Rest Day

Rest and recovery days are crucial for athletes. Rest days allow the body’s muscles to recover and repair. This, in return, builds strength but also prevents overtraining. Constant working or training without an athlete resting or recovering can lead to their body being unable to repair itself.

It would be fair to say that rest days are just as important as training days. An athlete needs both to be good at their sport.

Rest days aren’t just important for our sport but also for our faith. God calls us to work hard and do good works. He loves when we do well in our sport, our grades and other areas of our personal lives, but He rejoices and adores when we do good for His Kingdom. He loves when we obey His commands and love Him and our neighbors. God doesn’t only call us to work but also to rest.

We often forget that rest is biblical. It is something God wants us to do and commands us to do. Sometimes, it’s hard for us as athletes to understand the importance of rest because we love to work hard, practice hard, play hard and compete hard. We love to be 100 percent in our sport.

As Christians, we also love serving, going and doing stuff for Christ, our friends, our team and others around us. But we cannot forget to rest.

When we look at Scripture, we see that God rested on the seventh day, Jesus slept in boats, and Jesus told His disciples to rest even in the middle of a busy season. But it isn’t just physical rest. God tells us to draw near to Him and for all who are weary to find rest in Him.

In our faith, sleep is important, and so is spiritual rest. God needs us to be physically rested so we can be ready to be used by Him and serve others. When we read the Word and pray, we find spiritual rest. If we don’t stop and surrender the busy seasons of our lives to God and find rest, we will hurt ourselves and possibly others around us.

Let us seek physical and spiritual rest in God, who cares for us.