3 EXERCISES THAT WILL MAKE YOU HEALTHIER, FITTER, AND STRONGER, PART 3 - RESTING, THE ART of SABBATHING

Part 3, Resting – The Art of Sabbathing

In my past two editions of my weekly Pastor’s Desks I have drawn parallels between caring for our physical health and how we should care for our souls (our spiritual, emotional, and mental health). In Part 1, I discussed the benefits of aerobic exercise for our physical health (which increases the demand for oxygen intake) and how this was similar to the spiritual discipline of praying. In Part 2, I had compared the need to maintain a healthy balanced diet for good physical health and how this related to the need for the believer to maintain a healthy spiritual diet from reading, studying, and meditating on God’s Word, the Bible. Now I turn my attention to an oft neglected aspect of our spiritual well-being: resting. As a disclaimer, I am one of the least qualified to discuss this topic—but, embarrassing, any lessons I have learned about the value of rest have come negatively from not resting as I should have and then enduring the inevitable consequences.

It is in vain that you rise up early
and go late to rest,
eating the bread of anxious toil;
for he gives to his beloved sleep.
Psalm 127:2

 

“HAVE YOU BEEN BUSY?”

Being busy is like a badge of honour for many people. It’s not enough to be a mother looking after young children. This mother is expected to be a busy mother looking after young children! Men are trained to regard being busy as a condition of manhood. It becomes their excuse for not getting things done – “I’ve been busy”; and their routine introductory conversation starter, “Been busy?” In fact, it is almost a shameful thing for a man to confess that he hasn’t been busy and almost unthinkable for him to say that he has spent the whole day doing nothing! But perhaps it is because people do not make rest a routine part of their regular week that they are so prone to burn-out? Before we consider the enormous spiritual benefits to resting, I want to overview some of the largely unappreciated benefits of rest, particularly sleep. 

If you lie down, you will not be afraid;
when you lie down, your sleep will be sweet.
Proverbs 3:24

 

THE BENEFITS OF RESTING/SLEEP

Several years ago I collapsed in my office in excruciating pain unable to move my legs. It turned out that a motor-cycle accident that I had had twenty-five years earlier (after a Nissan Patrol had side-swiped me and put me into a coma with a broken shoulder) but had apparently also broken my back – yet had not been diagnosed at that time. After I was eventually able to re-use my legs I went for scans which revealed the true nature of the damage that had caused my collapse. The neurosurgeon said my back was now too far gone to operate, but there were two things I could do to help manage my back health from this point: (i) drink more water and (ii) get more sleep (he also said get more active, take pain killers and rest when it hurts too much). Since then I have tried to do just that. I have also done a bit of research into why sleep is so important to our health — and not just our physical health too! Here are some of the benefits of getting 7 to 8 hours of sleep a night:

• BOOSTS IMMUNE SYSTEM: Sleep is necessary to boost our immune systems to be able to fight off diseases.
• PREVENTS WEIGHT GAIN: Insufficient sleep causes our bodies to produce an appetite increasing hormone (ghrelin) that leads can lead to weight gain.
• DECREASED RISK OF HEART ATTACK: Proper sleep is necessary to reduce the risk of heart attack because our hearts need to rest through sleep and decrease our blood pressure and the amount of cortisol in our blood which places our hearts under stress.
• PRODUCTIVITY INCREASES: A well rested person is a much more productive person.
• IMPROVED MOOD:  A good sleep pattern has a dramatic impact on our emotional well-being.
• INCREASES HEIGHT: When we sleep our spinal discs re-hydrate (if we have actually drunk enough water throughout the day) and we actually wake up a millimetre or two taller at the start of our day.
• DECREASED TRAFFIC RISK: Lack of sleep dramatically increases your risk of a road motor vehicle accident. The person who only gets five hours sleep a night quadruples their chance of crashing!
• SLEEP IMPROVES MEMORY: When we are asleep it is an opportunity for our minds to sort and file information away in the long-term memory of our brains.

We sometimes hear of national Prime Ministers or Presidents that “get by on four hours of sleep a night” and wonder how on earth they could do it. The truth is. They can’t. Not in the long term at least. God has designed us to sleep. Busy people often view sleep as “time wasted”, but the data clearly tells another story. And when we add in the number of times that God spoke to people while they slept (Gen. 15:12-21; 20:3-6; 28:12-15; 31:24; 37:5, 9) we begin to realise that there may be more happening to us while we sleep than we might realise (or happening to other when we pray for them!). 

