Be Ye Rested

In a 2015 article, professional athlete trainer Tim Grover (who trained Michael Jordan, the late Kobe Bryant, etc.) said, “It’s not a weakness to recognize your body’s need to recover… It’s not a sign of mental or physical weakness to take days off so your body can heal…”

Health experts say that a lack of sleep can cause balance problems, memory issues, a lack of focus and low energy. For an athlete or a coach, none of these are good. In short, it is essential to rest.

Let’s be straight; God does not need to rest. He is God, after all. But after He finished creating Creation, He rested. Genesis 2:2 says, “On the seventh day God had completed His work that He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work that He had done.” The Hebrew word for rested means: “desist from exertion, cease, to put away or put down.”

Even though He does not need it, God demonstrated the importance of resting from our labor. It’s so important that it was also included in the Ten Commandments.

The 19th-century preacher Charles Spurgeon once said, “God gives us sleep to remind us that we are not Him.” We have limits. He does not.

So, let’s remember to put down the weights or walk off the track from time to time. This allows us to recover physically and mentally and helps us lean on the Lord to bring us back again, refreshed and ready.