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Developing A Winning Rhythm
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.
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.
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).
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.
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!
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