Main Street Baptist Church

(Wednesday, Aug 20, 2008) Have you ever wondered why God made us so we need to sleep? We could certainly get a lot more done if we never needed rest. I sometimes meet people who only need a few hours of sleep a night and I envy them because they have more time to do things in life. But everyone needs sleep, even though we need different amounts. If I don’t get close to 8 hours a night my daytime effectiveness is greatly affected. But that means I spend 1/3 of my life sleeping and that seems like a waste of time. Still, that’s how God made us. We need sleep for our bodies and minds to renew and rejuvenate. Worn cells are replaces and muscles strengthened while sleeping. An effective form of torture is to keep people awake for long periods of time. Sleep is a very important factor in our overall health (Psalm 127:2). Good sleep makes us healthier, and over-all good health helps us sleep better. To paraphrase Ecclesiastes 3, “there is a time to exercise and a time to sleep.” Both are equally necessary.

So, too, our souls need time to rest and rejuvenate, time to relax and recharge. We need times of fun, times of worship, times of meditation and times of relaxation and refreshment. God made our soul to need times of refreshing. He makes us lie down in green pastures and leads us beside quiet waters (Psalm 23:2). Good health requires not only proper diet and exercise but periods of relaxation and rest as well. That’s where most of us fail. We are too busy. God only gave us seven 24-hour days in a week so He doesn’t expect us to do more than can be done in that time frame. And He certainly doesn’t expect us to neglect our health or rest to do it. If we are too busy to have time to relax and get proper sleep, then we are too busy. So if that is your case, find out what God wants you to do and then drop the rest, no matter how good it is. There really is time for everything when we only do what God wants us to do.