The first obstacle to living in the balance that I see is…LIFE’s PACE!

Run here, run there, run everywhere only to return and think…where have I been and what have I been doing?

Time does not stand still.

But doesn’t seem like time goes by faster in 2006 than it did 20 years ago?

I believe that the technological advancements in the past 30 years has affected all of our lives.

We have had to speed up out of necessity. Life today is not the same. Things have changed and it has been due to a technological revolution!

This fast pace and the need to do more in less time pulls us off balance and causes us to focus on earthly things and the expense of investing our time and attention on heavenly things.

Bottomline – it is harder in today’s world to focus our thoughts on God and His Word throughout the day because we are constantly focused on what needs to be done. Information overload and time constraints! Stress related illnesses that did not exist 30 years ago.

Slow down. Get in balance. Focus on God.

Col 3:1-3 (NLT)
Since you have been raised to new life with Christ, set your sights on the realities of heaven, where Christ sits at God’s right hand in the place of honor and power. Let heaven fill your thoughts. Do not think only about things down here on earth. For you died when Christ died, and your real life is hidden with Christ in God. And when Christ, who is your real life, is revealed to the whole world, you will share in all his glory.

Setting our minds on things above OR letting heaven fill our thoughts.

Exchanging our thoughts for God’s thoughts…learning to think like Him.

We are a spirit, have a soul and live in a body.

We have the responsibility for controlling the thoughts in our mind.

To be able to focus our attention on God at any moment during the day is living in the balance.

Being effective on earth while having our attention fixed on the things that it should be fixed on!

Our aim should be to live in the balance between being too earthly minded and too heavenly minded.

To not be so heavenly minded that we are no earthly good or so earthly minded that we are no heavenly good.

To do this we need to first realize that there is the natural tendency to focus too much on earthly matters.

It is the nature of where we live.

Living in this world we must "take care of business". Do the things required of us to be good "law abiding" citizens.

It is fair to say that