Would you like to make this year the best year
of your life, no matter what happens over the
next 12 months, to be able to look back and see
real positive change? Well, we're going to look
at how to get a grip on all those demands in
your life and make this year one you'll look
back on and say, thank you, Lord. Welcome to
this edition of Living on the Edge with Chip
Ingram. The mission of this daily program is
to intentionally disciple Christians with the
insightful Bible teaching of Chip Ingram. Thanks
for joining us today as we dive into our popular
series, Balancing Life's Demands. For the next
handful of programs, Chip will speak directly
to those feeling overwhelmed, overscheduled,
and stressed out, and offer some biblical remedies
to live a life filled with joy, peace, and purpose.
I know this series will minister to you, so I
hope you'll join us for every part of it. So
with that, let's get going. Here's Chip with
his talk, The Peace and Power of a Prioritized
Life. Well, as we get started, we're going to
talk about balancing life's demands, and we're
going to talk about biblical priorities. We're
going to talk about aligning your life and your
priorities, doing what's important in a way that
God says for two purposes. One, so that you fulfill
His purposes and bring glory to Him. And second,
because when you do that, it is good for you.
His highest and best is achieved and accomplished
when there is an alignment of your priorities
with the way he has designed you and designed
life to work. And when your priorities get out
of whack, when the balance gets out of whack,
it produces some painful things in you, in relationships,
and often significant damage. Just so this isn't
theoretical, 1983, I was a full -blown workaholic.
Early 30s. Driven, focused, and disciplined.
I learned some of that from my dad. I won't give
you all the family of origin histories and how
children of alcoholics, you know, do stuff. But
here's what I'll tell you. I just, I got focused
early on about sports. I got, this is what you
do. You set a goal and you get focused. And I
was focused, I was disciplined, and I was driven.
And then I came to Christ, and it took me a while
to get going, but once I got going, I got focused,
I was disciplined, and I was driven. And then
God called me into ministry, and so once I started
with this church, about two or three years into
it, I was focused, I was disciplined, and I was
driven. And how in the world, in a church of
35 to 50 people, you can work 80 hours a week,
I don't know, but I figured out how to do it.
1983, I was sitting in a doctor's office and
my wife went with me and he evaluated everything.
He asked about my schedule. He asked what I did,
why I did it. They had run some tests. There
were some problems with my liver. And he just
said, you keep living like you live and you're
going to die young. And he said, your life is
out of balance and out of control. I'd never
heard the word workaholic, but I learned about
it about then. Now, because I had a couple core
values, one is I did not neglect my time with
God, and because of some real deep convictions,
I did not neglect my wife or my kids. That's
kind of a neat thing. So what happens is I got
up earlier and earlier and earlier, and sometimes
I had three or four hours in before they ever
woke up. And then, you know, I'd breakfast, take
them to school, do whatever, and then, man, I
busted it, and then I was out all kind of times,
and I was with them, and then they'd go to bed,
and I'd work. And this drivenness, this need
to please people, this performance, the search
for significance, the search for security, the
wondering how do you ever please God, how much
is enough? And I mean to tell you, what I want
you to hear is, it has been a very significant
journey and you don't have to be that way and
you can change and priorities can change and
you can be motivated and not driven. And you
can have good priorities and discipline without
being... so focused that you're out of whack.
But I say that so you know, what I'm going to
talk about is not like theoretical. Fast forward
25 years, and I was in a time of re -evaluating,
God, where's my sweet spot? Where are my gifts?
And so I found myself in a room with eight or
nine other guys, all who were very, very successful,
all very wealthy, very powerful, had kind of
been there, done that with various levels of
spiritual maturity for 26 hours evaluating. How
should I spend the second half of my life? Most
of us would say they have what people look for.
I mean, they kind of have it made. They've got
the houses, the cars, the money, the businesses.
And yet there was, for some, major damage, lost
families, lost kids, and pain. And now... They've
come to know Christ, and how do I do it different?
