Washington Conference of Seventh-day Adventists

By Doug Bing, Washington Conference president

Have you ever seen a performer who can spin plates?

There on stage they set up their poles all in row. Then they start to spin plates on them. The goal is to see how many plates can be spinning at one time without crashing to the ground. Usually, this performance is done with great flair and rarely do you see a plate come crashing to the ground and shatter into pieces.

Even if you haven’t seen such a performance you may feel like your life is really about how many things you can have going at one time.

We wake up in a hurry. We grab a bite of breakfast or skip it altogether. We race out the door to drop kids off at school, and barely make it to work on time where we have multiple things happening at one time. We then pick the kids up after school and take them to after-school activities, fix dinner, help with homework, and then fall into bed only to wake up and do it all over again.

You wonder at times when you will ever have time to rest. Did you know, however, that taking the time to rest and not worry about the spinning plates will actually help you be better able to face the challenges of our fast-paced world?

Forbes Magazine outlined just a few of the many benefits of rest. Rest reduces stress, and with less stress, your immune system will be much stronger. Rest will boost your creativity and increases your productivity. Rest also enhances decision making.

Each of these areas have been shown to benefit by simply making time to rest.

God knew this about His creation. That is why the Sabbath was created and made into a special day. First and foremost, it was to remind us that we rest in God. The first Sabbath came after God did all the work. The human race certainly hadn’t worked very hard at that point. God had done all the work. Thus, the Sabbath day is a weekly reminder that we rest in Jesus and His completed work on our behalf.

The Sabbath was made for us. Mark 2:27 shares the words of Jesus when He said,

God made the Sabbath day for us to remember to fully rest in Jesus. He also made the Sabbath day for the human race in order to give us all the benefits of physical rest in order to more fully serve Him in our communities day-by-day.

This week take time to rest. During that time practice gratitude, breathe deeply, go for a walk, take a nap, and rest in Jesus.