The Beautiful Rhythm of Living

"As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, 7 rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, as you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving."
Colossians 2:6-7

Today is another beautiful day that the Lord has made. There is a beautiful rhythm to it. The alarm goes off, the coffee is made, time spent with the Lord. Prayer. Then time on the computer for emails and blogs. Breakfast. By then it is time to shower and get ready to go. And the day begins. The beautiful rhythm of living.

The trouble I have with all of this, is my reluctance to keep up the momentum. For some unknown reason, I can put on the skids, and interrupt the beautiful rhythm of living with my laziness and disobedience. That beautiful rhythm with which I began the day can be stopped by poor decisions I make to do what is easy and entertaining rather than what is noble and wholesome. This in turn, stops the momentum that had been built into my day before breakfast. And then I look around and wonder how i got to the place where I am, not having accomplished what I set out to do. Again, the beautiful rhythm of living life, and the beautiful rhythm of loving the Lord, are interrupted by laziness and disobedience. Not to suggest that one stops loving the Lord by these things. But the flow is interrupted. And that allows room for our enemy, the devil, to get a foothold, or to plant a seed of doubt or bitterness. This must not be, and Lord help me when I am tempted to continue in the flesh what You have begun in the Spirit (sometimes I feel just like a foolish Galatian).

Paul writes to the Colossians, and us, that as we "have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him." It is a simple thing. We received Christ simply, and we are to walk in Him simply. It too has a rhythm about it. Spending time with the Lord. Prayer. Obedience. Kindness. Gentleness. Humility. Putting others first. It seems so simple, this beautiful rhythm of living life, and the beautiful rhythm of loving the Lord. The two are connected. They have a flow to them. They are intertwined and have a flow through the life of a believer. There is no separation between living life and loving God. Because we are rooted and built up in Him. He is our life. And if we simply walk in Him, and allow Him to work and move through us, we can be sure that we are doing what He wants us to do.

Paul writes here, that we should be rooted in Him, built up in Him, and established in the faith through Him, and that we are to abound with thanksgiving. Most believers have a pretty good understanding about what it means to be rooted in Him, and built up in Him. But what does established in the faith mean? When something is established, it means that it was started, that it grew, and that it remains as something that is there now and is going to last. It has the feel of withstanding the test of time.

So too with being established in the faith. It had its beginning in our lives, and has grown, and is growing, and it is there now and is going to last. A faith that withstands the test of time. And abounding in it means it keeps going and going until it is over the top. The only detriment to this is us. Neglecting our quiet time. Not doing those good and wholesome things, and replacing them with things that can weigh us down, and get entangled around our legs and trip us up. It is a mystery why we humans do this, intentionally. But we come to the Lord with humility of heart and repentance, and receive this grace, His grace, into our lives, so that we can go out and face today, with a heart full of love and thanksgiving. And continue on in the beautiful rhythm. Shalom.