We come today to the final installment of the Balanced Life series of blogs.  We have covered the following in days past:

• Spiritual - "Seeking God's Face"
• Physical - "Taking Care of God's Temple"
• Mental - "Thinking God's Thoughts"
• Emotional - "Mastering My Emotions"
• Relational - "Loving God and Others"
• Sexual - "Maintaining Sexual Purity"
• Financial - "Practicing Faithful Stewardship"
• Occupational - "Doing God's Will"

Influencing each of the above areas is today's last area:  Volitional - "Enthroning Jesus as Lord".  Someone has rightly said that salvation (justification) is free, but discipleship (sanctification) is costly.  There is truth in that statement.  Whereas God freely offers us relationship with Him based solely on His grace and mercy, not our own efforts, it is also true that He then calls us to discipleship.  Inviting Christ into our lives is only the beginning of a life-long journey into greater Christ-likeness in both character and conduct, as we fall more deeply in love with Jesus and His Word, and as our lives, thoughts, actions, attitudes, and emotions come under His leadership and Lordship. 

Jesus Himself lays out the demands of discipleship in several places.  Two of them are found in Luke's Gospel: 

"If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me.  For whosoever shall save his life shall lose it: but whosoever will lose his life for My sake, the same shall save it."  Luke 9:23.

"And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after Me, cannot be My disciple."

The life of the genuine disciple of Jesus Christ is one of dying to self, of allowing Him to be in control, of surrendering our will to His.  It is stepping down from the throne of our own lives and allowing Jesus to be the Sovereign over all of our life's affairs. 

Now don't perceive this as a burden or bondage!  To surrender to the Lordship of Jesus is to find true freedom!  It is the path to blessedness in life, because God is much more capable of ordering our lives than we are!  Left to ourselves, we always follow a path of self-destruction.  Only God has the wisdom to lead us.  And, knowing how very much He loves us, it just makes good sense to surrender everything to the Lord's control! 

In ever area of your life - spiritual, physical, mental, emotional, relational, sexual, financial, and occupational - may you yield control to the Lord.  May your prayer be the same as that of John the Baptist in John 3:30: "He must increase, but I must decrease." 

And, may your prayer by that of our Lord Jesus Himself, when He prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane:  "...not My will, but Thine be done." (Luke 22:42)

Think on these things....