For others, it was they were really pretty spiritually
mature, but their focus was so in their business
and so in things, and they were so, it was like,
you know what? I've got more money than I'll
ever need for the rest of my life. How can I
leverage my life for more God's kingdom and use
my gifts rather than this rat race that I'm living
in? And then some had a pretty balanced life,
and it was, you know, I'm doing this for the
kingdom of God. How do I leverage it? What are
my gifts? What's the unique purpose God has called
me to? What's that Ephesians 2 .10, that good
work that God's called me to, that he's prepared?
And so they take you through a process for 26
hours. And so I only share that to let you know,
you know, whether you're young in the Lord or
old in the Lord, whether you have had a long
history with God or you're relatively new in
Christ, whether you're like super successful
and really need to reevaluate or you're in crisis
and overwhelmed, You know what? Everyone needs
to stop and look and evaluate at your priorities.
Is your life in balance? Is it being lived the
way God wants it to for his glory and your good?
And so to do that, here's the format that we're
going to use. I'm going to give a little diagnosis.
I'm going to give you six warning signs. You
see those of misplaced priorities. So I'm just
going to go through boom, boom, boom, boom, boom.
And you're going to say, hey, you know, I think
my priorities are here. Good, good, good. Better
check that one. Second then, After the diagnosis,
I'm gonna give a little definition. What are
God's priorities for our lives? I mean, how do
they fit together? I mean, what does God expect?
What are the right priorities? And then third,
I wanna just get you started. I'm gonna give
you two tools. Two tools to start getting a handle.
When you hear these two tools, listen carefully,
everyone. When you hear these two tools, don't
feel like, I gotta have that down tomorrow. You're
not gonna get it down tomorrow. You're gonna
recognize God will give you a tool for this hand
and a tool for that hand. And now you will start
on a journey using these two tools to bring,
they're the beginning steps of bringing your
priorities under the submission of God to get
them in line for his glory and your good, okay?
So let's jump in together and let me give you
the six symptoms of misplaced priorities. The
first symptom is busyness. You can write that
word in. Busyness, but barren of fruit. If your
life is characterized where you're hurrying all
the time, you're rushing, you're driven, you
eat on the run. If I went into your desk and
if you have an office or your dresser and there's
much piles of many things and then over underneath
of it, there's piles on the floor. And if we
went in the garage, we wouldn't even want to
go there. If I went to your office at work, there
is stuff, stuff everywhere. And you're going
to get to it, but you're just putting it in stacks
now because there's just too many balls to juggle.
People who love you are saying things kindly
and lovingly. Some of them you're married to.
Others are business associates. Others are people
that just say it casually when you say, hey,
let's get together and say, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
And you've been saying that for like 18 months.
They're saying, slow down. If you're a fairly
young follower or maybe you remarried and now
you have some kids and you have some smaller
kids, five or six or under, they hang. on your
knee with their arms around you as you're leaving
out the door. That's a symptom that you're doing
too much and that you're too busy. Busyness.
I call it the activity trap. Dawson Trotman,
the founder of The Navigator said, emotion is
no substitute for action and action is no substitute
for productivity. Sometimes we get very, very
active, very, very busy. I believe it's the new
worldliness. We are important because we're busy.
We're on the move. I got to do this. I got to
do that. I'm involved in this. Second is emotional
stress and pressure, anxiety. People whose priorities
are out of whack have symptoms like a uptightness.
They sometimes have chest pains, migraine headaches,
trouble sleeping. You have this uneasy feeling.
You feel restless a lot. It's hard to sit still.
You wish you could get your mind to slow down.
Sometimes you find yourself going, I just need
to take a deep breath. Because the RPMs inside
your head, you're multitasking about everything
all the time. There's no windows of real rest.
You're indecisive. Sometimes it's hard to make
a decision. If the truth is known, you're not
very happy. You get fulfillment and little windows
of when you accomplish things and you love to
check things off. Did that, did that, did that,
did that. But when the things are done and when
you're alone and when the media is off, there's
this dis -ease, this sense that I'm not really
very happy. I don't have a lot of joy. For some,
it ends up in burnout. Others break down and
others blow up. And the anger issues flare up
and then lots of big apologies follow. Often
it comes out in conflict with family, irritability.
