Today @ The Gathering was incredible and both services were exciting with so many new faces coming from all over to hear the message of hope.  Our vision that The Gathering would come to be a great church that people love coming to has come true right before our eyes.

This week we continued in our Chasing Balance series by being reminded of the three things that everyone chases.

1.    We chase after meaning.  Without meaning in our lives, it’s difficult to press forward.

2.    We chase significance.  Significance is something far more than success, though it includes it.  Significance is about relationship and making a difference in the lives of other people.  It’s not being important to important people.

3.    Chasing balance. If we have meaning and significance, but we don’t hold those things in balance, we become obsessed, fanatical, and worst of all worn out, depleted, and depressed.

We talked about why reserves are important and highlighted four reasons.

1.    Reserves are important for times of sickness because your body emotionally and physically needs to have enough strength to fight off disease.

2.    Reserves are important for times of injustice.  When someone betrays us, accuses us, when something is lost unjustly, it’s like being hit in the stomach unexpectedly.  It knocks the wind out of us.  If you’re living on the ragged edge of life emotionally, spiritually, or physically, injustice can be overwhelming.

3.    Reserves are important for times of temptation.  How many people have done really stupid things they would never have done if they weren’t tired, worn out, or angry?

4.    Reserves are important for times of opportunity.  Sometimes God sends something your way; a moment that needs to be seized.  And once you do it, you have a breakthrough.  But you need reserves in order to seize these opportunities and expend the extra energy.

During this talk we learned four practical ways to build up our reserves:

1.    Before you work, worship. Worship is the way we reconnect to God.  And while we worship God, we’re energized by the process.  We sense God, and then out of the joy and wonder, we serve Him.

2.    Before you try, train. We’re reminded that trying is one thing, but training goes before trying.  If you’re going to run the race, you have to go into training before you actually run it.  Just showing up without training makes trying drudgery.

3.    Before you quit, finish. We talked about the importance of prevailing through the quitting moments.

4.    Before you worry, wait.

Be sure to subscribe to the podcast of this series so you won’t miss any of these important messages.