Please pray that I become like you.And family
saved.The lord lead me to you.
Posted by Curtis Collier on 10/05 at 06:09 PM
God Wants You To Rest
By Pastor Mitch Horton | July 2003 | Posted in • Archives | (1) Comments
Are you taking one day each week to rest from the normal exertions of life? If not, you may be compromising both the quality and length of your life and your usefulness in the kingdom of God!
Recently the Lord has reminded me again of the necessity of rest if I am to enjoy a full life of obedient service to Him! In our culture rest is not considered as an important item on the “to do” list each week! And we happen to live in the busiest generation that has ever lived!
The prophet Daniel mentioned the course of life just before the return of the Messiah in very clear terms: “.Many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall increase” (Daniel 12:4). As to the latter part of the verse, we are told that the information available to us doubles about every year and a half or so. We now MUST decide what we are to focus on in life. There are just too many things available to distract us!
The phrase run to and fro caught my attention some time ago. One of the meanings of this phrase in the Hebrew language is “to lash the sea with oars.” It’s the picture of a person rowing in a boat and pushing himself as hard as he can! And the idea of strenuous activity is certainly in view in our day. We need to remind ourselves that busyness and spiritual effectiveness do not go together! It takes times of getting quiet, of “entering our closet and shutting the door” (see Matt. 6:6) if we are to really enjoy intimacy with God and stay focused spiritually!
Hebrews 4:9-10 mentions the rest that is available to the people of God through the sacrifice of Christ for us! And while the reference is speaking of our ceasing from human works to secure the salvation available by grace, it is also true that the Lord desires that we take a break occasionally to rest ourselves both naturally and spiritually!
Spiritually, rest comes from time spent waiting on God in His presence through prayer and through time spent in the Word (See Isaiah 40:29-31). The daily discipline of getting away from the noise of life and spending time with God is a necessity for those who long to grow and to be effective lights in the darkness that is all around us.
Smith Wigglesworth said, “Pay attention to life’s inflo; outward service will dwindle if inward energies are not renewed.” And A.B. Simpson, the founder of the Christian Missionary and Alliance denomination said, “All physical strength is spiritual in cause.” “He gives power to the tired and worn out, and strength to the weak” (Isaiah 40:29 - Living).
We also need regular natural rest. These clay bodies of ours need not only nightly rest, but its Manufacturer advises one day out of seven is needed for optimum performance and longevity! God rested on the seventh day after creating the world and the fullness thereof in six days (See Genesis 2:2).
The Hebrew word for rested is the word Shabath, where we get the word Sabbath. Its literal meaning is to desist from exertion! God did not need to rest after His job of creating, but He did desist from His exertion as an example for us to follow!
He did command the seventh day as a rest day in the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20:8), and although we are New Testament Christians who have the law fulfilled in Christ Jesus, we are wise to abide by the principle of a regular Sabbath rest.
God also commanded the Israelites to give their land a Sabbath rest every seventh year (Leviticus 25:1-7). Please note that Israel disobeyed this land Sabbath command for 490 years. They did not take 70 of the seventh year Sabbaths as instructed by God. It is interesting to find that because of their disobedient living, they went into Babylonian captivity for 70 years. And the reason they did is so that the land would get the rest that God promised (See 2 Chronicles 36:21)!
Perhaps in a similar way we too go into captivity when we don’t take the rest that God expects us to take. We want the promises of God to work for us on our terms only, and often ignore the Manufacturers suggestions on how the machinery works best! Many of the mental/emotional/and physical problems that we experience could be eliminated if we would only take the prescribed rest!
I’ll leave you with some quotes I put together from C.H. Spurgeon’s book entitled Lectures To My Students. I believe they emphasize the point well.
“The bow cannot be always bent without fear of breaking. Repose is as needful to the mind as sleep to the body… Even the earth must lie fallow and have her Sabbaths, and so must we.Rest time is not waste time. It is economy to gather fresh strength.A little pause prepares the mind for greater service in the good cause.Fisherman must mend their nets, and we must every now and then repair our mental waste and get our machinery in order for future service.To tug the oar from day to day like a galley slave who knows no holidays, suits no mortal man.Millstreams go on forever, but we must have our pauses and intervals.Who can help but be out of breath when the race is continued without intermission.Even beasts of burden must be turned out to grass occasionally; the sea pauses at ebb and flood; earth keeps the Sabbath of wintry months; and a man, when exalted to God’s ambassador, must rest or faint; must trim his lamp or let it burn low; must recruit his vigor or grow prematurely old.It is wisdom to take an occasional furlough. In the long run, we shall sometimes do more by doing less.On, on, on forever may suit our spirits emancipated from this heavy clay, but while we are in this tabernacle, we must every now and then cry halt, and serve the Lord by holy inaction and consecrated leisure.Let no tender conscience doubt the lawfulness of going out of harness for a while, but learn from the experience of others the necessity and duty of taking timely rest.”
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