Developing A Winning Rhythm

Ecclesiastes 3:1 NKJV

To everything there is a season, A time for every purpose under heaven:

Pray

I want to talk to you about developing a winning rhythm in your life so that you can break out of a cycle of anxiety and effort and enter into a cycle of grace.

School season is upon us and for many of us this means that the brief escape of summer vacation season is giving way to the pressures and demands of school, work, and life. In other words, we are coming back to the reality of business.

One of the things that often suffers in people’s lives during busy seasons is their relationship with God and overall spiritual health. As things like the economy and culture around us continue to break down our lives—and especially our spiritual lives—are threatened to be overwhelmed.

One thing I know is that if we continue to approach this season the way we have always done it we will find increased levels of anxiety, burn out, and dissatisfaction in life.

Illustration: When I was young in school full time, work full time, parenting two kids, trying to be a good husband, and trying to develop my relationship with God and serve in the church. I was told that due to the many demands that this season wasn’t likely to be my most spiritually vibrant.

What if you could learn to thrive and prosper in the face of overwhelming demand?

What if you could enter into a rhythm where God’s grace strengthens you and empowers you to prosper even when everything around seems to be struggling?

The good news today is that you can. You can receive in and walk in the grace of God.

Two Cycles: Works and Grace

This is not going to be a message about trying harder. In fact, that is the opposite of what God calls us to do. As He told Zechariah, it wasn’t by might nor power but by God’s Spirit that we overcome (cf. Zechariah 4.6).

The challenge is that we have been taught to pick ourselves up and work harder. We are not doing enough (and therefore we think we are not good enough).

The world we live in preaches that the hustle and the grind is the way to success and happiness.

But God’s way is different. It is higher and better (Isaiah 55.9).

We need to learn how to follow the way of Jesus into the cycle of grace.

The Cycle of Grace

The Cycle of Grace, also known as the Dynamic Cycle, was developed by Psychiatrist Frank Lake and Theologian Dr. Emil Brunner.

Lake was a medical missionary from the UK serving in India. While in the UK he had studied both medicine and theology. This model was developed after he was wondering why so many of the missionaries coming to India experienced burnout early in their efforts. At some point he encountered Emile Brunner who encouraged him to focus on the gospel of John and Jesus’s practices for answers.

This cycle outlines how Jesus was able to do an incredible amount of things in His life and ministry without experiencing burnout.

The Cycle of Grace

Acceptance - in the sense of being fully known, valued and loved; a relationship with a mutual sense of safety and trust. Jesus was accepted by the Father.

Sustenance - in the sense of feeding and nourishing and enabling. What were the things that fed, nourished, and enabled Jesus to do what He was called to do?

Significance - in the sense of who we are; what does our life point to or signify; What was the life of Jesus pointing to?

Achievement (Fruitfulness) - in the sense of what we do or what we produced; What were the fruits or results of Jesus’ ministry?

This model describes how Jesus was able to change the world without being changed by it and accomplish an incredible amount of ministry and miracles.

We will explore this model more deeply over the next few messages.

The Cycle of Works

What Dr. Lake discovered was that those who burned out and were overwhelmed by life and ministry (work) were those who followed the cycle of grace in reverse. This is called the Cycle of Works.

The Cycle of Works

Achievement - this is where we start by working and effort

Significance - then, if we achieve, we become significant; Example: “What do you do?”

Sustenance - if we are significant we get paid and get promotions

Acceptance -if I have money (what I have), work (what I do), and reputation (what others think of me), then I am accepted.

You can see how this is the path that most of us and our peers take. We are working for acceptance instead of from it.

We are trying to find significance in our achievements instead of who we are.

Success is always elusive and changing. The Scriptures say that the pursuit of money or abundance will never lead to satisfaction but these are the things those in the cycle of works seek to sustain them (Ecclesiastes 5.10).

Choosing Grace

Because Jesus lived His life according to the cycle of grace, He was able to do incredible things both in amount and in quality.

The disciples who followed after Him lived in the rhythms established by the cycle of grace and as a result were said to have “turned the world upside down” (Acts 17.6). We know that they entered into the greater works that Jesus promised (John 14.12).

If we choose to reorient ourselves and reverse the cycle in our lives we can develop a winning rhythm also. And we know this works because God designed us to live on His terms. You were made to live according to the cycle of grace!

Here are three steps to get started:

Reflect

The first thing we need to do is reflect.

2 Corinthians 13:5 NKJV

Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you are disqualified.

Are you in the faith, or have you adopted the pattern of the world?

Are you inspired and moved by your relationship with God or are you driven by your emotions and carnal desires?

A good thing to do is to conduct a spiritual audit. I recommend asking yourself questions like:

Am I becoming more like Jesus? Am I happy with who I am becoming?

