Balancing Your Statement

I

t is one of the most unpleasant but oh so necessary tasks I have to perform on a monthly basis.  Once a month, the bank notifies me via e-mail that it is time to reconcile my statement.  In essence, the bank calls me to account for my spending during the previous month to see if my records match theirs.  Their records are the standard and, with very few instances, their records are accurate.

Time was when this process took several hours, if not days!  The ritual included pencils, paper, coffee, calculators, more coffee, erasers, alarm clock, and another pot of coffee.  The process was tedious because at some point, you had failed to enter a transaction and that meant spending the majority of the night chasing down a few dollars or pennies. 

On more than one occasion, I have witnessed my mother chase a penny for days as she balanced the books at my dad’s business.  To my mind, all that was necessary was to add the penny back in, but not mom! She wanted the books to balance and she worked at it until they did!

The jump from balancing a bank statement to balancing a life is not a large one.  The same principle that applies to keeping abreast of the funds in a bank account also applies to the Christian life. Let’s take a quick look at what the Scriptures teach us about living a life in balance with God.

In the Old Testament book of Daniel we meet a king whose life was out of balance.  The people of Israel were living in captivity in Babylon.  Daniel, who was a wise and godly man, was called to stand before the king and explain a mysterious message he had received.  During a great banquet King Belshazzar had thrown, in which he drank from the gold and silver goblets stolen from the Temple in Jerusalem, the fingers of a human hand appeared and wrote a message on the wall of the banquet hall.  Belshazzar summoned Daniel to interpret the message and Daniel did so.

Daniel 5:27 is the heart of God’s message to Belshazzar.  It is a message we all need to hear and to consider as we bring our lives into balance with God’s word and His expectations for all those who bear His name.  This passage says, “You have been weighed on the scales and found wanting.”  What a sobering statement for Belshazzar to hear. In fact, the Scriptures tell us the king grew pale when he saw the handwriting on the wall and this is understandable.  The message, however, tells us that there is a standard against which the king was measured and that standard was God’s standard and this standard is always accurate!

As Christians, we need to take heed and consider this statement from the book of Daniel.  God’s standards for holiness, His standards that we are to be like Christ, and His standards for maintaining our relationship with Him have not and will not change.  Every day we are to take account of our lives and to compare them with the accurate statement found in God’s word.  Do our transactions, the things we do in life, square and balance with God’s word?  Are we living in a manner consistent with God’s statement or are our lives woefully out of balance with God’s will?

Today, as you go about your routine, stop and consider your actions, your thoughts, your words, and your motives.  Are they in line with God’s requirements?  Are we stewarding our lives wisely or are we writing checks haphazardly, expecting God to cover us when they are presented for payment?  Are our lives in balance today or are we, like Belshazzar, weighed in the balance and found wanting?  Have you balanced your spiritual statement today?