Finding Balance in a World of Extremes Preview Book: Reflections from The Christ-Centered Woman Bible Study

By The Reverend The Reverend The Reisman

Kimberly Dunnam Reisman draws upon her bestselling book The Christ-Centered Woman to provide a completely updated and expanded guide for helping women to find balance at every age and stage of life. Confronting the daily chaos of competing demands from a new perspective, she asks not “How do I juggle my responsibilities?” but “How do I make choices that reflect my relationship with Christ and his direction for my life?”

This pocket-size book provides a snapshot of both the barriers to balanced living and the biblical blueprint for Christ-centered living.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Abingdon Press
• Release date: Aug 6, 2013
• ISBN: 9781426779121

The Reverend The Reverend The Reisman

Kimberly Dunnam Reisman, is widely known for her effective and engaging preaching and teaching. Currently Executive Director of Next Step Evangelism Ministries, she serves on the World Methodist Council Steering Committee and regularly partners with World Methodist Evangelism and the World Methodist Evangelism Institute, providing leadership for their evangelism seminars worldwide. She also is Adjunct Professor at United Theological Seminary and General Editor for Making Life Matter, a weekly radio program. Kim is the author or co-author of numerous books and studies, including The Christ-Centered Woman: Finding Balance in a World of Extremes and Knowing God in the Sisters Bible study series. The mother of three adult children, Kim and her husband live in West Lafayette, Indiana.

Book preview

Introduction

Do you ever feel that your life is like a whirling merry-go-round and you are dangerously close to losing your sense of balance—or being flung off altogether? Would you like to discover a calm center from which to handle the distracting forces of life that seek to move you away from what is truly important?

This little book serves as a quick-start guide to finding balance at every age and stage of life. In these pages I provide an overview of the biblical answer to stress and imbalance, drawing upon concepts I explore in my Bible study The Christ-Centered Woman. Using a wheel as a metaphor for the journey to a Christ-centered life—with Christ at the center and strong, reliable spokes leading to the wheel surface that hits the road of our lives—we will briefly consider seven spokes or biblical tools for living a Spirit-filled, Christ-centered life:

1.  Good Enough

2.  Temperance

3.  Self-Discovery

4.  Authenticity

5.  Calling

6.  Power and Purpose

7.  Flexibility

These strong, reliable spokes provide the support we need as we seek to make Christ the center of our lives.

A beautiful passage from the third chapter of Ephesians illustrates what we experience when we commit ourselves to living a Christ-centered life:

When I think of the wisdom and scope of God’s plan, I fall to my knees and pray to the Father, the Creator of everything in heaven and on earth. I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will give you mighty inner strength through his Holy Spirit. And I pray that Christ will be more and more at home in your hearts as you trust in him. May your roots go down deep into the soil of God’s marvelous love. And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love really is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is so great you will never fully understand it. Then you will be filled with the fullness of life and power that comes from God.

(vv. 14-19)

This was not simply Paul’s prayer for the Ephesians; it was his prayer for all who follow Christ—that we might experience Christ at home in our hearts; that we might experience the inner strength and fullness of life that come when we place Christ at the center of our lives. When Christ is at the center, we’re able to tap into the power available to us through the Holy Spirit. As we begin to trust Christ, we become more and more aware of how great his love for us actually is. This enables us to experience the fullness of life and power that comes from God, a fullness that provides the stability we need as we navigate the whirling merry-go-round of life.

With Christ at the center of your life, the merry-go-round will not fling you off regardless of the chaos that may characterize your circumstances. The wheel you ride upon in life will provide a steady ride, despite speed bumps, potholes, and detours. You will be able to hold steady—balanced and ready to face the challenges of life!

1.

Breaking Stereotypes and

Embracing Good Enough

As we seek to find balance in life, we face many challenges—some external and some internal. I’d like to begin by exploring some of the outer means that hinder us from living a Christ-centered life. Let us consider two myths that secular