DAY 27

SACRED RHYTHMS

JOHN MACDONALD, LEAD PASTOR

A few years ago the Lord brought heavy conviction upon the staff of The Woods Church and asked us to abandon ship. Why did he ask us to abandon ship? It was because our lives and our ministry had turned into a predictable, mediocre, slow-moving, compromising, comfortable, status quo, cruise ship. The Lord never desired or called His church (that’s us) to be defined by the adjectives mentioned above. Nope, we are supposed to be people who are defined by His presence. Defined by our hunger for more of Him. Defined by our seeking, our asking, and our knocking. Defined by perseverance to stand, persistence to passionately press in, and anointed with power. God called us to be a people of prayer who would fearlessly step into a sailboat, powered by the wind of the Holy Spirit, equipped only with His promises and a willingness to be led out into deep waters. Into uncharted places of deep revelation where we had never been before.

This caused us to change a lot of what we did personally as individuals and corporately as a church. What we had to do was begin to establish new rhythms, sacred rhythms!

The word sacred can be defined: something or someone regarded with great respect and reverence. One of the Greek words used for sacred is actually the word hagios, meaning holy.

The word rhythm can be defined: a strong, regular, repeated pattern of movement.

In essence the Holy Spirit began convicting our staff of all the wrong rhythms or the “less-than” rhythms we had set up in our lives personally and in our church. Rhythms that were not yielding fruit. Rhythms that were not drawing us or our people into deep intimacy with Christ. Rhythms that had been established for years because that was just what we had always done. We needed to destroy the old rhythms and start with fresh and new God ordained rhythms if we were ever going to go where God was calling us to go.

It’s pretty easy and quite common to unknowingly establish unhealthy rhythms in your life. We live in a fast-paced, consumeristic, post-Christian culture that will gladly establish our rhythms for us if we are not intentional about establishing our own sacred rhythms.

Think about this picture for a moment. If your life was represented by a boat and you were out in the ocean with no anchor and no fuel for the engine, the current would take you, the waves would push you, and the wind would drive you wherever it wanted. You would end up lost, stranded, or broken up on the rocks.

That sounds a lot like our lives sometimes. We wonder, where is my joy, why am I not fulfilled, how did I get in this mess? Well, it’s because you allowed the fast-past culture around you to set rhythms for you instead of being intentional in establishing specific sacred rhythms for yourself.

One of the most important rhythms you can intentionally set is a sacred time each day to spend with God. All the other rhythms in your life should flow out of this one rhythm. I don’t know what this looks like for you, but I’ll share what this precious rhythm looks like in my life. Over the past 5 years I have been on a journey of spending more and more time with God each day. But this past summer I was really hungry for God’s presence, and it never seemed like I was getting the adequate time I needed with Him. I decided to start a new rhythm and get up at 6:30 am. Now listen, some of you might have been getting up for work at that time, or even earlier, for years. Not me. I am not a morning person at all. But my desire for God’s presence and His voice were far greater than my desire to sleep.

I started setting my alarm for 6:30 am. After 3 days I didn’t even need to set my alarm. I just started waking up excited to be with Him. It didn’t take long before there was a new rhythm established in my life. I would get up, pray, read scripture, worship, listen, pray blessing over my family, and pray blessing over the church. From 6:30 to 8:30 I would do this, then get ready and be at the church for 9:00 am staff prayer which was another hour in His presence. This new rhythm was giving me so much life. I felt like I was discerning God’s will so much more clearly. I was receiving much greater revelation. I was diving deep into His Word, and the Holy Spirit was giving me so many insights that I had not noticed before. All of this took place because I was hungry for more of God in my life and started a new sacred rhythm.

Pause for just a moment, maybe a few minutes, or as long as it takes. Ask the Holy Spirit to reveal to you any old rhythms in your life that need to go and the new rhythms that need to be established. Ask the Holy Spirit to be specific with you as you pray. Write down what He reveals to you and how He desires you to proceed. Be committed to the new sacred rhythm until it becomes firmly established in your life.

PRAYER

Holy Spirit, forgive me for allowing my schedule and the culture around me to dictate my rhythms in life. Show me what rhythms need to be destroyed and what new sacred rhythms need to be started. The only rhythms I want are those that honor You and position me for great intimacy with You, amen.