Published by This could have been titled Blessed Balance, Balance Bless or Blessings from Balance or “Befitting Balance”. In most cases there is an inherent struggle between a spouse’s partner and his or her parents, relatives and friends. The person’s lifelong acquaintances think that the partner of their loved one is encroaching on the refreshing relationship they had enjoyed earlier by getting the attention of their relative and friend turned his spouse. It is the responsibility of the individual to balance the relationships for his or her own benefit from both parties. Letting people feel used and dumped is not the best just as letting your conjugal relationship joy giver feel less desired is not the best for you to be happy. A balance must be struck. This is the common cause of constant friction between daughters-in-law and their mothers-in-law and it is the responsibility of sons turned husbands to strike a soothing and successful balance between wife’s interest and mother’s interest. This is one of the correct interpretations of Psalms 90:17 and 127:1-2.
Also there is what I call “Neither is Enough” and “Advisable Addition” and/or “Inevitable Addition“. Those who claim to seek God for success must equally add hard work just as those who work hard to succeed should ask God’s blessing upon the work of their hand. Furthermore, Deuteronomy 8:18, and Isaiah 26:12 and 28:23-29 say that much as it is God that gives the power to get wealth He also teaches man how best to do his work in order to get great returns on his efforts. It is as a result that Genesis 28:10-23 says that God blessed Jacob and promised to follow him to Laban’s home to prosper and return to Canaan. Then, Genesis 31:38-42 say that as Jacob worked hard day and night during the twenty years that he lived in Laban’s family and business, God’s promised blessing was translated into material riches. As a result, Genesis 32:9-12 report Jacob saying in verse 10 that God had fulfilled the promise to enrich him during his stay with Laban.
Daniel 4 says that God was not happy that Nebuchadnezzar attributed his greatness and success to his personal efforts rather than acknowledging that the Lord God made it possible. II Kings 19:20-37 and Isaiah 37:21-38 say that one of the God’s grouse with King Sennacherib of Assyria was that he claimed that the war victories of his ancestors were their making without God’s ordination and order. God delights in helping man to achieve but insists on man remembering to acknowledge His heavenly contribution to the success. It suggests that God abhors been plagiarised. God is irritated when man claims credit for what He made possible for the man to achieve. Ecclesiastes 16:3 says that a wise man should ask God to bless his plans so that he would be successful in carrying them out. Verse 1 says that one of the reasons this is important is that we may make our plans but it is God’s will that would be established such that if He did not bless our plans because it is not His will for us at that point in time, we are not going to succeed. Therefore, getting His blessing would save us the agony that accompanies wasted efforts.
In basic business accounting every balance sheet has assets and liabilities sections inevitably. Every building has a frontage and backyard necessarily. Parents must balance their timetable, professionals must balance their time and efforts on career and family. Individual must balance work with pleasure to survive. If any one spend all his earnings on pleasure he would lack basic necessities of life at some point. Man made economic recession is caused by lack of optimal balance by key players in the financial, business and government circles.
Those that have charisma must endeavour to add cherishable character just as those with cherishable character must add comforting charisma for them to enjoy life to the full. Ecclesiastes 9:13-16 says that wisdom without wealth is not the best for both the individual and those that need to benefit from his wisdom. I Kings 3:3-14, 10:23-25 and 11 say that despite that God gave Solomon both wisdom, wealth and attendant charisma that brought rulers from all over the world to reverence him, as long as he had problems with women, he suffered for it. Summarising this aspect of Solomon’s lifetime, Nehemiah 13:26 says -
… It was foreign women that made King Solomon sin. He was a man who was greater than any of the kings of other nations. God loved him and made him king over Israel, and yet he fell into this sin. (TEV-GNB)
Solomon represented every man that God had given charisma in abundance that still requires character to sustain and make the best of the charisma in his lifetime. God helped Joseph to get the position of Prime Minister in Egypt yet Joseph worked hard to justify his promotion to that prominent position. This simply means that after God and Pharaoh had played their part, Joseph did his level best to play his very well. This means that man has a responsibility to contribute to the help that others would provide. Where parents and government provide necessary support for children and youths, it is the children and youths that must study hard to excel in their studies and vocational trainings to become the worthy workforce of society.
In their determination to be good parents – providing for the needs of their children and dependants they have onerous responsibility to balance the time spent to earn enough on the one hand, and spent to mould the character of their children, on the other hand. Parental responsibility includes procreation, protection, provision, guidance that includes strong character moulding by teaching, explaining and setting examples of honesty, integrity, hard work, perseverance, politeness and persuasion, shaping values, hopes and aspirations, building self confidence and profitable interpersonal relations, etc. Deuteronomy 6:6-9 says that it is parents’ responsibility to train up their children and teach God’s word to them repeatedly.
