Today we unlock productivity secrets through strategic rest!
When you’re driven to succeed…why does rest matter?
Rest allows your mind, spirit, body to recharge
Just like a battery for a power tool. You have to set it on the charger and walk away for it to fully recharge.. we can’t be using the battering while plugging it in and hope it charges up faster…no.
I have been struggling to recharge and find a time of strategic rest.
Let’s talk about the benefits of adding intentional rest periods into our routines to enhance productivity and overall well-being.
Traditional Sabbath, kept by Jewish people is from sundown Friday until Saturday sundown. For most Christians, it is Sunday.
Sabbath, a day of rest, was designed by God – Genesis 1
However it was in Exodus 20:8-11 that God says to keep this Sabbath day and keep it holy. “Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the 7th day is the day of the Sabbath of the Lord your God, in it you shall do no work, for in six days the Lord made heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day.”
From that day forward there are feast, days, holy days, etc that call for fasting, cleansing of spiritual and physical junk and physical space.
Jesus continued and encouraged the same honor and respect of the holy day of rest.
Rest is intended to first draw a person closer in appreciation and honor to God…by reading his word, worship, sleeping, fasting, etc.
Then time with family to connect, fellowship, enjoy each other.
- Rest restores your energy
- Rest refreshes your body, mind and spirit
- It allows us to slow down, pause – reflect or not
- It allows you to be idle, do nothing and find an ease of the day to which your brain does not have to problem solve or body to labor.
- There should be an ease about the day. Peacefulness
- The favor of God brings rest as he takes care of the details and we get to enjoy the benefits of God.
Rest enhances productivity. Productivity is being able to do things that you were never able to do before
Productivity requires pressure, effort and labor, with it come, tenseness, strain that over time wear us out.
Blueprint for Productivity: Let’s look at biblical principles and teachings on productivity, time management, and stewardship.
Let’s explore how aligning our work with God’s purpose can lead to greater fulfillment and success in our personal and professional lives.
Go ahead and read Hebrews 4 NLT on your own.
One study found that when people have predictable and consistent time off work, they are actually more productive overall because they feel more mentally rested, which increases motivation and work enjoyment (Perlow & Porter, 2009)
Productivity
Focus on being productive instead of being busy – Tim Terriss, entrepreneur, author and podcaster
Colossians 3:23 “Work willingly at whatever you do, as though you were working for the Lord other than for people. Remember that the lord will give you an inheritance as your reward and that the Master you are serving is Christ.”
Time management
“Serve God by doing common actions in a heavenly spirit, and then, if your daily calling only leaves you cracks and crevices of time, fill them up with holy service.” Charles Spurgeon
Ecclesiastes 3:11 Yet God made everything beautiful in its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God’s work from beginning to end.”
2 Corinthians 4:18, So we don’t look at the troubles we can see now; rather we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen, for the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever”
UTILIZING AND MANAGING ALL RESOURCES GOD PROVIDES FOR THE GLORY OF GOD AND THE BETTERMENT OF HIS CREATION.
A steward acts as the surrogate of another or others…often by managing something, finances, property, estates, family members,
They are responsible for overseeing and protecting something considered worth caring for and preserving.
God’s people are found worthy. Through grace we have been saved, through faith, and not our works…it is a gift of God.
Faith, is what brings our salvation, not works. All the good work we do…its good and God loves it.. but we should be sharing the good news of Jesus Christ…In this we will be productive, our time management will flow, our stewardship will increase…naturally as He begins to trust us.
Romans 14:12 So then each of us will give an account of ourselves to God
When we steward our time, money, resources, family, etc well….we are in alignment with God. When we do so out of obedience to God, because we fear him and not man, we are being good stewards of what we have been given.
A stewards must be hospitable, a lover of good, self controlled, upright, holy and disciplined – Titus 1:7-8
When stewarding and productivity are combined, burnout is possible, which is why rest is so important to the health and overall well being of the people
Alright, so now that we are resting, being productive with time management and being a good steward with our time.
Take another sip of your drink, take a deep breath, get one last bite of your snack and go… do God’s work. I will do the same.
See you soon.
Court