When there's this emotional stress and anxiety,
often it's characterized with a lack of intimacy
and connectedness with your family and especially
in your marriage. You're busy, and it's gonna
change. It's gonna change soon. As soon as this
big deal's over, as soon as soccer season's over,
as soon as this happens, as soon as that happens,
it's gonna change. And you're sensing this drift
in relationships. And you keep telling yourself,
well, it's temporary. The third is what I call
low -grade nagging guilt. You feel bad about
yourself. Again, it's not just the restless feeling,
but it's not fulfilled. There's a lot of things
that you know you're supposed to do. In fact,
you did them in the past. You actually tell other
people they should do them, but you don't do
them anymore. But you know enough verses and
you have enough background spiritually that you
fake it well, but you hate this feeling of this
duplicity, this level of hypocrisy. Now, you
know no one has it all together. But right now
is not the way it used to be. And you keep telling
yourself, you know what, those times in the morning
that I had or those pretty kind of significant
times in prayer, I'll get back to that. But right
now, and you just have this low -grade nagging
guilt. Relationships become superficial. Little
time for celebration. Daily pressures push aside
the need to stop, envision, plan, think about
the future. The fourth is financial debt, financial
problems. When priorities really start unwinding,
you realize, you know, we were really committed
to giving the first portion. We, you know, we
meant to do that, but then we had this little
hiccup and then this happened and then that happened.
We had a little hospital situation over here
and the company we thought was going to do a
little bit better and that didn't work out. And
so the debt begins to pile up. The giving begins
to deteriorate. And by the way, God speaks through
your money. Jot down just in your notes, Habakkuk
1 verses 1 to 10. God speaks to the prophet.
Here's a paraphrase of those 10 verses. Because
they were building their own homes and their
paneled houses and neglected the house of the
Lord, God put holes in their purses. They made
money, but it seemed to evaporate. God was lovingly
trying to get their attention. You can't figure
it out. You know, we're making this much money.
We're making more money than we ever have, but
it just seems like... Oh, it seems like God puts
holes in our finances. That's because he loves
you. He's trying to get your attention. The fifth
symptom of misplaced priorities is prayerlessness
or leakage in the devotional life. If the truth
is known and you hope the truth doesn't get known.
But your deepest times in prayer are in the car
by yourself. Most of your prayers are very quick.
Mostly the best times are with other people.
You have a hard time concentrating by yourself
because it's been a very long time since you
had an extended, honest, repentant, tearful,
cleaning of the slate with you and God. And you're
gonna get to it. And you really are. And you've
been there before, but just not right now. There's
just too much on your plate. There's too much
to jungle. God, I mean, you mean to. But the
superficiality is with God. Down deep, you don't
feel very close to him. You're on a spiritual
kind of up and down roller coaster. You have
an experience at church or maybe a little something
here. And then it's very up, down, emotional.
And you realize just there's leakage. There's
just too many balls. There's just too much. You
feel under pressure. The final one is escapism
behavior. We do it in a lot of different ways,
some thrill -seeking behavior, at least when
you're younger. You know, there's just nothing
like a good bungee jump to make you feel better
about life very temporarily or going fast in
a car. As you get older, it's impulsive buying,
vacations you can't afford. For others, you're
so daggone tired that you've got to take a pill
to put yourself to sleep, and it takes a couple
pills to get you going. and you've never been
a real heavy drinker, but you're finding yourself
drinking a little bit more than in the past.
You eat when you're not hungry, but it makes
you feel better just a little while. And for
us good Christians, it's just a lot of excessive
TV and a lot of time on email and a lot of time
doing things that make us feel like we're accomplishing
something because down deep we don't know where
we're going, and our North Star feels like it's
moved, and you don't know is there any way out.
And I wish that did not describe an awful lot
of believers' lives, but I will tell you, as
we get thousands upon thousands of emails, I
hear it over and over and over and over. In conclusion,
these symptoms are always in our minds. They're
temporary. They're just small concessions. I
mean, like one or two of those things, it doesn't
mean you're like out to lunch and you don't love
God anymore. You're ready for a divorce next
week. They all start as just a little thing and
you're gonna fix them next week. And as soon
as this season's over, when this, you know, But
here's what I want you to hear. They all begin
a process. The big falls always start with little
things like this. And one or two that you juggle
and then pretty soon there's three or four. He
who is faithful in a very little thing will be
faithful also in much. And he who is unrighteous
in a very little thing, Luke 16, 10, will be
unrighteous also in much. And we're gonna get
reconnected as a couple when, and the family
will start some of that devotional stuff again,
and we'll get our finances in order, and I'll
be able to give like I used to. And I know we
need to have a budget, but I mean, those credit
cards, hey, you know what? Everyone has a window
like this, but it's real temporary because, and
yeah, it's not a life or death deal. But 2 Samuel
11, verses one and two says, at the time when
kings went out to battle, Priority issue. After
great success, at the time when kings went out
to battle, when a king did what a good king's
supposed to do, David decided he'd stay home.
