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The Health Principle of REST

     After a hard day at work, what can be sweeter than to rest your head on a soft pillow and sleep?  When we sleep, the activity of our body changes gears.  Certain areas of our brain switch off, while other areas turn on and re-organize the information gathered.  Instead of providing energy for work, the body systems are repairing any damage done during the day, as well as replenishing the energy used and rejuvenating the system. Nature will restore our vigor and strength while we sleep if her laws are not violated.  We cannot cheat on sleep for very long without sacrificing our health.

     Those who work hard to accomplish just so much work in a given time, and then continue to labor when their judgment tells them they should rest, are never gainers. They are living on borrowed capital. They are expending the energy which they will need at a future time. And when the energy they have so recklessly used, is demanded in some emergency, their body will fail to provide it.  Those who continue to overtax their bodies will find that they lose much more than they gain, for their energies are exhausted, and they labor on nervous excitement. They may not realize any immediate injury, but they are surely undermining their constitution. It would be best to go to bed between 9 - 10 pm, because every hour of sleep gained before midnight is worth two hours of sleep after.
     Just as physical rest is necessary to be healthy, and without it we would soon die, so spiritual rest is just as essential for our well-being, and without it we will just as surely die – but an eternal death.  Only God alone can provide us this spiritual rest.
     Our Saviour's words, "Come unto Me...and I will give you rest" (Matthew 11:28), are a prescription for the healing of physical, mental, and spiritual ills. Though men have brought suffering upon themselves by their own wrongdoing, He regards them with pity. In Him they may find help. He will do great things for those who trust in Him.
     Although for many ages sin has been strengthening its hold on the human race, although through falsehood and artifice Satan has cast the black shadow of his interpretation upon the word of God, and has caused men to doubt His goodness; yet the Father's mercy and love have not ceased to flow earthward in rich currents. If human beings would open the windows of the soul heavenward, in appreciation of the divine gifts, a flood of healing virtue would pour in.
     True spiritual rest, is a rest from the guilt pressed upon us by our sins.  It is through Jesus Christ that you can be set free from this pressing guilt and escape the bondage of sin.
     “Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?...For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Romans 6:16, 23.

     As God rested the seventh day after creating this world (see Genesis 2:2-3), so the same seventh day Sabbath is a weekly reminder for us today that Jesus is our Creator, as well as our Redeemer and Saviour from sin.  Especially on the holy Sabbath hours, Jesus personally invites you to separate yourself from all earthly activities and cares so that you might enter into this special rest with Him.
     “For he (God) spake in a certain place of the seventh day on this wise, And God did rest the seventh day from all his works....There remaineth therefore a rest (Sabbath) to the people of God.  For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his.  Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief.” Hebrews 4:4, 9-11.