There is what I call “Blessed Belief and Marvellous Mindset”. During the bad times of Job, he claimed that he did not deserve such sickening experience because he had been such a righteous man. Being a righteous man do not immune anyone against some sufferings in his lifetime. If it were so, Jesus would not have suffered. Joseph son of Jacob and Job did not suffer because they sinned or never believed in the Lord God of Israel. John the Baptists did not die in the hand of his assailant because he had sinned against God. But as we know Jesus’ story, He suffered more than any human that have ever lived. The main message of Ecclesiastes 3 is that God had set the time for both good and bad in life and there is nothing man can do to change it. Furthermore, Ecclesiastes 6:10, 7:13-14 and 9:11-12 say -
10 Everything that happens was already determined long ago, and we all know that a man cannot argue with someone who is stronger than he.
13 Think about what God has done. How can anyone straighten out what God has made crooked? 14 When things are going on well for you, be glad, and when troubles comes, just remember: God sends both happiness and trouble; you never know what is going to happen next.
11 I realized another thing; that in this world fast runners do not always win the race, and the brave do not always win the battle. Wise men do not always earn a living, intelligent men do not always get rich, and capable men do not always rise to high positions. But luck happens to everyone. 12 You never know when your time is coming. Like birds suddenly caught in a trap, like fish caught in a net, we are trapped at some evil moment when we least expect it. (Today’s English Version of the Holy Bible)
Job 2:10-11 says that Job reiterated this fact in his reply to his wife’s persuasion to curse God and die because of the calamities that God allowed to happen to them. Therefore, it is wrong to assume that you are too godly to experience misfortune. Moses was trying to help his fellow Israelites and it led to his having to endure forty years of exile in Midian. God never contacted him until the end of the forty years when the generation of Egyptian officials that sought to kill him had all died. Even if David had not had problems with the Uriah over his wife to initiate the annoying Absalom’s rebellion, II Samuel 21:1-14 says that for the sake of Saul’s misdeeds against the Gibeonites, God sent a three full years famine to the land of Israel during his reign despite that God delighted in David. There would be a reason for a man to suffer one form of misfortune or the other in his lifetime. The best thing is to prepare for that season and seek God’s help to survive it and laugh last and best by the end of your lifetime. Lamentations 3:25-27 says -
25 The Lord is good to those who are waiting for him, to the soul which is looking for him. 26 It is good to go on hoping and quietly waiting for the salvation of the Lord. 27 It is good for a man to undergo the yoke when he is young. (Bible in Basic English)
This suggests that trouble during one’s lifetime is inevitable but it is better to experience it when one is still young and trust in God’s help to end it and give a better adulthood and old age like Joseph’s lifetime experience typifies. Whatever Joseph suffered until he was thirty years old ended when he became prime minister of Egypt afterwards. Therefore, none should be so greedy for success, and pleasant experiences to the ensnaring extent of concluding that they must never experience disappointment and disgust to the extent of wanting to either curse God or take their own lives just because of some misfortune.
Job did not curse God to die as his wife suggested because of her frustration or commit suicide. Also, Mary the mother of mankind’s Messiah did not commit suicide when her son the Messiah was murdered before her very eyes. It is highly profitable to puncture the pride pumping thoughts of suicide. The saying that the only thing that is permanent is change is highly profitable. Neither fortune nor misfortune is permanent so if you are experiencing misfortune just consider it a phase of your life that will surely pass away and begin to consider what you would do when it is all over and sumptuous season returns to you. If your neighbour is prospering now, just be assured that your own time to prosper would surely come. It is vice versa.
There is what I call “Samuel’s Significant Generational Contemporaries” that included Kish and Jesse. At the time Samuel was presiding over the religious and national life of Israel, not much was heard about Kish and Jesse. Then, in their early old age, Kish emerged national figure when his son Saul was chosen to be king of Israel. Then, in their very old age, Jesse became relevant nationwide by reason of his youngest son David killing Goliath. Individuals have their significant generational contemporaries. Do you know yours? If not, find out and optimize them.
Lamentations 3:25-27 lends credence to what I call “Laughing Last and Best” which some consider to be having the last laugh in this case in your lifetime. Genesis 47:7-9 says that when Pharaoh asked Jacob how old he was, he could not complete his reply without reference to the fact that the 130 years he had spent on earth up till that point were ridden with sorrows. Verse 27-31 says that he surely enjoyed his last 17 years on earth while his son Joseph served as the Prime Minister in Egypt. Genesis 21:1-8 and 23:1-2 mean that Sarah suffered the agony of barrenness in the first 90 years of her life but enjoyed the fulfilment of motherhood in the last 37 years of her life. I Samuel 1 and 2 confirms similar experience of Hannah’ Samuel’s mother in marriage and life. The story of Zechariah’s wife Elizabeth is not different. Determine to laugh last and best also. Ask God’s blessings upon your efforts to experience it. When Pharaoh took Joseph’s interpretation of his dreams and recommendation seriously, he and the people of Egypt and the world survived the 14 critical years of their generation. When Jacob spent his early old age to teach Joseph the difference between right and wrong, God found Joseph suitable to give Jacob what I call “A Better End” or “Enviable End” as against “Ensnaring End”.
Emmanuel Oghene, Paper Pulpit Preacher