And then Bathsheba and Uriah get penned in his
autobiography. And that's the way it happens
with good people, people who make great moral,
financial failures. Families split, divide, churches
get killed, kids wonder what happened. They don't
wake up and go, you know something, I get this
great marriage, I love my wife, I love my husband,
I got a couple kids, I got one grandchild, whatever
it is. You know what? I just think I'll take
about 200 grand from the company. That CFO and
I are good buddies, and I think together we could
embezzle a little money and just have a lot of
fun. I mean, no one wakes up and does that. Or
that's Thursday. You know Saturday? I think I'll
have an affair. What if I'm going to put that
on my calendar just so I don't forget? I'm just
going, that's not how it ever happens. These
symptoms start to weave into your life and you
get vulnerable and you get hurt and you just
want some relief and you never think it's possible
for someone who loves God the way you love God
for any of that to ever happen. But the right
place at the right time in a weak moment with
these things happening, bang. And all of a sudden,
you're the feature film in your own nightmare.
those are the symptoms. And it raises a very
important question then. If those are the symptoms,
then what are the right priorities? I mean, God,
help! What are the right priorities? And I like
to say that I would like you to turn in your
Bibles to 1st Priorities 1 -9. But I don't have
that, you know. But there's two books that were
written about the same time. They're called the
Twin Epistles, and I put a chart. in your notes.
In the twin epistles, one is written to say,
church, first three chapters, this is what Christ
has done for you. Last three chapters of Ephesians,
this is how to live it out. Colossians, church,
this is the preeminence of who Jesus is. And
this is how he wants you to live. Last two chapters,
and this is how you live it out. Written about
the same time. Now, what I want you to see, sometimes
the structure of a book, can tell you as much
as the content. And so the first half of both
those books are all doctrine. This is who Jesus
is. This is your relationship with him. This
is who you are in Christ. This is your adoptance.
This is your inheritance. This is what you actually
possess. And then if you look at those charts,
when they start talking about how to live it
out, chapter four opens. I love chapter four,
verse one. I, Paul, a prisoner of the Lord. What's
he say? urge you, command you to walk in a manner
worthy of your calling. And that word for worthy,
it's we get our English word axis. And it's this
idea of for three chapters, I've told you all
that you possess, beliefs. Now let your behavior
bring it into balance so that your beliefs and
your behavior tell the same story. And the whole
rest of the book is how you do that. And it's
really interesting. And this is why small groups
are so important. He doesn't tell you right after
that to go to church, read your Bible, or he
starts with relational issues. Then he says,
with all gentleness and humility, bearing with
one another, with patience, making every effort
to maintain the bond that you already have of
peace. You're listening to Living on the Edge.
Before we hear the rest of Chip's message, let
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.org to give a gift. Thanks so much for your
support. We'll hear again as Chip. And so what
I want you to see is When he opens up each of
those chapters, notice the topic, Colossians
3, how it starts. How it starts, you have God,
mate, family, work, ministry. And it's not in
here, but implied elsewhere is you have kind
of recreation. You know, there's a need to get
recharged. And so I think it's just interesting
as you go through those passages, it's okay.
You know, Ephesians 5, we're going to learn that,
hey, I need to be filled with the Spirit, my
relationship with God. It goes right there to
my marriage, to my children, to my work, and
then to my ministry. And by the way, everyone's
in full -time ministry. Some people are called
in a vocational way, and what we do is we pay
their time so they can study the Word to give
us what we can't get on our own. But you are
a priest. You're an ordained. full -time minister
of the gospel, posing as housewives, soccer moms,
computer operators, business owners, lawyers,
doctors, and nurses, and grandmas. And God has
you as in Ephesians 4, the leaders of the church
equip the church to do the work of the ministry.
