“I went past the field of a sluggard, past the vineyard of someone who has no sense; thorns had come up everywhere, the ground was covered with weeds, and the stone wall was in ruins. I applied my heart to what I observed and learned a lesson from what I saw: A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest— and poverty will come on you like a thief and scarcity like an armed man.” (Proverbs 24:30-34)
Some people tend to be lazy, but others are workaholics’. Either extreme can distort labor all out of proportion; both greed and the desire to escape work are wrong.
Yet rest has been part of God’s design for work from the beginning. After God worked on creation for six days, He stopped work on the seventh. God designed the world with a cycle of work and rest. He intended that the Sabbath would provide rest and refreshment for the workers (Exodus 23:12).
Jesus, who had a great sense of urgency for ministry, took time off (Mark 6:30-32). In fact, busyness can distract us from cultivating an intimate relationship with Christ (Luke 10:38-42).
Leisure must not dominate us, but it must be part of our lives. Rest, used appropriately, works for workers, not against them. A proper balance between labor and rest can make us more efficient than when we constantly work without any rest.
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