I don’t know about you all, but there are times in my life when things come up, stuff keeps piling on in my life, and usually how I end up making time for everything is by cutting back on sleep.  Usually what happens is I’ll have a week or two where I’m up consistently late, and then I’ll just have a day where I crash at like 7 or 8 at night, and wake up the next morning at 7 or 8 (or if it’s a weekend 10 or 11).  That kind of happened to me yesterday, and it reminded me – yet again – of the importance of sleep.

Have you ever wondered why God made us so that we need sleep every night?  Certainly, His being all powerful, He could have made us without that need. Why does it say that God “rested” on the 7th day of creation?  God doesn’t get “tired” – He is the source of all life.  Why does God institute a sabaath, that we should set aside a day to the Lord?  Shouldn’t every day be a day to the Lord?  God loves us, and his greatest desire is not that we obtain 7.5 hours of sleep every night for it’s own sake or that we meet up together as a church on one day vs. another.  God is serious about this rest though – in Exodus 35:2 you see that God is not messing around –  “Six days work shall be done, but on the seventh day you shall have a Sabbath of solemn rest, holy to the LORD. Whoever does any work on it shall be put to death.”

There you go.  God said it, not me – You will rest or I will kill you!  So what does this mean?  What is the truth God is pointing us to?  Ask yourself this question, what happens when you’re resting?  You’re not working.  Yet, even as you’re not working plants still grow, God is always at work.  Jesus tells us this in Mark 4:26-27 – “And he said, “The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground. He sleeps and rises night and day, and the seed sprouts and grows; he knows not how.”

Paul furthers this teachign in 1 Corinthians 3:4-7 – “For when one says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,” are you not being merely human?  What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each. I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth.”

God wants us to see that our efforts are not what will lead us to life, resting in Him, and the finished work of Jesus on the cross will.  If we continue to try to work our way to God, it will end in death.  In a culture where being “busy” is considered a virtue, this is always going to be a battle.  My exhortation to you is to unburden yourself at least 30 minutes a day, and one full day a week to refresh yourself in this Truth of God.  Know what it means that “His burden is easy and His yoke is light” for all who believe on Jesus.  Go to a park to remind yourself of the greatness of God through His creation, spend time in prayer in His Word, with no purpose other than to be renewed and refreshed by Him, get together with Christian friends and enjoy fellowship over a meal, whatever is helpful.  Remind yourself that just as you were dependent on God to give you physical life and to sustain you each day, you are dependent upon Him to give you Spiritual life and to sustain you; which He has promised and is faithful to do.

Grace and Peace,
Adam