Rest

Who here likes some down time? Time to rest and relax a bit? Maybe a nice Sunday afternoon nap?

Did you know that we obey God when we rest? And I don’t mean a climbing into bed at the end of a long day, kind of rest.

God tells us to rest, it’s a commandment.

“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it Holy. Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you or your son, or your daughter, your servants, livestock or the traveler.” Exodus 20:8

God tells us to show Him we love Him, and that is by keeping His commandments.

“If you love me, you will keep my commandments.“ John 14:15.

But we get busy, don’t we? Rest doesn’t seem to be a priority anymore in our modern day lives. We pack our schedules so full and run, run, run. From work, to activities, to church, to sports, …all kinds of extracurricular stuff. The problem is, it’s all good stuff. So we think it’s good for us. Right?

But rest is also so good for us.

God was the first to set an example of rest for us. He created the world in 6 days and on the 7th He rested.

“And on the seventh day God finished His work that He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work that He had done. So God blessed the seventh day and made it Holy, because on it God rested from all His work that He had done in creation.” Genesis 2:2-3

Did you know that one of our first assignments was to rest? People were created on the 6th day. And our first job was to rest with God on the seventh day. I think that makes rest pretty important.

Here’s why rest is so good for us.

Rest gives our bodies the opportunity to re-energize and build strength. God designed our bodies to need sleep and rest. When you become too busy and you don’t give your body rest, (like if you stay up too late, or run from activity to activity) you become exhausted and sometimes all this running can make us sick.

Not only do our bodies need rest, our brains also need rest. Our body and mind work together and when busyness takes over, it can also make our minds tired. Just like our body gets tired, our minds get tired too. And if that happens, we might have some emotional symptoms like stress, anxiety, and guilt. So, if we don’t rest our brains sometimes those symptoms may become severe.

And when when one part of our health is off, it affects our entire body. If we don’t eat right, it can affect our mind and body. If we don’t exercise, it also can affect our mind and body. If we don’t rest guess what it affects? Yep, our mind and body.

So how do you rest? Well, we need to make time for it. Most of us don’t think about it this, but we need to schedule it in. We need to be disciplined in making sure that rest becomes a part of our life. It’s time to make rest a priority, and if it’s not, it needs to be. Remember… it’s a commandment, God calls us to rest!

You can set a part an entire day each week aside for rest, like on a Sunday, or maybe schedule an hour each day to rest. Schedule it in or even put it on the calendar. Once you pick out how and when to do it, purposely practice it.

There are different ways to purposefully rest besides a good night sleep…

• We need rest for our physical body, where we can take a nap, lay down, or just sit and breathe.

• We need mental rest where we let our brain be still. Unplug from our devices and day dream. If you’re working hard on a project or something important, stop working on it for a moment to let your brain take a break.

• We need rest from all the running we do. This is why vacations are great. They help us get away from the busy of life. But it’s important to schedule rest in a vacation (many times we schedule so many busy things to do on vacation that we need a vacation from our vacation).

• We also need the rest only our savior can give us and that is the best kind of rest! Spending time with God is a powerful way to rest. He is the One who brings light into our lives. Read His Word, pray, or just sit and think about Him.

And when we rest… we are rejuvenated and ready to go out into the word and Shine so bright.

Blooming Challenge: Make rest an important part of your life… then go shine like no-body else’s business.

Encouraged reading

Matthew 5:14-16

Exodus 20:8

John 14:15

Exodus 2:2-3