 

JESUS SAID TO HER, YOU ARE ANXIOUS AND
TROUBLED ABOUT MANY THINGS

The sisters, Mary and Martha appear in two different stories in two different Gospels. In Luke’s Gospel, Dr. Luke tells of when Mary and Martha hosted Jesus for a meal. Mary rested at the feet of Jesus as He sat teaching her while her sister Martha was left carrying the load of hospitality in the kitchen. The problem wasn’t that Martha was serving and Mary wasn’t – the problem was that Martha was distracted by her serving because she had become resentful of her sister Mary who wasn’t serving. Pastor Phil Hills would say over and over again, “We don’t rest from work, we work from rest!” Before we had our larger auditorium we used to hold our pre-service prayer meeting in my office. On my white-board I had “Our service is our worship. Our service enables others to worship.” Martha’s problem was that she did not see her serving as worship of Christ which enabled Mary to worship at the feet of Christ! Jesus saw right into the heart of Martha and exposed her needless anxiety and resentment. Naturally as a Pastor I want people to serve gladly in our church and to do without any sense of resentment that others should be serving more – but I especially want people to serve from rest so that others can rest in worship at the feet of Jesus just like Mary did!

¶ Now as they went on their way, Jesus entered a village.
And a woman named Martha welcomed Him into her house.
And she had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to His teaching.
But Martha was distracted with much serving.
And she went up to Him and said,
“Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her then to help me.”
But the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things,
but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her.”
Luke 10:38-41

 

SABBATH – A DAY OF REST, WORSHIP & THE WORD

It seems that from creation, God established that mankind should rest from his usual labours each seventh day (Gen. 2:3) and reflect on his relationship with God with thanksgiving. In much the same that sleep is seems counter-intuitive to the busy person, the idea of a sabbath (resting each seventh day) also seems counter-intuitive to a busyness person. It may also seem odd that God would even have to incorporate such a thing as a sabbath day into a set of ten primary laws for all former Hebrew slaves who had never previously got any time off before being delivered Egypt! But God actually made it the fourth commandment after:

(i) Have no other gods (Exo. 20:3),

(ii) Do not make or bow down to any carved imaged or anything in the sky above or on the earth or in the sea (Exo. 20:4-5),

(iii) You shall not take the name of the Lord in vain (Exo. 20:7), and

(iv) Remember to keep the Sabbath day holy (Exo. 20:8-11).   

After Israel settled into the Promised Land they soon neglected to keep the Sabbath and God raised up the prophets Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel to call them to repentance to re-establish their obedience in honouring God by observing it. After the Jews returned from their Exile in Babylon and Persia they actually became very legalistic about keeping the Sabbath and even developed some 600 additional sub-laws on how it was to be kept properly! Interestingly, each of the Ten Commandments is repeated in the New Testament as applicable for Christians, except keeping the seventh-day Sabbath. This is because the Old Testament Sabbath not only provided a principle of weekly rest from usual labours and a time to reflect with thanksgiving upon the Creator, it also prophetically pointed to the coming of the Messiah who would redeem lost mankind on cross and bring an end to the “works of the law” (Gal. 2:16; 3:13). The writer to the Hebrews said that to turn to Christ in repentance and faith was to permanently enter into God’s rest and warns those tempted by false teachers to try to earn their salvation by keeping certain rules, such as seventh-day-Sabbaths not to be fooled:

So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, 
for whoever has entered God’s rest has also rested from His works as God did from His.
¶ Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience.
Hebrews 4:9-11

When Jesus rose from the dead on Sunday morning, and then fifty-days later sent the baptising Holy Spirit on the first Pentecost Sunday of the Christian Calendar, tens of thousands of formerly seventh-day Sabbath keeping law-abiding Jews were converted to Christianity and were baptised and switched their Sabbath observance to Sunday not just as a day of rest — but as a weekly day to celebrate their newfound eternal rest!

In our day we too meet each Sunday to do the same! It is an exercise that is good for our physical health, our mental health, our emotional health, and especially our spiritual health!

Your Pastor,

Andrew

Let me know what you think below in the comment section and feel free to share this someone who might benefit from this Pastor’s Desk.

How To Strengthen Others

INCREASE YOUR STRENGTH

¶ We who are strong have an obligation to bear with the failings of the weak, and not to please ourselves. Let each of us please his neighbor for his good, to build him up.
Romans 15:1-2

Ever been weary? I have. Weariness comes in different varieties. There’s physical weariness. There’s emotional weariness. There’s intellectual weariness. And there’s spiritual weariness. I’m pretty sure from personal experience that all four are interconnected. Two football teams can play off in the Grand Final and exert exactly the same amount of physical energy. At the end of the game one of these teams will feel energised while the other team will feel exhausted! Emotional weariness has a bearing on our level of physical strength. Would you like to know how to increase your four-fold strengths quickly and easily?

