Restoring the Balance 

We know in our heads what we believe about God, but the life of His Spirit feels remote - how do we restore harmony between our lives in Christ and our lives in this world?

Author and Baptist church member Anne Le Tissier introduces her latest book

 
Restoring the Balance is written for women who are inspired by the New Testament and long for the same measure of spiritual enabling that empowers the characters through its pages, but who sense there is something lacking in their connection and encounter with God in everyday life.

It is for women struggling to keep afloat of stressful schedules and deadlines, or who are disheartened by setbacks, mundane routines, pressing problems or pain; for those enduring a season of life where heavenly realms and spiritual riches seem all too irrelevant to the reality of their today.

Key to the book is the repeated adaptation of the prayer: Lord, I do believe; help me in my unbelief![i] For we may all be in different seasons of life but many of us share the same problem. We know in our heads what we believe about God, but the life of His Spirit feels remote, detached, or maybe non-existent; overshadowed by problems, discouragements, pressing demands – or even the distraction of the ‘good times’. So Restoring the Balance considers a number of themes, to help restore harmony between our lives in Christ and our lives in this world.

We may believe in the importance of reading scripture but feel condemned or impoverished by how little time we give to it. So Restoring the Balance considers the transforming power of letting even one verse, a week or month, dwell in us richly to equip, guide, comfort or transform. Of course there is a place for wider reading, but first we may need to restore the balance of putting God’s word into practice instead of just leaving it on the page – read or unread.

We believe in the importance, intimacy and power of prayer, but busyness, tiredness, or disillusionment from an apparent lack of divine response, may limit and impoverish our perspective of prayer to an ‘ought to’ on our to-do list. But Restoring the Balance helps us engage with the presence of God throughout the day, nurturing intimacy, response to and dependency on Him in every moment, rather than limiting our awareness of Him to a set time of prayer. Yes, there is a need for focused praise, intercession or wrestling in prayer, but Restoring the Balance encourages us to ‘bring our whole lives into the orbit of prayer – the orbit of God with us’.

And although we believe in the pressing need for our unsaved friends to know Jesus, fear or apathy may hold some of us back in our witness. So Restoring the Balance offers simple steps to help prepare us to give an answer about what we believe, and share God’s truth and reality with a world in dire need of our story.

As for other themes, they are summarised below:

• Restoring the balance from mere self-effort that strives to be more Christ-like, to urging a life of repentance - ‘a profound reorientation of our perspective from one that is immersed in the cold shadows of self, to the one that basks in the light and warmth of our life in Christ’.
• Restoring the balance from trying to be a ‘somebody’ as defined and esteemed by cultural benchmarks, to knowing we are a somebody to the One whose opinion is most important of all, so restoring our true worth and identity in Christ.
• Restoring the balance of God’s rhythm for life, of work and rest, by observing the Sabbath He created us to enjoy as well as benefit from, dispelling any myths that we haven’t got time to stop!
• Restoring the balance of seeing other people as God sees them, inspiring us to convey God’s love to everyone.
• Restoring the balance between physical labour and spiritual empowerment, of a godly working ethic dovetailing with walking in step with the gifts of the Holy Spirit.
• Restoring the balance of our perception of the spiritual battle that is real and influential without cowering in fear or developing an unhealthy preoccupation with it.

Canon J. John writes, ‘We are not human beings having a spiritual experience; we are spiritual beings having a human experience’[ii]

Our lives may pass through seasons of busyness and inactivity, sickness and health, joy and sadness, ease and difficulty, but as we learn to restore the balance between our spiritual and physical lives, Christ’s promise of ‘life to the full’[iii] will become our increasing reality, whatever the season we find ourselves in as we journey with Him through this world.
 
 

Restoring the Balance is published by CWR (2019)

Anne Le Tissier is the author of a number of Christian books and has written a wide variety of bible-study notes and magazine articles. She also speaks at conferences and in churches around the country with a passion to disciple Christians in their ongoing walk with God. She is a member of Bidford Baptist Church (The Barn) in the Heart of England Baptist Association.

You can connect with her via her website www.anneletissier.com

                                                                                       

[i] Mark 9:24
[ii] @Canonjjohn Twitter post, 15 May 2018
[iii] John 10:10


 

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