An Unbalanced Life - Your Nightly Prayer

Your Nightly Prayer

An Unbalanced Life
Your Nightly Prayer for Feb. 6, 2025
by Dr. James Spencer.

TONIGHT’S SCRIPTURE

“Hear O Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord alone You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your strength.” - Deuteronomy 6:4-5

SOMETHING TO PONDER

You know the myth of balance doesn't square with what we read in the Scriptures. Yet, we've all bought into that myth at some point. We've been told that we can split our lives up like a pie chart, giving slices to family, work, recreation, and God. But how big is God's slice supposed to be? Is it 51% just enough to tip the scales, even if God gets the lion's share of our lives is that really enough? The truth is, God doesn't want a slice. He wants the whole pie.

Deuteronomy 6:4 and five calls us to an unbalanced life and an unbalanced love, an unqualified loyalty to the Lord, to love God with all our heart, soul and strength, isn't just a matter of devotion or emotion. It's a total life commitment in the Old Testament, particularly in Deuteronomy, love referred to something similar to loyalty. The heart isn't just the seat of emotions. It's where decisions are made, and so loving God with all your heart means directing every thought and intention toward him. When the Old Testament talks about the soul, it isn't talking about some transparent apparition; it's talking about our entire being and loving God with all our strength. It isn’t just about how much we can bench or squat but about bringing all our resources, opportunities, and influence to the service of the Lord.

This kind of love reorders everything else. It's not about neglecting family or work but about letting every part of your life flow from your devotion to God like a Russian nesting doll. Every smaller aspect of life, your career, relationships, even your leisure, fits within the larger shape of loving and glorifying Him. And as we give our unqualified allegiance to God, we will reflect that loyal love in the way we care for ourselves, for others, and for the world. Our lives, once compartmentalized, become a unified expression of love for him.

So, the challenge is clear: will we cling to the myth of balance, or will we embrace an unbalanced life tilted toward God? It's not easy to let go of our carefully managed priorities, but when we do, we find a deeper freedom. We don't have to juggle competing loves. We simply allow them to flow from our unqualified love and allegiance to God. Doing so reflects our conviction that obeying God is always our best decision because he can do more abundantly than we or anyone else could ever ask or think.

YOUR NIGHTLY PRAYER

Let's pray.
Lord,
Help me to abandon the myth of balance and live a life fully devoted to you. Teach me to give you the whole pie, not just a slice, so that every thought, intention, and action flows from my love for you. Show me how to love You with my heart, directing my decisions and desires towards Your glory, with my soul offering every part of my being in service to You, and with all my strength, dedicating my resources, influence, and opportunities to Your purposes. Reorder my loves, Lord, so that everything I am and everything I do reflects my loyalty to you, free me from competing priorities, and make my life an unbalanced offering wholly aligned with your perfect love. Teach me to trust you at every moment and find freedom in giving you my all.
Amen.

THREE THINGS TO MEDITATE UPON

1. Reflect on a time when you prioritize something above your relationship with God. How did that decision impact your sense of peace, purpose, and direction? How am I viewing your life as fully nested within God's love? Have you changed your choices?

2. Consider moments when you've tried to balance your life, juggling responsibilities and loves, did you feel stretched thin or disconnected from God? How can reordering your loves and placing God at the center bring unity and freedom to your daily life?

3. Recall specific ways God has called you to love Him with all your heart, soul, and strength. How has responding to that call brought clarity and blessing to your relationships? Work and worship? Where might he be inviting you to love him more fully now, you?

James Spencer earned his PhD in Theological Studies from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School and an MA in Biblical Exegesis from Wheaton College. By teaching the Bible and theology, as well as evaluating modern social, cultural, and political trends, James challenges Christians to remember that we don’t set God’s agenda—He sets ours. James has published multiple works, including Serpents and Doves: Christians, Politics and the Art of Bearing Witness, Christian Resistance: Learning to Defy the World and Follow Christ, Useful to God: Eight Lessons from the Life of D. L. Moody, Thinking Christian: Essays on Testimony, Accountability, and the Christian Min, and Trajectories: A Gospel-Centered Introduction to Old Testament Theology. His work calls Christians to an unqualified devotion to the Lord. In addition to serving as president of Useful to God, James is a member of the faculty at Right On Mission and an adjunct instructor at Wheaton College Graduate School. Listen and subscribe to James’s Thinking Christian podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or Life Audio.