Rhythm
Rhythm, at times, is something that can be the most challenging thing to cultivate, protect, and keep consistent in our lives when it comes to living healthy spiritually, emotionally, and physically. This is an aspect in my life that I am currently assessing and processing: what healthy rhythm looks like in my own personal life.
Right now, I am in a transition of learning a new position in leading, teaching, and establishing a new work routine. Like when starting anything NEW there comes a new routine, workflow, and schedule. It’s the process of adapting and learning. It’s a fresh start, a new opportunity, and a season to grow.
I enjoy having a productive routine, a schedule for the day, and even surprisingly a spontaneous coffee break. But what I am realizing is that there is a difference between having a good routine and a healthy rhythm in life.
A routine in our lives is based on a schedule that can change. A rhythm in our lives is a repeated pattern that remains consistent.
If God is a God of order, then He is also a God of rhythm.
I believe that God wants His children to cultivate a rhythm in their lives that is strong and creates healthy patterns.
· Healthy rhythms of rest
· Healthy rhythms of relationships
· Healthy rhythms of work
· Healthy rhythms of prayer
I think one of the most challenging things personally for me is when cultivating a healthy rhythm is understanding that NOT EVERYTHING IS GOING TO FIT IN!
Cultivating a healthy rhythm is identifying what is valuable and important in your life spiritually, emotionally, and physically.
Protecting a healthy rhythm is saying “NO: to some things and establishing boundaries.
Keeping a healthy rhythm takes accountability, self-discipline, and the HOLY SPIRIT.
If you’re like me, then this rhythm seems really challenging and almost impossible to do, right?
We can easily justify what we do and why we do it to make it “fit” our routine or schedule but then feel exhausted by the end of the week. We don’t always realize that without balance, we can find ourselves caught up in all the “to-do’s,” leaving little or no time for the very things we know are valuable and important.
Isn’t that outlandish that sometimes the things that are the most healthy for us spiritually, emotionally, and physically we don’t make time for or have time for?
Am I the only one in that boat?
Jesus is the perfect example of what it looks like to cultivate, protect and keep a healthy rhythm that God desires for us.
One of the patterns that jump out to me when I read and learn about Jesus is His rhythm of prayer. We can easily see throughout scripture how Jesus cultivated, protected, and kept prayer consistent in His life.
It says in Luke 6:12, “After this, Jesus went up into the high hills to spend the whole night in prayer to God.”
As we dig deeper, we can read in the footnotes of this verse:
“This was the pattern of Jesus in the Gospel accounts. Before he made important decisions and before great events in his life, he sought the Father. Once he saw what the Father wanted, Jesus obeyed as the perfect Son.”
Then we read in Luke 5:16 about how Jesus would “slip away” from people to go pray.
We also see the continued pattern in Mark 1:35 how Jesus would get up before daylight to find a quiet place to pray to His Father.
We can easily see a RHYTHM of Jesus stepping away from whatever or whoever was around Him to go pray and spend time with His father.
As we read and understand how Jesus cultivated, protected, and kept the rhythm of prayer in His life, this gives us hope and a blueprint to how it can be applied to our lives.
Jesus cultivated by identifying that prayer was valuable and important. He made it a priority.
Jesus protected by establishing boundaries.
Jesus kept the rhythm by using self-discipline when waking up early, staying up late to pray, stepping away from distractions.
If you are in a time of transition or establishing a new routine for the season you are in, I want to encourage you because change and adapting can be challenging at times, but what if this is the very moment when God is calling us from a routine to a lifestyle of rhythm with Him. A rhythm that includes the essentials and what we need to produce a life that is pleasing to the Lord.
A rhythm of intimacy with Him
A rhythm of rest with Him
A rhythm of prayer with Him
My prayer is that the Lord empowers His people to cultivate, protect and keep a healthy spiritual, emotional, and physical rhythm so that His glory can be displayed throughout the earth.
As I am on this journey of learning and understanding how I can take practical steps to live a life of healthy spiritual, emotional, and physical rhythm. I am encouraged that the Holy Spirit is with me every step of the way.
I am far from being perfect and will most likely mess up along the way, but God’s grace is perfect and sufficient. I know that as I continue to trust in the Lord each day, He will ALWAYS supply everything that I need.
I feel confident in this that if we know the strategy of the enemy and how he operates to distract and disrupt the rhythm that God desires for us, then we can be aware and proactive to protect offensively so that the rhythm in our lives can remain consistent.
My prayer for us today:
Lord, empower us today to walk in your ways and establish your perfect rhythm in YOUR PEOPLE so that we can reflect YOU in everything that we do. Amen!
Bethany Marshall
