In my desire to get this message across I’ve spent the past few minutes trying to concoct a clever slant. Some greasy play on words or curiosity inducing enticement to continue reading.

I don’t have one.

The message will stand or fall on it’s own merits. It’s one that has significant implications. 

I want to take a little time to talk Hamster wheels.

I was certainly in Hamster mode for many years. Spinning plates, scurrying between projects, hustling in life and hassling in prayer. Little surprise I burned out and came crashing back to the arms of the Father looking for a better way.

The thing is, when the wheel is spinning, life and time take on a life of their own. Jumping off takes courage, and may well leave you with a few bruises when you leap into the unknown, wondering who you are and why you are here.

“Martha, Martha” is the refrain many of us might hear if we took a moment to stop the madness, and incline our ear.

Martha was “cumbered with many things, distracted with much serving, anxious, and troubled” the Bible says. 

All the while “only one (or but a few things) were necessary.” (Luke 10:41).

Only One or But A Few

One of the greatest questions you can ask the Lord is, “What is my one, or but a few, things?”

The thing is, the answer may mean laying down or cutting off some of the “many things” that currently keep you scurrying. That takes courage. The busyness sometimes becomes our identity. Our security is derived from the many things we occupy ourselves with.

There’s a fear that stopping will not only break the cycle and frantic momentum we have steamed up, but that it will break us. 

Scripture speaks to this cultural disease in Matthew 11.

“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.” Matthew 11:29 MESSAGE

Walking In Pace With Grace

In my conversation with the Holy Ghost this morning we spoke about pace. Walking in pace with the prince of Peace. 

I asked Him about His pace. 

He is the pace maker. Hearing is His heartbeat. 

The unforced rhythm you are looking for can be described best in the original picture of man and his Maker.

Two friends walking and talking together in the cool of the day.

“And they heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day…” Genesis 3:8

Walking, listening, talking.

It’s hard to hear on the hamster wheel. 

Take courage and take the leap.

What of the many do you need to jettison, and what of the few do you need to focus on? 

Let faith lead your forward as you embrace the pace, and believe in the good providence of God for your journey.

Jumping Off The Hamster Wheel Into Unforced Rhythms of Grace

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00:00:03.690]
You know, about a week ago, the Holy Ghost spoke to me and he actually asked me a question. Generally, it’s the other way around. But this particular day, the Holy Spirit asked me a question. Usually I’m asking him, Lord, what should I do or what’s the next step? But he asked me that question. He said, David, what’s the next step? What do you need to do next? Write it down. What is it that you need to do?

00:00:31.960]
And I write down four things. There were four things. And the interesting thing was I didn’t need to think about it. I didn’t need to try and figure it out. I didn’t need to wrack my brains or fast for 10 weeks or pray for three hours or whatever else it may be. Because generally we do know on the inside what we need to do. There’s there’s you know, I don’t want to call it intuition because I don’t necessarily believe it’s just simply intuition.

00:01:04.860]
I believe that God has placed a plan and a purpose within us is put a blueprint and imprinted his desire and his design on each one of us. And, you know, when we allow ourselves to walk in trust and walk in rest, we know what that is. It’s it’s not difficult for us to grasp. And he told me to do four things now that there are a few of those things. Two of those things, one of them was to start going live like this.

00:01:42.030]
The other was to start a podcast. One of them I was actually already doing was to write every day as a writer. That kind of comes as part of the part of the kind of lifestyle of of someone who makes their living from their words. And and the fourth one was business related. So I won’t go into that. But I want to just want to share a couple of things today while we’re together about, number one, being prompt to act like being prompt to act on what you believe the Holy Spirit is saying to you and what he wants to do in your life.

00:02:27.960]
You know, sometimes we can allow procrastination or self-doubt or second guessing or being double minded to talk us out. We talk ourself out of the very things that God has spoken to us and asked us to do. And I found that kind of it’s a bit like, you know, and I’m not very good at this. I’m a bit of a wimp, to be honest, when it comes to this. But, you know, if you’ve got to go into the sea, you’re going for a swim in the sea.

