FAITHFUL RHYTHMS AND ROUTINES
Whether subconscious or conscious our life is centered around determined values, commitments, and routines. For most of us, it’s subconscious. We’ve fallen into them based on seasons of life, the way we grew up, the community we’re in, etc. That can be a good reality, but it can also be a bad reality. When it comes to business we see the importance in discerning and implementing specific rhythms and routines - for communicating with a client, turning in paperwork, holding a meeting, customer service - we can all quickly agree that without healthy rhythms/routines in place a work environment would not function well.
If we allow ourselves to sit down and consider the similar intentions with our personal life, we should see the same conclusion. The truth is whether or not we try to, values and rhythms will occur in our daily life - the question is whether or not they are the right ones, the healthy ones, the faithful ones.
Let us give attention to the busyness of this world. We live in a bustling culture. Jobs, families, communities, and relationships are pursued and upheld, and if we’re honest with ourselves, we often feel as if we fail more often than we feel as if we have succeeded. In the midst of trying to handle all the moving parts, the first pursuit that often falls to the wayside is our spiritual condition - our relationship with God. When that happens everything else is affected.
Writer Jeremy Linnman provides four categories we often find ourselves in:
1. Scattered: Our schedule is full but doesn’t reflect our purpose and priorities.
2. Hurried: We’re busier than we want to be, but don’t know what to change.
3. Reactive: It seems we’re never in charge, always responding to demands.
4. Exhausted: We end each day weary and discouraged, unsure if we’ve spent it well.
From the business lens, management knows what to implement. Funny how we neglect this concept in personal life.
The author of Deuteronomy walks us through the importance of faithful rhythm's in our everyday life.
Deuteronomy 4:9 “Only take care, and keep your soul diligently, lest you forget the things that your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life…”
Take care. Another way this is written is take heed, which means to give careful attention to.
Keep. To continue and to hold on to the truth we’re heeding, diligently not inactively.
Lest you forget. In fear that we would stray from the words of the Lord.
This is not a light command. This is urgent. This is the difference between being a child of God and an enemy of God.
What are we paying attention to? What is fueling our minds and keeping our soul? Is it the Lord?
We must pay close attention to the way we live our life. We must heed our values and rhythms and ensure they’re reflecting and pushing us back to the Father. This does not happen on its own. Our hearts are deceitful and our ways wicked - it takes great attention, intentionality, and commitment to heed the words of our Lord. This means we have a responsibility to discern and implement what our rhythms need to look like in order to remain in a relationship with God. And these rhythms/routines are for our spiritual disciplines - the conduct of a faithful follower of Christ.
Before we can ask how - we must first settle our hearts with the why. Do we believe that following Jesus faithfully requires commitment? Devotion? A denying of oneself and a way of life? Do we agree that the reason behind a scattered mind and an exhausted heart is because we didn’t know how we were to show up and where?
This isn’t going to look perfect. This isn’t going to solve all of our struggles and eliminate the difficulties this life throws our way - but it will provide a foundation. A solid, biblical foundation that we can turn back to. That will catch us. That will propel us forward again.
Knowing our “why” does this because faithful rhythms are meant to help our over-consumed, idle minds settle and rest on what is Truth. For any season, any circumstance, our values, what we deem necessary for our spiritual health, and our posture - remind us of Jesus. The person who saved us from the chains of burden and bondage of sin; the person who reconciled us to the Father and imparted His righteousness on us. So that we don’t have to be perfect - because He is.
Let us discern and create faithful rhythms for our idle hearts, so that we may faithfully, daily walk with the Lord.
ACCORDING TO MIRRIAM WEBSTER’S DICTIONARY, A RHYTHM IS A STRONG REPEATED PATTERN OF MOVEMENT.
I SUGGEST THAT A FAITHFUL RHYTHM IS A STRONG DAILY PATTERN OF WORSHIP.
But what is worship? Many, many scholars out there who have beautifully defined and broken down what worship is, we won’t sit there for long, but for a quick reference Louie Giglio puts it this way:
“Worship is our response, both personal and corporate, to God for who He is, and what He has done; expressed in and by the things we say and the way we live.”
A faithful rhythm then is the expressions and postures of our heart, condition of the mind, and outward love through day to day life. This is something conscious and intentional, something that we choose to pursue and create in our lives that is worshipful and so that we worship.
A simple example of this is the faithful rhythm of prayer.
Matt Smethurst from Before you open your Bible says a “prayerless christianity is a powerless christianity”. Prayer is a focal point in our faith. It is an intimate and conscious communication with God and should be happening in many different ways throughout our every day - for our needs, for praise, for wisdom, for guidance, for sustenance, etc. It is not a routine in and of itself it is a rhythm first because it involves the posture of our heart. It is worship. It’s a pattern, something that saturates the normal everyday stuff of life.
Another example is Sabbath rest. The original Sabbath was developed in Exodus 31:12-13. A particular day set aside for the Israelites to remember all that God has done. Sabbath was made for man, not man for sabbath (Mark 2:27). The new sabbath we see in Luke 6:1-5 is when Jesus calls Himself the Lord of the Sabbath. It was no longer about a particular day, but rather, resting in the work and person of Jesus Christ. Rest then, is still remembering all that God has done. But it has become a rhythm for believers. When our hearts are weary, we find our rest in Christ. This is an everyday posture, an everyday rhythm.
