Finding the Unforced Rhythms of God’s Grace in Work

“Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.”  Matthew 11:28-30 (The Message)

As a child of God, you are blessed with an invitation from Abba, your Heavenly Father, to transform the way you live and work so that you can experience His best. In other words, you don’t have to strive endlessly to make things happen. You simply need God’s empowering presence and everything else is going to flow from there.  Grace is that empowerment. It enables you to successfully do what God has called you to do and to do what you could never do on your own. It’s by God’s grace that you are able to do extraordinary things, have supernatural results and eternal impact through your life and business.

You are not only saved, forgiven, and transformed by grace; you are also sustained by it. John 1:16 refers to “grace upon grace” which is a constant and overflowing gift out of the abundance of Christ that we have received to live and to work.  This gift of grace belongs to you and provides you with rest, divine favor, and so much more. 

While hustle and grind is the celebrated way of life in the world, the cost of a hustle and grind mindset (even if you pray first or say you’re doing it for Jesus) is simply too great for entrepreneurs in the Kingdom of God. When you look up the definition of grind in the dictionary, it is defined as requiring much exertion and excessive hard (unyielding!) work. When you look up the definition of hustle, it is defined as making strenuous efforts to obtain especially money or business. 

There’s a better way.

Finding Your Rhythm

If you’re tired and worn out (physically, mentally, or emotionally), it means that you’re working primarily in your own strength versus allowing God’s strength to be made perfect in your weakness. Jesus provides you with this offer -- to keep company with Him through your life and work, and He will be your teacher and show you how to work from rest in an unforced rhythm of grace.  

Rhythm comes from the Greek word rhythmos that means measured flow or movement.  If the rhythm is unforced this simply means it is not forced or imposed, but rather it is a natural flow... and since this is God’s grace we’re talking about, it’s a supernatural flow!  If keeping company, or abiding, with Jesus Christ is the prerequisite for learning how to flow supernaturally in your life and business, the next question should be “How do I keep company and abide with Jesus?”

The answer lies in cultivating intimacy with Him and working from the gift of His rest. Here are a few practical ways to begin (or grow in) a lifestyle of abiding:

Give God the first of your workday.

It doesn’t have to be early in the morning. Maybe you go to the gym early in the morning or you have family-related priorities in the morning. However, spending the first 20 minutes to an hour sitting with God before engaging with work for your business is a powerful way to shift your day.  I call these “daily business meetings with God.” It’s a time to seek God’s heart and seek His thoughts concerning the things concerning you. God gives you wisdom generously when you ask (see James 1:5). He gives you revelation on what’s holding you back and why you think the way you think. He will give you clarity regarding the scriptures and how they apply to you. He will give you strategic insight into your work. He’ll share His heart concerning you and the others in your sphere of influence. Business meetings with God are not just about talking, but about intentional listening.

Surrender Your To-Do List OR Create Your To-Do List WITH God.

Make your plans, but yield them to God. Give the Holy Spirit access to shift them and redirect them. There will be times that your standard business activities will need to take a backseat to other priorities for you - the conversation you need to have with a family member or friend, the unanticipated errand you need to make to serve your spouse, the longer-than-scheduled conversation you have with a client who needs encouragement. Having a revelation that God is your Source and that everyone and everything else is a resource is key.  Understanding the truth that God operates outside of time and is the redeemer of time is freeing. Seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness, believing that all things that are needed will be added to you!

Take Intentional Quiet Moments Throughout The Day.

Our brains need a break. Social media isn’t a break. Checking e-mails isn’t a break. Create space in your schedule intentionally to provide yourself with 5-15 minutes breaks that serve as quiet spaces. It increases productivity, replenishes attention, solidifies memories, and encourages creativity -- most notably, it gives you opportunities to connect with God. These intentional quiet spaces keep the conversation with God going throughout your workday, allow you to meditate on His goodness, release what stresses you and exchange it for His peace. It also gives you a moment to seek Him before meetings and ask Him for His agenda so you can align with His heart.  

These are three simple, yet powerful ways to keep company with Jesus as you work in and from his rest. Remember that rest simply is an ongoing awareness of the presence of an unchanging and all-powerful God in your life.  It is not something that you have to strive for; it’s something that you realize and awaken to. The good news: rest resides on the inside of you because you are one with Christ and there’s no distance between you! 

Working by the unforced rhythms of God’s grace helps you avoid making an idol out of hard work and mistaking your identity as being in your work or your achievements versus in Jesus Christ. There’s no need to worship work.  Your life and work can be authentic worship unto Him.

Don't Worship Work

“You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures evermore. ”

— Psalm 16:11

In the Fall of 2021, I couldn’t contain my excitement when I received a speaking invitation from one of the Governor of my state. As an author and teacher/coach, this was like hitting the jackpot. 

Several months earlier, my book, "7 habits of achievers" had just been published and it seemed to be resonating with people. The fact that the governor wanted to discuss how the ideas in this book might shape some of his development strategy was the definition of success (so I thought at the time).

But there was a problem. This meeting was scheduled to happen during a time that I had promised my husband to stay closer to home and focus on a different aspect of our business. Since the beginning of the year , I had traveled for business and personal reasons every month. I needed a break from traveling. 

What was I to do? 

“This was important work… The impact could be great… An opportunity like this may never come again…” These were just a sampling of some of the things I told myself to rationalize breaking my promise.  Ultimately, after some prayer and reflection, and with much reluctance, I decided to explain my schedule to the Governor and ask for an alternative date.

That experience gave me an opportunity to place my commitment to work in its rightful place–below my commitment to God and my family. But I am thankful. What I thought I lost by not compromising my integrity with my family by going on that trip, I gained in faith in my relationship with God and a deeper love for and commitment to my husband. 

Through that experience, God, in many ways, showed me “the path of integrity in remaining committed to my word.”

Your mission or His Mission?

As entrepreneurs–especially faith driven entrepreneurs who want to honor God by solving a problem and serving their customers, employees, and investors–it’s too easy to justify working the extra hour(s), going on one more business trip, or missing yet another Bible study, quiet time, or Sunday service. Our work after all is important to the Lord. 

True. Our work is important. Incredibly important. But not at the expense of our faith or our family. 

In every decision we make, we have an opportunity to advance our mission or God’s Mission. Sometimes the two missions are aligned. For example, when a Biotech expert uses his God-given gifts to start a company that provides a cure for a disease he is honoring God as well as pursuing his passion. In a case like that, both missions align.

But when the work becomes all consuming and he begins to forsake the very things the Lord has entrusted in his care–family, relationships, serving the poor, and so on–then a misalignment has occurred. 

In that circumstance, whose mission will you pursue? Yours or God’s?

When we choose our mission over God’s, regardless of how “good” our mission seems, we are inviting a world of anxiety, stress, and sorrow into our lives. Perhaps no better story illustrates this than that of Mary and Martha in the Bible. 

After Martha opened her home to Jesus, she became preoccupied with the “preparations that had to be made,” while Mary sat at the Lord’s feet and just enjoyed him. When Martha asked Jesus to tell Mary to help her, the Lord replied, “you are worried and upset about many things, but few things are needed—or indeed only one. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.”

As King David reminds us in Psalm 16 about God’s presence, “In your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures evermore.”

In the midst of the ups and downs of life, especially as it relates to building and sustaining a company, the Lord wants nothing more than “fullness of joy” for his children. 

He wants us to work. But he wants us to not worship work. 

As you build your life, commit certain things to the Lord. And when work–or anything else that’s good–tries to take them, remember who you worship.