00:02:59.850]
Now, it may be different if you’re in Florida or down on Cocoa Beach or somewhere like very nice and warm if you’re out there in the lake, sunny Australia. But here in the UK, even in the height of summer, go, go join into the sea is like wading into an ice bath. And, you know, you can you can do it like bit by bit. Like real slow. Yeah. And it’s excruciating. I’ve got to admit that I’m one of those kind of wimpy guys.

00:03:34.950]
It kind of kind of tiptoes into the water hoping that, like, by some miracle of God, it’s going to warm up. Like the longer I kind of procrastinate, just rolling in and jumping in. And, you know, I like quite seriously the easiest way. The quickest way, mister. Just roll in there and just dive straight in. Let’s face it. You know, like get get it over with, get your feet wet, get you, get your hair done and just go for it.

00:04:07.620]
I think it’s the same for us when the Holy Spirit tells us to do something, when the Holy Spirit encourages us to take action, sometimes it’s good just to step out and take that imperfect action, even though we feel ill equipped or unready for it. The very fact that he’s spoken, it instils a confidence and a faith and a grace that at least we can kind of get started. So here I am. I can’t remember exactly what day it was.

00:04:43.230]
It must have been it must have been a couple of, you know, maybe a couple of weeks ago or something. Well, I now have been consistently doing these lives for like over a week. And I’ve actually now got a podcast with about seven. Well. Today will be the seventh episode, and it just went live on Apple, Apple podcasts or whatever they call that stuff and, you know, say a prompt to act is what I’m trying to say.

00:05:18.600]
Do you mean they’re like, don’t hold back, don’t second guess yourself, move in and let God take a hold of the things that he is taking a hold of you for? Yeah. Just move into it and let your heart and let your hand just go forward and move forward with what you believe the Holy Spirit is saying. But, you know, I also want to just talk quickly about jumping off the hamster wheel. I’m sure we’ve all experienced this.

00:05:55.920]
I mean, we live in a culture that almost idolises manic activity, you know, it’s it’s like that we’ve heard that, you know, you can sometimes wear where your business as a badge of honour. You know, like you meet someone and you’re like, how are you? And, you know, instead of actually explaining or saying or honestly expressing how we are, it seems that the expression I’m busy is enough to kind of pacify someone’s interest.

00:06:32.670]
Oh, yes. How are you? I’m busy, you know. Well, busy is not really a great accolade to be carrying, especially not if you’re carrying it over a long period of time. You know, sometimes we can be on the hamster wheel and we can be busy doing a lot of things. We can be very active doing a lot of things, but we can actually be accomplishing or moving forward very, very meagrely. You know, we can we can be very active, but not really making progress.

00:07:09.800]
I want to talk just briefly about kind of trying to jump off that hamster wheel. And it’s it’s kind of it can be quite frightening when you when you actually give thought and time and consideration to ask the question, why am I doing what I’m doing? Why am I going at the pace that I’m going? Several years ago, the Holy Ghost spoke to me. And, you know, there’s a there’s a story that most of us will be very familiar with in the scriptures where Jesus goes to his friend’s house and there’s two sisters, Mary and Martha and their brother, and Martha is freaking out.

00:07:53.760]
Okay, so like here comes Jesus with his entourage of followers, his disciples. And Martha’s freaking out, like trying to get everything ready, trying to serve these people. And Mary, God bless her, just sits sits down and does nothing. Just sat there listening to Jesus. Now, I’ve got to admit, I would probably I would probably feel like Martha, you know, I would probably be like, look, sweetheart, get off your butt, get in the kitchen and help me.

00:08:27.090]
We’re feeding like 25 people here. But but and she she kind of challenges Jesus and says, look, will you tell my sister to help me out? Jesus says to a Martha, Martha. And you can almost hear the affection in his voice. And and and I’m sure I’m sure back then when he spoke to me and began and opened this conversation up with me. And it is an ongoing conversation. You know, I was just thinking and pondering and writing about it just two days ago.

00:08:59.970]
And I’m sure he would have said, David, David, you are come. But with many things like, you know, we can become very we can become very active. We can become very. We can become engaged in so many things, we can spin so many plates, you know, and in all of the madness, we fail to sometimes just stop and think, why am I doing this? Why am I living at this pace? Why am I living this way?

