Peace in an Over-scheduled World - iBelieve Truth - October 10. 2023
“That’s the whole story. Here now is my final conclusion: Fear God and obey his commands, for this is everyone’s duty.” Ecclesiastes 12:13 NLT
Have you ever overbooked yourself?
If we glanced at your calendar, would we find competing events, to-dos, obligations, and responsibilities in the little boxes that hold our lives?
We schedule conference calls while in the after-school pickup line.
We shop for groceries online while watching our kid’s soccer game.
We divide and conquer our evening hours, one parent picking up from ballet, the other attending a meeting at church, and both trying to coordinate how they can get dinner on the table and finish homework before they drop from utter exhaustion.
For many of us, we book and overbook ourselves. Our lives are so filled to the brim that we are suffocating under the weight of trying to be everything and do everything.
We need breathing room.
The world promises that we will be fulfilled if we do more and fill the empty spaces in our lives with activity and things.
Yet, why do we still feel empty inside when we’ve caught up with, or better yet, surpassed, the Joneses’? Why are our anxious thoughts still untamed? Why do our souls still feel restless?
Because we aren’t living with the proper perspective, for many of us, even the most seasoned of believers, the Jesus lovers, and Christ followers, we prioritize the temporary over the eternal in our lives.
In a world with countless opportunities, many of which are good and beneficial, how do we live for what matters most?
We understand our purpose.
There are numerous books to help people discover their purpose. But we only need one, the Bible. We don’t have to get past the first chapter to understand why God created us. He created male and female in His image so we could have a relationship with Him and bring God Glory. When we embrace that our lives are not about what we can do but what God can do through us, we have freedom from social pressures, cultural expectations, and people’s opinions.
We live with the proper perspective.
Understanding our purpose shifts our perspective from temporary (things that don’t matter) to eternal (things that matter). The most important decision you can make is surrendering your life to Christ and accepting Him as Savior. Knowing that we have eternal salvation changes how we spend our time and resources. We are not driven by the need to prove our worth, our identity is not dependent on our calendars, and the only approval we seek is our Heavenly Father’s. We understand, as our key verse says that we are to fear God and keep his commandments. When we keep this at the forefront of our hearts and minds, we can keep an eternal perspective.
We live in peace.
If we know our purpose and live with the right perspective, we will cling to the eternal peace that only Jesus can provide (John 14:27). Christians are not immune to heartache, trials, or life's difficulties. Yet, even in these moments, we can cling to the Truth that we will one day be with the Lord for all eternity, and this light and momentary affliction will be gone! (2 Corinthians 4:17). We don’t need to fill our lives with activity to avoid being still, alone with our thoughts. Instead, we can come before God, lay our fears, worries, and struggles at His feet, and He will give us rest (Matthew 11:28-30).
Tiny humans need to be fed, jobs must be worked, aging parents must be cared for, the lawn mowed, causes championed, and friendships fostered. I am not ignoring the responsibilities of our real lives; instead, I invite you to embrace the eternal and carve out the margin to simply breathe.
Heavenly Father, thank you for the numerous opportunities you provide for your children to do good works that you have predestined for us before the beginning of time. It was not in your design that we are conflicted about where to spend our time, yet sin entered the world, and we daily fight distractions that take our focus off our purpose. Help us live with an eternal perspective and give our souls peace that only comes from You. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
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She lives in Upstate South Carolina with her husband and three young girls, where she serves as director of women's ministries at her church. Her passion is teaching the Bible to women, equipping them to live with an eternal perspective. Invite Laura to speak at your next event or learn more: www.LauraRBailey.com If you've been feeling tired, overwhelmed, depleted, or just quietly wondering where God is in the middle of a very full life — this episode is for you. And honestly? It might be for me too, because I'm recording this in one of those seasons myself. Today we're doing something a little different. Instead of going deep in a passage, we're talking about what to do when deep feels like too much — when you need less, not more. Specifically, I'm walking you through one of my favorite practices for weary seasons: handwriting scripture. Not typing it. Not scrolling past it. Actually writing it out, slowly, in your own hand — because something happens in your brain when you do that. The words land differently. They go deeper. And over time, they become part of that personal library of God's voice that the Holy Spirit can pull from when you need it most. That's what Psalm 119:11 means when it says I have hidden your word in my heart — it's scripture moving into your long-term memory, where it lives and stays even when you haven't opened your Bible in weeks. I'm sharing the five verses I wrote out for myself today — and why each one hit me fresh even though I've known some of them for years. This episode is part of our How to Study the Bible Podcast, a show that brings life back to reading the Bible and helps you understand even the hardest parts of Scripture. If this episode helps you know and love God more, be sure to follow the How to Study the Bible Podcast on Apple or Spotify so you never miss an episode!Related Resource: Instead of Doing More This Summer, Maybe You Need to Do Less
