day no. 15,712: 8 out of every 24 and 1 out of every 7

"God planned for normal fatigue when He put the lights out on earth every night. He also set one day aside out of every seven for additional rest." -- Jim Wilson, Weapon and Tactics: A Handbook on Personal Evangelism

Rest is so important to God that He hard-wired it into the regular rhythm of our lives: our days are punctuated by laying ourselves down to rest and our weeks are predicated upon an entire day of rest. We rest seven to eight hours a day and one full day out of seven.

Rest is a rhythm given to us by God to teach us how much we need Him, how much we rely on Him, and how quickly we deplete whatever resources we have. We cannot hoard strength. We must use it daily and be refreshed nightly. We must spend it weekly and recover it on the Sabbath. We were meant to be spent and we were meant to seek rest.

Rest is not doing nothing, it is doing something. It is not simply passive, it is active. Rest is not something you reluctantly do once everything else is done. It is something you do on purpose in order to prepare to do other things.

Rest is intentional care that prepares us for our day's and week's worth of good works that God has prepared for us beforehand to do in Christ. We are His workmanship, created to work by a Worker who gives us the night to recharge and the Sabbath to refresh.

So, get some rest; and get to work!