00:09:35.750]
Sometimes were forced to stop. And that’s an unfortunate situation because I don’t believe that the Holy Ghost ever wants us to be in a position where we’re incapacitated in order for us to slow down. I believe that he wants us to live at a in in a pace that is in keeping with his grace and say, says, man, Martha, Martha, why are you so overwhelmed with everything? Why are you so busy with everything he says? He said that she was combined with many things, distracted with much serving, anxious and troubled.

00:10:14.720]
And that then describes how many of us live our lives anxious, troubled, distracted. And here the interesting thing here is she was distracted with much serving. It wasn’t like she was distracted with just faffing around doing useless things. She was actually serving people, seeking to help people. But Jesus said, hey, there’s a time for that. He wasn’t telling her like, sit down and play Kumbayah until I kind of come back in glory. He you know, it’s very much like there’s a time for everything.

00:10:54.620]
There’s a time to rest and there’s a time to sit and hear and listen to Jesus and there is a time to act. I’m a believer in taking action, but when the. But but if I lifestyle and if I hold kind of way of life and our mode of operation is busyness and anxiety and frenetic activity, it’s very much like being on that hamster wheel just like every day, like, oh, like here I am doing awesome things for everyone.

00:11:31.040]
Here I am doing this and doing that and spinning this plate and spinning the other. And Jesus said to her, Martha, you know, there’s only one or but a few things that are necessary. There’s only one or but a few things that are necessary. And I guess I want to ask the question and I’m asking myself this question on a regular basis. Lord, what am I what is my one? Oh, but a few things. What is my one or but a few things.

00:12:06.590]
And as we as we hear from him, he will bring us and usher us into a place. Let me share this scripture with you. This is such a great scripture. This is actually from the message Bible. It’s a great translation. It’s not my favourite. I wouldn’t even really call it a translation. It’s it’s like a paraphrase kind of a modern take on on the the the scriptures. But nevertheless, you know, it does have some.

00:12:37.630]
It does have some interpretations of certain portions of scripture that can kind of jolt you out of your familiarity and help you kind of reframe some things that you think about it in a deeper way. It kind of just jolts us out of that rut of, oh, yes, I’ve heard that before, or that’s my favourite scripture or that’s that’s in my promise box or on my devotional chart. You know, it’s like you suddenly suddenly our eyes and our heart are awakened to like, oh, wow, God is actually wanting to speak to me through this.

00:13:12.220]
And this scripture in Matthew 11, verse 29, is just such a beautiful it’s it’s one that, like just is like just a real flower in this particular translation. And elsewhere, you know, Jesus says, you know, take my yoke upon you. My burden is easy. Might get my yoke is easy, my burden is light, et cetera, et cetera. In the message translation, it says, Walk with me and work with me to watch how I do it.

00:13:41.500]
Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t let anything heavy or ill fitting on you. And just yesterday, in kind of engaging really in what what for me is an ongoing conversation. And I said, Lord, I really want to walk in peace with you. I could feel I had like one of those days yesterday. You think, oh, bless God bless my my dear, wonderful wife. And you know, that’s in the King James version.

00:14:22.270]
There is a grace that the Holy Spirit places on some people called longsuffering. It’s one of the fruits of the spirit. And I think it’s one of the fruits that my wife has had to learn in abundance in her 21, 22 years married to me and to say I am and I’m talking to the Holy Ghost. And it was like it was like just had this day of my computer broke down and the UPS couldn’t collect it to take it to be fixed.

00:14:55.030]
And it’s going to take ten days to be fixed and or more because of coronavirus, etc., etc.. And then I’ve got another little computer that I use with my virtual assistant and she logs into that computer when when she because I’ve got some Mac only stuff that I needed to do. So she kind of comes in virtually on this little Mac mini and that stopped working. And I oh, it was just like one of those days. I mean, honestly, by the end of the day, I was I mean, I’ve not got that much really.

00:15:29.920]
I like to keep my hair short, but if it had been longer, I would have probably pulled it out. It was just one of those days. I certainly was not walking in the unforced rhythms of grace. And the funny thing is only that very morning. I mean, is this not the way sometimes things work? I’d been asking him about his pace and saying, Lord, I want to walk in pace with the Prince of peace. I don’t want to walk in this kind of like, oh, I’ve got to get this done and I’ve got to get that done and I’ve got to do this and I’ve got to do that and I’ve got to be something and be someone and whatever else it may be.

