Every night, when I go to bed, I can't help thanking God for the gift of rest. After a satisfying and productive, or sometimes, anxious and challenging, day at work, the only thing that looks appealing to me is a good night's rest. Weekends are another thing to thank God for. "Thank God for the Sabbath!" I say, each time I approach a weekend. God, after he created this beautiful world and everything in it, rested on the seventh day. He made it holy and so rest is a sacred gift from God. We must use it but not abuse it. Sufficient rest is using the gift but not doing one's duties at the cost of extended rest periods is abusing the gift.
If physical rest is so important, I wonder how important eternal rest must be. If man cannot go without resting his body, can we even begin to imagine being unable to rest the soul. In Saint Paul's Letter to the Hebrews, we see how the Spirit of God narrates to us about how the anger and wrath of God made Him take an oath that our ancestors would never enter His rest. Can there be an anguish and eternal suffering greater than this?
Our God is a merciful God; slow to anger and abouding in love. Let us follow in His footsteps and not go astray lest we must kindle His wrath and deprive our yearning souls of entering His rest. Let us walk in the ways of the Most High God and keep His commandments and His word. In doing so, we will receive His peace and grace and as the Pslamist says will lie down in peace and sleep, for the Lord alone makes us dwell in safety.
