Manna Monday | rest as obedience

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Alright. This week, I have the opportunity to share with you guys what God has been teaching me in my life and what I've been meditating on as I transition to this new stage of my life. I just graduated from chiropractic school, and I'm starting at the Real Health Company in Knoxville, Tennessee. And God's really been placing something on my heart as I'm leaving school and starting my career. So throughout my life, I've always been more ambitious, and I've always had a go go go personality, fully just trying to achieve the next thing and never really taking time to reflect and meditate on how God has blessed me over the years and, where He's kinda led me.

I gain energy whenever I am creating something or if I accomplish a goal that I've set out for myself. However, I rarely ever take the time to rest. And one thing that I've always struggled with is whenever I rest or whenever I am taking a day off, I feel like I'm being lazy. I feel like I'm wasting my time, and I feel like I'm letting down the people who believe in me, support me, or rely on me. So I'm here this week to remind you and encourage you and myself to shift our mindset from believing that rest is laziness and start seeing rest as obedience because that's what it is and that's what scripture tells us it is.

Rest is demonstrated many times throughout the Bible. The verse in the entire Bible, Genesis 2:2, it says that on the day, whenever God finished His work, He rested. So the omnipotent, all powerful, never tired God rested. Did He need rest? Of course not.

But He still separated his work, and He set the rhythm for the world by pausing and taking rest. Even Jesus, whenever He was on this Earth, He demonstrated to the apostles the need to rest. In Mark chapter six, one of my favorite chapters, the apostles, they came to Jesus and He said, "come away by yourself and rest for a while." Even in the midst of their ministry, whenever they're out, seeing miracles take place, they're leading people to Jesus. Jesus even encouraged them to take rest for their own self because even while you're out doing your work and you're accomplishing what God has set for you, Jesus reminded the apostles of the importance of rest and restoration for their own souls.

So resting, it's hardwired into our entire world. The daily rhythms that God put in place, the sun rising, the sun setting, and even rest is hardwired into our physiology. For example, one lesson I had to learn pretty I learned it pretty late into my health and fitness journey. You know, I started lifting probably around 13, 14, and I didn't really understand or grasp the concept of this until, honestly, college, like my early twenties. When it comes to strength training and making progress in the gym, rest is one of the most important aspects of that.

I learned that rest and recovery, it's equally important, if not more important, because, you know, whenever we're lifting weights, right, we're breaking down muscle fiber. We're- and if we never give our muscles time to rest from that stimulus, the muscle fibers will eventually begin to atrophy and they become weaker and they lead to inner injuries. So if you're not resting, you're not gonna grow. So the same is true for our personal and spiritual lives. Right?

If we do not take time to rest and if we do not take time to observe the Sabbath and recharge our minds and spirits, then eventually, we'll begin to break down from overwork, anxiety, exhaustion. Being overly productive and not taking time to reflect and rest can lead to us not setting our eyes on God. And ultimately, that can begin wearing down your your mind and your spirit. So in the same way that rest is important for physiologically our, earthly bodies and how we perform in the gym, it's just as important for our spiritual life and our spiritual health. So, ultimately, I'm gonna give you three practical solutions that you can begin to start implementing, into your into your daily life the rhythm that God designed for our lives to heal and restore our mind, our bodies, and our spirits.

Number one, it's so important and our world has slowly moved away from this, but it's so important to set aside a personal Sabbath one day a week. Exodus 2:8-10 says, remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. "Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God, and on it you shall not do any work." So pick one day out of the week to completely rest, spend time in prayer and worship, and let your attention be solely on God and what He has done throughout the previous week. Use this time, this day to to prepare yourself for the week to come as well and gain that restoration for your body and for your soul.

Number two is not only do you need to have one full day throughout the week to observe the Sabbath, but it's also so important to observe the Sabbath throughout every day. So I encourage you to create one hour right before bed, create a wind down hour. So during this time, one hour before bed, right, you're gonna turn off your devices, you're gonna open your Bible, you're gonna read, you're gonna journal, you can stretch, you can meditate, you can pray. Just this simple practice allows your body to just stop. And you can separate from the go go go that you had throughout the entire day.

You can stop and begin your rest. And it reminds your body and your mind that it is okay to slow down. This gives you intentional periods of rest throughout the week that continue to nourish your body and your spirit. Number three, move slowly throughout the week and throughout everything you do. What do I mean by this?

Try to not be in a rush. Right? Whenever you're eating your meals, take time. Eat your meals. Enjoy the food that God has blessed you with.

Whenever we get super in a rush, we start we start trying to accomplish everything way too fast. So just just take time and move slowly throughout throughout your day. You can create a slow morning routine. You can read scripture in the morning. You can sip on your morning coffee, listen to worship music, and not just just try to get that overly high cortisol spike thing in the morning because you're running late or you're you're rushing trying to get somewhere.

So just have a slow morning and allow your body to be in a restful state. This is all about just being truly present throughout your daily lives and and and observing where God's at, what God has planned for you so that you can accomplish His plan for your life. And also just not rushing through the moments of life and just being present through it all. So I pray that you have a blessed week and that you're encouraged by this episode. Throughout this week, meditate on what rest might look like for your life and use it as a way to surrender and show obedience to God.