Awesome is God from his sanctuary; the God of Israel—He is the one who gives power and strength to his people. Blessed be God!
Psalm 68:35

After you’ve been married a while you experience times when you’re down and your spouse is up. Or, put another way: there are times when you’re weak, and your spouse is strong. In a marriage, these roles change back and forth. Strength is imparted between a husband and a wife with words, forgiveness, and a touch. Sometimes these strengthening touches look like your husband or wife taking you by the hand and saying, “Come on. Let’s go for a walk.” But the strengthening power of a word, forgiveness (and acceptance), and a touch don’t just work with husbands and wives to strengthen each other. It can also bring strength between family members, friends, work colleagues, team mates, and church members.

¶ Be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong.
First Corinthians 16:13

SOURCES OF STRENGTH

You could exercise. I probably should exercise more. What do they say? “No pain, no pain!” Or something like that? There is of course a proportional amount of gain to achieved from the pain that comes from the self-discipline of taking the time and effort to exercise. Whenever I see someone who is obviously well toned and quite fit, I have to conclude that they are a highly self-disciplined person. But physical exercise is not the only source of strength.

¶ Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might.
Ephesians 6:10

I watched a documentary on the world’s fittest man, Rich Froning, and was amazed that during a five day fittest tournament he ate pizza and drank soda! Although Rich looks like a body builder, his muscles aren’t for show – they’re for work! Each day during his physical tests of strength and endurance, he would burn the equivalent energy of several large pizzas! As I write this, Kim has just handed me a large chocolate cookie with white choc chips. According to the ABC3 For Kids Operation Ouch Doctors the other night, it takes the equivalent amount of exertion involved in running a marathon to burn off the amount of ‘energy’ found in this delicious cookie which I just devoured. That reminds me, food(if we can stoop to call anything chocolate to be “food”) is also a source of strength. 

Each of the four categories of strength has its equivalent forms of exercise and food. It’s an intellectual exercise to learn a foreign language. It’s intellectual food to be taught by someone else has to speak and read that same foreign language. it’s emotional exercise to keep loving  someone who is being unkind to you, while it is emotionally nourishing to be shown love by someone.  

A STRENGTH THAT COMES FROM GOD

¶ I thank him who has given me strength, Christ Jesus our Lord, because he judged me faithful, appointing me to his service,
First Timothy 1:12

The Scriptures describe and discuss a mysterious strength that comes from God. This insight helps us to see that strength might be prioritised in its interconnected order as-

1. Spiritual > 2. Intellectual > 3. Emotional > 4. Physical

Many people feel tired and run down and immediately assume that the cause is entirely physical. They may go to the gym or their GP for remedies. But sometimes all the gym or a doctor can do is treat the symptoms. The underlying cause goes untreated. Oddly, this became evident to Rich Froning, the world’s fittest man! He bombed out terribly in a fittest tournament that he was expected to win easily and this made him realise a truth he had been avoiding. Rich had worked hard to be able to tick boxes 4, 3, and 2, but realised that his spiritual life was lifeless and that it was having a dramatic effect on his intellectual, emotional, and physical well-being. He sought God and soon found the missing strength he longed for. He wanted to declare to the world his new-found faith in Christ and his commitment to Him. You’ll notice how he did this down his right side –

As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace:  whoever speaks, as one who speaks oracles of God; whoever serves, as one who serves by the strength that God supplies—in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To Him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.
First Peter 4:10-11

If you need strength – and need it quickly – then the above two verses are gold! God gives strength to His people through His people!!!! If you think of God’s strength as being like magnetism. The more a paper-clip of screw-driver hangs out with a magnet, the more likely it is to become magnetised! The more you hang out with strong believers the more their strength is imparted to you! God’s design for His people to fellowship with each other is not just about accountability, it’s about imparting strength to the weary. I think our Enemy knows this. This is why he seeks to isolate believers because by doing this he can cut them off from their means of receiving God’s strength. 

If you’re feeling a bit weary and the Enemy whispers slyly into your soul’s ears that it’s time to have a break from Christian community – HE’S LYING TO YOU! 

Strength from God comes from asking Him for it and most commonly it comes from the strength He places within your Christian brothers and sisters who love you. You should spiritually exercise. You should spiritually eat. But in the meantime, you can spiritually be refreshed by following God’s ordained means for imparting his Grace-Strength to you through the fellowship of believers – especially strong ones. These believers can be identified in a few not so obvious ways. They don’t always look very religious. But they love God. Their love God is like the love that two people in love have. Just as people in love want to spend time with each other, the fully devoted follower of Christ wants to spend time with God. They don’t pray because they should or have to, they pray because it means they can talk with the One they love. They don’t just occasionally read the Bible. They prioritise time in God’s Word each day because it means they can read God’s love letters to them and learn His language. When they are around people they take an interest in them. Almost involuntarily, they find themselves praying for these people. No matter difficulties they are dealing with, they always seem to make you feel like your problems are their greatest concern. When you hang out with people like this, you can’t help but feel stronger yourself! 

And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.
Hebrews 10:24-25

Be strong!

Amen.

Ps. Andrew Corbett