Am I growing spiritually? Am I becoming more mature in the faith?

Do others recognize the authenticity of my spirituality?

Is my prayer life improving?

Is the content I consume the right spiritual diet for me?

Is obedience my natural reflex?

Have I maintained a genuine awe for God?

Do I have joy?

Also, consider what spiritual sicknesses might be afflicting you — sins of commission and sins of omission — and bring them to the cross. These things can keep us from walking in God’s acceptance and grace.

Illustration: I was at the barber and my new barber was telling me why he did not like working in a salon. If a woman lies about her hair then the product he puts into it could damage it. If she starts with the truth, that she’s using a box to color her hair for example, then the finished product will be good.

If we will be honest with where we are we are able to move forward with God into the grace that He has for us. If we lie and deceive ourselves then we will find ourselves positioned to walk in the light of God’s goodness (cf. 1 John 1.7-10).

Return

After we have reflected, we need to return.

Jeremiah 6:16 NKJV

Thus says the Lord: “Stand in the ways and see, And ask for the old paths, where the good way is, And walk in it; Then you will find rest for your souls. But they said, ‘We will not walk in it.’

What do we need to return to? We need to return to walking in God’s way.

This way that God prepared for us is called the good way. It was the way that we were designed to walk in and the way the leads to great significance and achievement (cf. Ephesians 2.10).

Hebrews 12:1–2 NKJV

1 Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

We return through repentance and seeking God where we last left His path.

We acknowledge where we got off track, that things are not working, that we’ve been operating in our own strength and then we turn to Jesus.

Illustration: Programming. Program working and you build the next function or change something to make it better and you find that somewhere along the way you did something that crashes the app. You have to trace the steps back to where it was working in order to move forward.

Hosea 10:12 NKJV

Sow for yourselves righteousness; Reap in mercy; Break up your fallow ground, For it is time to seek the Lord, Till He comes and rains righteousness on you.

If you will return to the Lord, to faith, and to that moment where you began to drift from grace, you will find Him waiting. Like the Father waiting for the Prodigal. God is ready to rain righteousness upon you!

Reposition

Finally, we need to reposition ourselves so that we will be prepared for what God is going to do.

Habakkuk 2:1 NKJV

I will stand my watch And set myself on the rampart, And watch to see what He will say to me, And what I will answer when I am corrected.

Instead of charging ahead and acting based on how we feel or what we think might be good we need to wait and see what God’s answer to us will be.

So many of the problems we get into in life and in our faith come about because we act ahead of God. Instead of following His leading, we do what seems right in our own eyes (cf. Romans 8.14, Judges 17.6).

One critical thought along this point is that seasons change. What worked in one season may not be what will work in this one.

It may have been that God’s grace was on it in the past, but now God wants us to do something else to bring about His purpose in our lives. At one point, God told Moses to strike a rock to provide for Israel. Later, in similar conditions, God told him to speak to the rock.

Illustration: The first time God changed my prayer life.

If we want to experience the life of Christ which is good and full of grace, we need to wait on the Lord and move at His direction. Starting anywhere else will ultimately lead us away from winning in life and receiving the victor’s crown.

Encourage people to listen to the message that was preached on Wednesday, August 3 by Pastor Chris Phillips. “How do I know I’m on the right track?” — your parents (including the spiritual leaders that God has set in your life…not the teachers we heap up for ourselves (2 Timothy 4.3); the Scriptures; the Holy Spirit.

Conclusion

In the beginning the world was without form and void. It was covered in darkness. It was chaotic and lacked structure and order. It was unable to produce life (see Genesis 1).

But then God spoke. God began to bring order through His word and established the fundamental laws of creation.

If we will follow the way of Jesus and develop a rhythm of life according to the cycle of grace, we will find that instead of chaos and anxiety and darkness in our lives we will find order and peace and light. We will see new life breaking forth.

I believe that God wants you to walk in this good way full of abundant life.

Reflect to make sure your life is centered in Christ and ordered by faith.

Return to the wisdom and ways of God wherever you have gotten off the path. Seek Him and you will find Him.

Reposition yourself so that you are waiting before acting and trusting before doubting. Allow God’s voice to lead you and direct your steps above every other voice.

If you will prepare yourself this way, you will find that you will enter into God’s rest where you cease from your own works and enter into His (Hebrews 4.10). You will find that instead of working so hard to be accepted, your actions will be fueled by grace and acceptance.

This is the life in the Spirit which is characterized by righteousness, peace, and joy (Romans 14.17).

Pray.

This week was the primer to prepare us to develop a winning rhythm in life. Next week we will look more deeply into the first step of the cycle of grace: acceptance.