All of us are ministers until the church fulfills
our calling. And so these priorities are for
all of us. Now, the problem, I think, when we
look at priorities, however, is we tend to view
them linearly. You know what I mean? Like in
a straight line. And so here's how I used to
think about priorities. Problem is it didn't
work. God is first in my life. Good. I love you,
God. Okay, my wife is second. Teresa, okay, I
love you. God, Teresa, God, Teresa. I got that
one down. Okay, hold on. What's it going to say?
Family, family, kids, kids. Okay, God, Teresa,
kids. That's good. Okay, now what comes after
that? Ministry? No, no, no. It doesn't say it.
What's it say? Work. Work? Yeah, because that's
your first ministry. That's where you spend 60,
70 % of your time. Okay. And then it would be
like, well, wait a second. Teresa's sick, but
Teresa, I would love to help you. I know you're
vomiting on the couch, but God's more important.
So I'm going to have my quiet time. See you later,
honey. Or you have a crisis at work. The plant
blows up. Yeah, I'll be there in a couple days.
I'm getting refreshed with my wife. Yes, we're
in Maui. Uh -huh. Having a great time. Yeah.
Well, you don't understand. See, it's God. See,
they don't work that way. Life's very confusing.
It's very demanding. You're pulled in different
ways. And so I put a picture. This is kind of
a picture that's really, really helped me with
priorities. It's a fountain, okay? It's a multi
-tiered fountain. And here's what I want you
to, you know, let me read one verse and jot this
passage because it's really powerful. Jesus is
speaking to the woman at the well. And I'm in
John 4. I'll read both 13 for context and 14.
And he says to the woman at the well, everyone
who drinks the water, this water will be thirsty
again. But whoever drinks the water I give him
will never thirst again. Indeed, the water that
I give him will become in him a spring of water
welling up to eternal life. Welling up to eternal
life. You might jot down Proverbs 4 .23. Solomon
would say the same thing. Watch over your heart
with all diligence for from it flow the issues
of life. And so what I want you to see is I want
you to imagine, you know, that top rung where
it has God. I would like you to imagine there's
little slits in it, little Vs. And some of you
will get this. I learned this when I was a kid.
Does anybody remember before ice makers what
an ice cube tray was? This is a great group.
Those of you like under some age that are thinking,
ice cube tray, never heard of that. Well, let
me give you a little lesson in sociology, you
know. People would take these plastic little
trays and they had all these little square boxes
and you would fill them, but then you would,
it was real hard and you usually spilled them,
especially when you tried to get them in the
refrigerator. So some brilliant person made little
plastic trays and they put a little V between
all the little boxes. You could put it under
the water and when this one got filled, it would
fill this one and this one and this one and this
one and it wouldn't spill. And then you would
put it in and it was great. I want you to imagine
a fountain and each one of these, God, your mate,
your family, your work, your ministry, is I want
you to imagine they have those little slits.
And here's how priorities actually work. Living
in you is the spirit of God. In John 6, he would
say, the word that I speak to you is spirit and
it is truth. And dwelling in you is the same
power that raised Christ from the dead. And what
our priorities are really all about is what do
you need in your relationship with Jesus and
the Father and the Spirit so that you're full
of him, so that there is connection and abiding,
so it can overflow into your relationship with
your mate. And he'll show you what's it look
like, how much time. It's different for every
couple. I mean, my poor wife, she married this
super high need guy. I mean, I've seen couples
that, you know, they have a couple of good talks
a week, man, they're both doing great. Poor Teresa.
I mean, I come home, I gotta have 15 minutes.
I gotta tell you what's going on with my day.
You know, how are you doing? What's going on?
I gotta have like one date a week, like two or
three times a year. I wanna get away from everybody.
