Archive - November 8, 2013

What comes to mind when you think of rest?

Do warm and fuzzy images of your bed or favorite napping location pop into mind?

God designed our bodies for rest. In fact, rest is so important physically, spiritually, and emotionally that He modeled rest for us.

Genesis 2:2-3 says, By the seventh day God completed His work that He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work that He had done.  God blessed the seventh day and declared it holy, for on it He rested from His work of creation.

Was God tired? Did he have sleepy eyes? No, of course not.

Rest and sleep are not synonyms.

Rest involves taking time to meditate on our actions. We are to rest in God alone and take comfort in His promises.

We are not to neglect rest and become frantic or idolize rest and be lazy.

Rest has a proper place. Rests in music provide dramatic pauses and time for musicians to take a breath. Halftime at soccer matches provide athletes time to recover, strategize, and eat orange slices. What’s a song that’s only rests or a game that’s only halftime?

When was the last time you rested? Not slept. Not napped. But rested? I was told that a private school in town does the same thing at the end of every school day – they take a quiet moment to reflect on their decisions during the day. Wow! We could all take a lesson from these students. How much better would we all reflect Christ if we took several minutes during lunch to reflect on our mornings’ decisions and think ahead to our afternoons.