"The Importance Of Rest"

My doctor has been stressing the point to me about how important it is for me to get the proper rest I need at night. So important in fact that he wants me to take a small dose of sleeping pills to help me rest at night (which I refuse to do). Dr. L says that while we are sleeping that is when the body sends out signals and the repair agents go in search of areas in the body that needs repairs. Then it begins the process of repairing any damage it finds.

I thought about what my doctor said so I looked up some info online and found the following:

Sleep is essential to the immune system. Without adequate sleep, the immune system becomes weak, and the body becomes more vulnerable to infection and disease. Sleep is also a time of rest and repair to neurons. Neurons are the freeways of the nervous system that carry out both voluntary commands, like moving your arm, and involuntary commands, like breathing and digestive processes. Sleep repairs cellular damage caused by our busy metabolism, and even grows new nerve cells in the brain. Many hormones, substances produced to trigger or regulate particular body functions, are timed to release during sleep or right before sleep. Growth hormones, for example, are released during sleep, vital to growing children but also for restorative processes like muscle repair.

Sleep helps to organize memories, solidify learning, and improve concentration. Proper sleep, especially sleep where you are actively dreaming (REM sleep), regulates mood as well. Lack of sleep can make you irritable and cranky, affecting your emotions, social interaction, and decision making. Sleep deprivation also affects motor skills, enough to be similar to driving while drunk if seriously sleep deprived. Driver fatigue, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, causes over 100,000 accidents and 1500 deaths each year.

After reading this I woke up the next morning and this was on my mind again. Instantly I thought to myself this is so much like the importance of the "REST IN THE LORD". If we do not refill our souls on a daily basis and attend church regularly then we are depriving our spirits of the much needed rest that it needs to survive. Isaiah 28:12 reads; "...This is the rest wherewith ye may cause the weary to rest; and this is the refreshing." When we enter into the house of the Lord or when we are at home, and our spirit is low and our hearts are heavy all we have to do is enter in to His presence and drink from the fountain of Living Waters, refresh our souls and get that rest that we need to heal our weary land.

Jesus said in Matthew 11:28; "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest". This is how we survive. This is how we repair our spirits when things from the world attach themselves to us and try to drag us down and pull us under. We go to Him and He will heal us by giving us the rest that we need for our soul. He will go in and make the necessary repairs to our spirits that we need in order to survive.

There are signs that one may be suffering from sleep deprivation. Some of these signs could also be used as signs of not enough spiritual rest as well. For instance:

a) increased clumsiness

Now is not the time to become clumsy in serving God. Hebrews 10:25 says; "Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching." We need to attend the house of God.

b) difficulty making the right decisions

We need to hear the Word of God to help us make the right decisions, Romans 10: 17; "So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God."

c) feeling especially moody or irritated

The Word of God will also help us have the right spirit and attitude and we won't be so moody and irritated. Let's portray The Beatitudes found in Matthew 5:1-12

D) Sleep deprivation can be dangerous not only to you but others around you

Let's not be sleep deprived spiritually. Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us."

Scientific American provides a detailed description of brain activity during the stages of sleep and wakefulness. The sleep stages and brain activity are:

Stage 1 (Drowsiness) - It last about five or ten minutes. Eyes move slowly under the eyelids, muscle activity slows down, and you are easily awakened.

Stage 2 (Light Sleep) - Eye movements stop, heart rate slows, and body temperature decreases.

Stages 3 & 4 (Deep Sleep) - You’re difficult to awaken, and if you are awakened, you do not adjust immediately and often feel groggy and disoriented for several minutes. Deep sleep allows the brain to go on a little vacation needed to restore the energy we expend during our waking hours. Blood flow decreases to the brain in this stage, and redirects itself towards the muscles, restoring physical energy. Research also shows that immune functions increase during deep sleep.

REM sleep (Dream Sleep) – At about 70 to 90 minutes into your sleep cycle, you enter REM sleep. You usually have three to five REM episodes per night. This stage is associated with processing emotions, retaining memories and relieving stress. Breathing is rapid, irregular and shallow, the heart rate increases, blood pressure rises.

There are stages of rest in the spirit as well.

Stage 1) You come into His presence and you just sit there. You don't praise or worship. You just soak up the splash over of the blessings of what others receive from their praises and worship.

Stage 2) You praise Him a little, sing, but you don't put your whole heart into it, just enough to feel Him but don't over indulge.

Stage 3 & 4) You come into His presence with praise and Thanksgiving. You start out with praise. You give it your all. You sing, shout, dance, or cry tears of joy before the Lord. But before long you are WORSHIPING Him with everything you've got. You are in DEEP. Then before you know it, in comes the refreshing and the REST that you need.

Let's enter into his courts with praise and into his gates with thanksgiving. Let us get that refreshing that we need to go on. It's time to enter into His presence and bask in the beauty of the Rest that only He can give. When your spirit is refreshed in the Lord then you will find that your mind will also be at peace, your body will find rest, and your soul will find joy.