t bring satisfaction on its own. So, let’s examine ourselves and make the necessary changes to ensure that we spend time on what’s most important and enjoy work.

The second important area is rest.

We were created with a need to rest. Even God rested. In the creation story, we read, “On the seventh day God had finished his work of creation, so he rested from all his work. Genesis 2:2 (NLT). Resting from work is so important that God set aside one day in which no work is to be done. God established the principle of rest for man’s benefit. He wants us to take time away from work to relax, play, have fun, re-energise and enjoy life outside of work. King Solomon said in Ecclesiastes 10:15 (GNT), “Only someone too stupid to find his way home would wear himself out with work.” Let’s commit to take at least one day a week to completely rest from work, it’s just as important as our work.

The third area we need to make room for is relationships.

“And the Lord God said, it is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a companion who will help him.” (Genesis 2:18, GNT). We need people in our lives with whom we can connect, relate and have relationships. We cannot let our work, no matter how important it is, take precedence over other important relationships in our lives. So who do we need to make room for in our lives today? Let’s schedule time to spend quality time with them.

Then finally, and most importantly, we need to make room for God. God created man to have a relationship with Him. In fact, the Bible says that we need to set aside time every day to spend with God in prayer, simply talking to Him.

Making room for God is different than the first three areas that we talked about because our relationship with God cannot be compartmentalised. He should enter in and be present in every area of our lives, from our work to our rest to our relationships.

Balancing our life is hard work.It won’t naturally balance, and we can’t do it alone. But if we commit to it and ask God to help us, He will allow us to be successful. Psalm 37:5 (NLT) tells us : “Commit everything you do to the Lord. Trust him, and he will help you.”

It’s never too late to create a balance in our lives or to commit all we do to God. As we go through this week, make room for work, rest, relationships and God.