I mean, I'm like really high need. But that's...
to be filled up for our kids. I mean, even in
all those young years, we'd eat and I'd tell
the kids, I love you, scram. And I'm gonna spend
some time. We'd sit and have coffee at the table
or take a little walk. But just listen, what
do you need? And is it 15 minutes in the morning
and practice the presence of God? Is it hour
in the morning? I don't know what you need, but
I know it's the word, it's prayer, it's the community
of believers and it's application. And you, walk
and abide with Christ. And then the overflow
of that is you treat your mate empowered by the
Holy Spirit. And then that overflows to your
kids. And that overflows to a high capacity,
nurtured, loved husband or wife who walks through
the door and goes to work. And then your work
is done in the power of the Spirit with the support
of those relationships. And people wish they
had a boss like you or an employee like you because
of who shows up. And then your work is a testimony
and then your ministry in local church or kingdom
expansion. Do you see the difference? And so
it's a fluid thing. And it's the spirit of God
leading and showing you in this situation on
this day. Now, you develop certain structures
we're gonna talk about. I mean, there's certain
things I need to do with my time on a regular
basis. Certain things I need to do, develop that
with my wife, with my God, with my kids, in my
work. And we'll talk about those. But don't think
of them as just literal. It never works that
way. Just a linear one, two, three, four. Think
about it as what do you need in every relationship
so that the Spirit of God can allow love that
you possess in your relationship with Jesus to
come out of you into that relationship. And so
you, especially if you're married, with your
wife or husband, love in such a way that that
flows into the life of your kids. And you know
what? If it's not happening here, don't export
it. See, what people do is they get the flow
in their relationship with God and maybe, but
often not with their mate. And then, you know,
since you get a lot more strokes at work, then
they take all that energy and take it to work.
Or what a lot of women tend to do is they may
have it with God. And pretty soon there's all
these needs and there's such fulfillment. Mommy,
I love you and I need you and you helped my knee
and you did this and you helped me with my homework.
You're the most wonderful person. And that nurturing.
And pretty soon, her second priority becomes
the kids. And so he goes to work. She loves the
kids. And they reconnect after 25 years of marriage.
And that's why, other than the first five years
of marriage, the most dangerous zone of divorce
is about 20 to 25 or 25 to 70. 27 years, depending
on when your kids leave the nest. Priorities
are about walking in the Spirit, and you can
see a clear structure, but you don't necessarily
do them one, two, three, four. Dwight Eisenhower
made an interesting comment as president. He
said, the urgent is rarely important, and the
important is rarely urgent. The things that matter
most, the things that will just take you down
the road and help you become the person you long
to be, there's no gun to your head that says,
develop a deep, intimate relationship with God.
Study his word. When there's 15 emails or 150
emails to answer. Well, how do you get a hold
of them? I mean, how do you get a grip on it?
We've looked at six ways that say, you know what?
These are indicators. These are like six lights
on the dashboard of your life telling you what's
going on in your soul. And you know what? If
you got two or three of those flashing, God's
saying, hey, time out. And by the way, something
I want you to hear, it will require, this is
not one of those issues that you say, oh, I heard
from God. I'm gonna start tomorrow and everything
will be fine. You didn't get your priorities
where they are that affects so many relationships
like overnight. they don't change overnight.
Someone has said, significant, lasting change
never occurs without serious, prolonged thinking.
The issue is not tweaking something. I'm not
an expert, but I can just tell you, this is a
smart group of people. If tweaking your priorities
worked, they would already be fixed. Because
you're smart people. I'm telling you, for many
of you, what you have to realize is, what is
my purpose? Why am I here? What season am I in?
And it's not tweaking. It's saying, I've got
all these things on my plate. That doesn't belong
on my plate. That's not God's will. That's expectations.
That doesn't belong on my plate. That was for
the last season, but now this doesn't belong
on my plate. Wait, this does, but I've got to
make room. But that's really good, and I've always
done it, and I love it, and people give me so
many. Lordship, okay, Lord, this does. So it'll
take time to think, to ponder. Priorities and
balancing your life really have to do with getting
really clear on who you are, what God wants you
to do, and then getting a sense of holy urgency
and realizing life is passing. And you're gonna
die. And I'm gonna die. And this unconscious
human, thought that we had that, you know, I'm
going to kind of work on that next week. And
so we spend our life responding to details and
data and feeling good about, I answered 75 of
the 150 emails. I returned all the calls. I did
my list. Is it the right list? Are you doing
the right thing? You know, you got to stop. I
mean, that's why coaches, I mean. They just call
time out. The momentum's going this way. They
scored three times in a row. Hey, I don't know
what we're doing, but it's not the right thing.
