Healthy living is essential to be all that God wants us to be. We cannot be effective disciples for Christ if we are tired, stressed and worn out. Working in various ministries requires us to have energy and motivation. It is hard to be motivated when you are tired. This is the reason why I am on a healthy living journey. I have just completed two months of healthy eating. I feel so much better than I used to feel. Before I changed how I ate, I felt tired and sluggish all the time. Now I have more energy and feel more alert. The next step in my healthy living journey is to get more sleep. I have found out if I do not get my proper rest, this defeats the purpose of eating healthy. Rest is essential to healing your body. If we do not get enough sleep, it does not matter how healthy we eat our bodies are still compromised.
God created the world in six days and on the seventh day he rested. His word says, “Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.” (Genesis 2:3 NIV) If the creator had to take a break from his work, why do we have a hard time resting from our work? Sometimes, we try to cram so many things to do, in a small amount of time that we end up over extending ourselves. I know this to be true because I do it all the time. I make all kind of plans to accomplish tasks and goals and I usually end up doing only 1 or 2 of them. Most of the time, I know before I even get started that I am not going to be able to complete all the things I need to do. I don’t know about you, but when I leave things undone I feel like a failure. Having too many tasks to accomplish and not enough time to do them can be overwhelming. Therefore, it is better to make small goals and do a couple things at a time, so we do not become overwhelmed.
God wants us to rest. In Matthew 11:28 it says, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” If we find that we cannot find time to rest, we can go to the father and tell him about our problems and he will give us rest. He will help us find creative ways to accomplish our tasks.
We need to understand that we need to take care of our bodies. God’s word says, “Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore, honor God with your bodies.” (1 Corinthians 6:19-20 NIV). We are supposed to honor God with our bodies because his Holy Spirit resides in us. We honor God with our bodies, by eating healthy and getting plenty of rest. We are not our own we are bought we a price. The price is Jesus, who died for the sins of the world.
God wants us to help him build his kingdom. If we are sick and our bodies are tired and worn out; we will not have the energy to tell the world about Jesus and what he done for us on the cross. I encourage each and everyone of you to start eating healthy and get plenty of rest. Now is the time to be intentional about resting from your toils. Take some time today to just sit and meditate about all that God means to you. Take some time to thank God for all that he has done for you. Take some time to rest from all your work.
LSW
Linda Sharp-Williams 