00:16:12.430]
I wanted to just kind of jump off that hamster wheel. And, you know, I remember in when I was a kid. There was a park like a green park, trees like a playground for kids and stuff. There was a park over the road from my grandma and there was this like completely dangerous, like contraption called a witch’s hat. Yeah, can you believe it? It was like a big pole. And then there was like poles down like this, like in a cone.

00:16:50.100]
And like kids would stand on the on this this kind of cone and then someone would run round and spin it round. And I mean, the thing would go absolutely ballistic. I mean, it was so dangerous and like kids getting thrown off and like it was it was it would not be allowed today. You know, it was definitely fun, but it would definitely it would certainly would not be allowed in any park today. It was like a health hazard and a jumping off that or, you know, jumping off a hamster wheel sometimes takes courage, jumping off something that is spinning, something that is moving at a great speed.

00:17:35.480]
Takes courage. It’s not easy to do, it’s not something that you necessarily relish. But sometimes our lives can be like that. Sometimes we can be running so hard. Sometimes we can be working so hard. Sometimes we can be adjusted to seeking to keep things moving and and keep the momentum going to the point where, you know, that that wheel is going round so quickly that we know, man, if I jump off this thing, I’m going to hurt myself.

00:18:07.730]
And the truth is, you know, when when we when we choose to make. Radical decisions when we choose to make quality decisions, generally, that word of the whole word decision, it’s the decision that takes place. Something is scissored off. Something has to go. Some things have to be left behind for us to enter in to what the scriptures here call the unforced rhythms of grace. And I asked him, Lord, what is your pace?

00:18:48.650]
And he said, I’m the day. This is these are his words. He said, I am the peacemaker. And hearing is my heartbeat. And the unforced rhythm rhythm that you’re looking for, I think is best described in the very first picture of mankind in the garden with the Lord in Genesis three, verse eight, it says, and they heard the voice of the Lord walking in the garden in the cool of the day. They heard the voice of the Lord walking in the garden in the cool of the day, walking.

00:19:30.860]
Listening, hearing his voice and talking with him in the cool of the day now I like cool of the day here in England right now is like freezing over the day. It’s like but here we’ve got, like, this beautiful, awesome. Gorgeous, warm, balmy atmosphere of the Garden of Eden and mankind walking in step with his creator, I’m sure they I’m sure they will not power walking, OK? I’m sure that they were not like that.

00:20:14.750]
Like they got their little tight pants on and through the garden. No, they were walking at a pace that allowed them to converse. They were walking at a pace that allowed them to connect. And I believe that that is the pace. That God wants to bring us into, I believe that that is the pace that will call to walk in, you know, and really the question sometimes that we need to ask is one of the many things, you know, you are encumbered with many things.

00:20:54.430]
This is what Jesus said to Martha. You’re overwhelmed. You’re you’re distracted with so much serving. One of the many things do we need to jettison. And one of the few things the one about a few things do we need to focus on. And I pray my prayer today really is I’m praying for myself as you’re really in all honesty. And my prayer is that we would let faith lead us forward as we embrace the place of God and believe for his good providence.

00:21:34.340]
As we journey with him. So God bless you, have a great day, pray that you embrace the pace. I pray that you would just muster the courage to jump off that witch’s hat, jump off that hamster wheel and really ask the Holy Ghost Lord. How can I learn to walk with you and work with you, Lord? How can I learn to open open the eyes of my heart and watch how you do business, how you do marriage, how you do family, how you do society, how you do whatever else it is you may be involved in.

00:22:25.390]
Watch and learn from the master and Lord. How do I enter in to those wonderful and forced rhythms of grace today in the name of Jesus? Father, I just want to thank you so much for your Amazing Grace. Hey, man, have a great day, everyone. Well, thanks for listening. Hopefully it’s been an encouragement to you today. If you want to connect any further, you can do so through my website at Davidleemartin.com.

00:23:04.090]
Have a great day.