BY GREG CRUM

“There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God. For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his.” Hebrews 4:9-10

How’s the quality of your sleep been lately? Have you been getting the rest your body and mind require to function at their peak during the day? Odd question coming from a pastor, huh? It’s definitely a question you’d be more accustomed to hearing from your personal physician, but one that has more spiritual implications than many realize. Rest is an important component of God’s wellness plan for mankind, so much so that He declared a day of rest for us all from the beginning of our time!

The last several weeks we have written of the importance of spiritual fitness. While all of us have heard of physical fitness, not many Christians today have a good understanding of the need for spiritual fitness in their lives. We just amble through life, thinking that if we are “born again” everything else will take care of itself.

Well, being “born again” is the most important step toward anyone’s spiritual fitness, but there is so much more for us to do to get and maintain our spiritual health once we do get “saved.” There’s an understanding we must possess concerning the importance of spiritual fitness and our responsibility to the Lord in this matter, and then there’s the everyday work involved in getting and staying fit in spirit. 

What work is involved in spiritual fitness? As we’ve discussed these past four weeks, there’s some healthy eating, exercise, and rest that go into our spiritual wellness. Of course, what we eat, the type of exercise we do, and the rest required are quite different from that which we know of in the natural, though the parallel is there to help us understand what is required of us.