And some of us, we have those misplaced priorities,
and some of you have four or five of those symptoms.
And instead of stopping and saying, whoa, I got
to really reevaluate, we go faster. I'll multitask
more. This is Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram,
and you've been listening to part one of Chip's
message, The Peace and Power of a Prioritized
Life, from our series, Balancing Life's Demands.
Chip will be back shortly to share some helpful
application for us to think about. Are you overwhelmed
by the pressure to do more, have more, and achieve
more? In this 10 -part series, Chip provides
practical biblical steps to help you move your
life from chaos to contentment. Discover how
to align your priorities around God's vision
for your life and the discipline to not only
put first things first, but keep them there.
You're not going to want to miss a single program
of this series. Well, Chip's back in studio with
me now, and Chip, with summertime ending and
fall routine settling back in, this is a time
when a lot of people rethink their schedules
and priorities. So why do you think it's so difficult
for us to balance the many demands on our lives?
Well, I think it's always been hard, and we live
in a world that a great majority of people are
overwhelmed. overcommitted and exhausted unless
you identify where you're at, Dave. Unless you
begin to think about who do I want to become
and what's a strategy and a plan that aligns
with our calendar and our schedules. but it really
got to get a hold of some key things like your
time, your energy, your money, and rethink those
first so that what gets played out in terms of
our family, our calendars, and our work just
doesn't multiply the way it is. I mean, I am
guilty of trying to accomplish more in a week,
more in a day, more in a year than I can. As
people listened, To this message, I think they
heard a number of symptoms. They'll think, oh
my, how could anyone ever know about these things?
Well, it's because I've lived them. And what
I long for people to do is be able to break out
of this cycle. I still struggle, but I've really
broken out of it in major ways. And I have to
recalibrate. Sometimes it's every six or eight
months. Sometimes it's a big recalibration. like
I did just about two, three months ago, where
I just said, I have to rethink my whole calendar
and my whole focus for the next year. And so
we want to give people God's word on how to do
that. Thanks for that setup, Chip. Well, I hope
you'll join us for this entire series. And because
this teaching is so applicable for every believer,
let me encourage you to invite a few friends
to listen with you, either through the Chip Ingram
app or wherever you listen to podcasts. Well,
with that, here again is Chip. You know, the
older I get, I realize that life is lived in
seasons. You know, there's different seasons
and there's different priorities in different
seasons. Whether you're kind of like young and
a student, there's a set of priorities. And,
you know, life changes for many. You get married,
you have kids, empty nester, grandparents. Some
of you are grandparents raising kids again. Physical
limitations, job and career changes. Every season
of life demands that we stop, begin to ask ourselves,
Lord, what season am I in? And are the priorities
that I have right now the priorities that you
want me to have? We're going to go on a journey
about balancing life's demands. And let's face
it, most of us, and at least everybody I know,
we try to take on too much. We're really busy.
We feel overwhelmed. This series is about helping
you balance and align your life. But I just want
to warn you, it takes courage to evaluate, what
am I going to let go of? Because it almost always
means that someone gets a little bit disappointed.
But here's the good news. Your life is given
to you by God. He's got a set of priorities.
He wants you to richly enjoy it. And when you're
doing what he wants you to do, it's not just
good for you. It's best for everyone around you.
Hope you'll stay with us for this entire series.
I think it's going to be a great time together.
Looking forward to learning more from this teaching
chip. As we wrap up, I want to thank those of
you who make this program possible through your
generous financial support. Your gifts help us
create programs, purchase airtime, and develop
additional resources to help Christians live
like Christians. Now, if you've been blessed
by the ministry of Living on the Edge, would
you consider sending a gift today? You can do
that by visiting livingontheedge .org or by calling
888 -333 -6003. That's 888 -333 -6003 or visit
livingontheedge .org. App listeners, tap donate.
We want you to know how much we appreciate your
support. Well, join us next time as Chip continues
his series, Balancing Life's Demands. Until then,
I'm Dave Drewy, thanking you for listening to
this edition of Living on the Edge.