Pressing
On
With
Allen Bach and Clay O’Brien Cooper
As told to Dee Ann Burkes
“I press on toward the goal
to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.”
Philippians 3:14
Creating a Balance in Your Life
Allen: Over the years it has really been impressed upon me
how important it is to have a balance in our life. We can work really hard in one area of our
life, say our career, and be very successful. But it can end up that we spend
so much time at work, we end up neglecting other areas of our life, like our
marriage, a relationship with God, or friendships. I have the mental image of a
big reservoir with a lot of rivers coming out of it. The reservoir is God, and
the blessings and love that he has ready and available to us. The rivers
represent the different areas of our life: a relationship with God, our
marriage, finances, family relationships, friendships, our career and even our
hobbies or what we do for fun. I will use the river of marriage for an example.
In a good marriage, the water is flowing freely and life is flourishing along
its banks. In a bad marriage, the river is dried up, the bottom is dry dirt and
all around it everything is dead. God’s anointing on the river is what keeps
things growing. Seeds are planted on both sides of the river,
the anointing goes out on both sides of the river and the blessings are what
bring the fruit. If you can picture a beautiful lake with the clearest,
cleanest water flowing out of it into steams with big trees and plants along
their banks, that would be a life in balance. If only
one or two of those steams fit that picture, then you need to examine why there
is no water in the riverbeds of the other areas, why there is no life along
their banks. If we keep the floodgates closed, the reservoir becomes stagnant
and covered with moss. We need to have all the gates opened so the water keeps
moving. We need a fresh anointing of the living water every day.
Clay: It is a learning process to realize what a reservoir
God really is. His love is always there. It is flowing and available; we just
have to accept it. Many times the Bible
refers to water in relation to God. He is called the fountain of life (Psalm
36:9) and the spring of living water (Jeremiah
Allen: Like you said Clay, Jesus came to reconcile life
that had no life in it. The areas of our life that don’t have his spiritual
presence are dead; those areas have no fruit. We all need to examine our life
and see if some part is dried up. If there is one of the rivers that is dried up, then you need to pray for God’s anointing
there. Let his love flow out over it and receive his anointing. The reservoir
is always there; it’s up to us to open up the floodgates and receive his love
and blessings in those different areas of our life.
Clay: In Ephesians, Paul talks about the washing with
water through the word. He washes us and sanctifies us. That water brings life
to our relationships, careers, friendships and acquaintances. It brings life to
being a father or mother. A lot of people don’t really understand all of that
without a relationship with God and they are left without any knowledge or
understanding of it. Left to our own way of thinking, we can formulate our own
way of doing things in every area of our life. The thing about it is that
people that are successful on their own are usually doing it using Godly
principles, but not giving him credit for it.
Allen: And some people think that because they are using
Godly principles they are doing it his way. But that isn’t necessarily true. As
they search their heart, they find out they’ve been doing too much on their own
and not operating like God wanted them to. We need to examine our lives and
figure out where we need to allow God to work more. We are the ones that put up
the dam at the reservoir, we are the ones that closed the floodgates and
restricted his blessings.
Clay: We have to turn our will over to him and trust in
him. Our relationship comes from turning our lives over to him. That is hard
for a lot of people to do. It was hard for me. I spent about six years in the
in-between place – I didn’t really make a strong commitment to God, and was
just kind of going through life doing it my own way. But I began to realize
that way of living didn’t bring any peace or happiness. I was at a point in my
life I as very successful -- I had won a world championship. From the world’s
standpoint, I had everything going for me, but on the inside I knew I wasn’t
where I needed to be. I didn’t have the peace that could only come from him. I
finally reached a point where I could say, “I am going to do it your way God. I
want to learn about who you are and what your plan is
for me.” But it’s been a process to consciously open each of those flood gates
and let God’s love and blessings flow in.
Allen: That’s exactly right. You can be the best roper in
the world, but without God’s hand of blessing you can’t receive the kind of
fruit from your roping that only God can provide. We need to get in his
presence and pray for him to show us what we can do to be obedient. Like in my
roping – I want to be more fruitful. So I ask God what kinds of seeds I should
start sowing into my roping. Do I need to start better communication with my
partner? Do I need to practice different? Do I need to rope a different type of
cattle? Do I need a different horse? By examining all different aspects of my
roping, he can show my what I need to do. I first have
to realize I can’t do anything without him. Yeah, I know how to rope, but he
helps me with the application of that knowledge. It is important to isolate the
different areas of your life and pray for them individually. That is when the
gates of the reservoir open up and all those seeds that have been planted along
the way get watered. You don’t want to get so caught up in your career that you
end up putting all your time and energy there to be successful in that one area
of your life. It’s not worth going after that abundance of wealth to sacrifice
your marriage, your friendships to the point the fun in your life is all gone.
We need to have the balance; God wants us to have it. He wants us to have a
great marriage, a successful career, an intimate relationship with him and
still have time to go hunting or fishing or whatever we want to do for fun. He
wants to give us the desires of our heart, but in balance.
Clay: It’s a choice to let God work in every area of your
life and to let him do his work. We have to stand in faith and sometimes that
is not easy. But you just have to keep at it; learn to trust him as you see him
working in your life. Then you look back on the years you’ve been in a
relationship with Christ and you can see what he has done in your life and it
is overwhelming. You see he is real and he is just exactly who he said he was
the whole time.
Allen: Try to use this mental picture of the reservoir and
the different rivers of your life. Check the balances in your life and ask
yourself what parts are dried up and need a fresh anointing from God. Pray
about each area and ask God what you need to do to receive those blessings he
has waiting, to open the floodgates. God will provide balance in our life if
that is what our desire is.