MIRRIAM DICTIONARY DEFINES A ROUTINE AS A REGULAR COURSE OF PROCEDURE.
I SUGGEST THAT A FAITHFUL ROUTINE IS A SOUL ENGAGING, ADJUSTABLE METHOD.
Routines are for putting our rhythms into tangible, practical actions. What are we going to do, or put in place, to carry out the rhythm effectively? Many of us run from the word “routine” or “structure.” But I urge you to sit here with me for a moment and consider what a faithful routine is. Many of us are without them, and those hearts slowly wander away from God on the road of justification. We have allowed our brothers and sisters, and ourselves, to neglect spiritual disciplines in the name of respect for one's circumstances.
But if we believe that God is our sole source of joy, wisdom, truth, assurance, provision and life itself - then we should be compelled to ask the hard questions, speak truth in love, exhort and hold accountable our walk with God. We are to heed the words of our Lord. If our walk has halted, if we are idle or stuck in our faith, God hasn’t changed, left, or forgotten us - we have changed, left, and forgotten Him. The deeper issue we must reconcile is our belief that God is who He says He is. When we get there, when we believe that, we should see that our faithful walk is not a resume. It is not earned. It is not something we prove. It is solely and completely an act of love for the Father. When God draws us and saves us, His regeneration urges us to follow Him. We find a new desire to obey Him. Not out of compulsion or merit but by grace.
So, as this fallen world throws temptations, struggle, hardship, loss, pain, and sin our way, these faithful routines become a sounding board. A helping hand to guide us back to the Father who is fully in control, fully aware, and fully gracious; and a helping hand to drive us back to the why behind anything and everything we do - for His glory. If we can agree on this, then we can agree that a routine defined in this manner is not suffocating, but life giving; and suddenly words like “routine” aren’t intimidating any longer.
We’ll continue with the examples mentioned earlier.
FAITHFUL RHYTHM: DAILY PRAYER
If one of our faithful rhythms is daily prayer (which we all should have) then a faithful routine is the tangible piece. What adjustable method can we put in place to ensure a soul-engaging time of prayer? The key here is adjustable. Our routines must be developed in a way that allows for change in season of life, health, travel, etc. To be clear: our rhythms don’t alter (our daily pattern of worship) but our routines can and should.
A faithful routine for daily prayer could be as streamlined as a prayer journal. The part we most often neglect, though, is a journal catered to our personal life and preferences. If we try to force a routine that doesn’t work well for us then it will never sustain. We need to be willing to experiment and figure out what works best for our particular life and person - and ensuring what we come up with isn’t so structured that it removes any ounce of flexibility. This means asking ourselves:
“What do I need to help me faithfully pray?”
“Is there a particular category of prayer that I need the most help with?”
“What kind of ‘help’ am I looking for?”
“Why has what I’ve done in the past not worked?”
“Are there distractions in my life that I’ve allowed to overrun this area?”
This is called discerning the heart.
Faithful routines are life giving - not suffocating. If we feel suffocated, legalistic, or judged then we need to return to the original rhythm - what are we worshipping and why? We all need reminders sometimes of our God who is personal, loving, gracious, and present, to revitalize our joy to delight in Him.
FAITHFUL RHYTHM: SPIRITUAL REST
One more example. We talked briefly about a rhythm of spiritual rest. That because of Christ we find rest for our weary souls in the work God has done in and through His son. A few different ways exist to provide rest, but the one we will focus on right now is rest through His word.
A faithful routine for spiritual rest is one of tangibly and practically reading the Bible. For the Bible is the living and active word of God. His very voice. His breath in written form. The way He communicates with us. There is no better way to know and remember our God then communing with His word. And so, a faithful routine of Bible study will, when approached rightly, give us rest.
There are too many ways to study and approach the Bible than we have space for here. And truly, like any routine it can look different for everyone. But I can assure you that regardless of your life circumstances we are all called to be a student of God’s word. We are called to be Bible literate. Jen Wilkin always says that “our heart cannot love what the mind does not know.” We love deeper the more we learn about someone/something. The same goes for God - and this is a gift, a privilege that we have. He has allowed us to know Him soul-deep, and yet we are all too comfortable with a skin-deep relationship and then wonder why we’re weary and why we’re idle. He is there, ready to be known, already knowing and loving us.
And so we must take the time to figure out our faithful routine. What will being a student of God’s word look like for you? What routine can you develop so that it’s adjustable with life?
Discerning and putting in place faithful rhythms and routines isn’t easy. It’s heart work. It won’t happen overnight. It takes intention and discipline, but ultimately a belief that God is who He says He is and a desire to walk in a manner of the calling to which we have been called. As a follower of Christ, we want so badly to do that, to follow Him. We want to obey Him, love Him, and worship Him. Healthy rhythms and routines meet us in this fallen world and help us walk in His ways.