“And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart”– Galatians 6:9
Have you ever seen two bears fight? I watched a fight between two gigantic Grizzly bears the other day. It was the longest such fight I’d ever seen between two such behemoths. The fight went on for nearly ten minutes.[1] In the end, both bears were heaving with heavy breathing, torn fur, saliva dripping from their gasping mouths, one standing over the other. It was tiring just to watch them.
Have you ever been in a fight? Being in a fight is not like you see in the movies. In the movies fights go on for what seems like forever. That’s because they are choreographed. They aren’t real. In real life fights can start and end in a matter of seconds. A fight that reaches into minutes is a long fight. Fights are tests of not only skill but of stamina. The best strategy in fighting is to avoid them as much as possible.
Have you ever been in a physical struggle? As a young man I played football. When you’re preparing for the game and when you’re in the game your body produces adrenaline that helps you play at peak performance. But after the game, when the adrenaline rush ends, you can literally collapse from exhaustion.
An effective tactic in football is to tire your opponent out. Find a weak spot and then focus your attack there and keep pounding them until they submit. When you play a sport, you can see when an opponent gives up; you can see it in their eyes; you can see it in a subtle surrendering second breath. Sometimes you pound a team with your running game. The Green Bay Packers were known for their “Power Sweep.” Their iconic coach Vince Lombardi ruthlessly overloaded his players to one side of the field and kept running that sweep until the opponent stopped it. A lot of games that play was really all they needed to win. The Packers won five championships with that Sweep. The Pittsburgh Steelers of the seventies wore their opponents down with the Steel Curtain defense headed up by defensive lineman Mean Joe Green and the toothless “Vampire” middle linebacker Jack Lambert. They took over football with fear and intimidation winning four Super Bowls. Years later the San Francisco 49ers pummeled their opponents into submission with their West Coast short passing offensive attack. They won three Super Bowls with those tactics. Whatever the strategy, the objective in sports is to take the breath and spirit and heart right out of your opponent.
In High School, I remember trying to wrestle. Collegiate style wrestling is a lot different than the orchestrated “Professional” wrestling seen on TV. I thought football was tough and tiring, but going up against an opponent in the same weight class for three-minute periods was like wrestling against death itself. In such times, if you learn to hang on, you can tire your opponent out and maybe submit them or out point them. Have you ever been pushed to your last breath, that heaving-heavy-weight-on-your-chest-heart-pounding-breathing? Life can be like that. When it is, all you can do is hang on, try to catch your breath, and wait for the period to end. Many a victory goes to those who hang on and don’t lose heart. Victory is often a matter of sheer determination.
Whether it’s football, wrestling, soccer, basketball, lacrosse, field hockey, or some other sport, the victory goes to those who refuse to lose heart. In sports, the loser lives to play another day. In war, that is not always the case. Did you know that we are all in a war? We are in a spiritual war. Some people live like spectators, but whether you realize it or not, you are in this war. One of the prime tactics of our enemy is to tire us out. If he can get us constantly going, with no rest, he will wear us out and get us to submit to him.
The Bible exhorts us, “And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart” (Galatians 6:9). “Weary” here (Greek ekkabeo) means to be bad or weak, to suffer heart failure, to faint, be weary. “Lose heart” (Greek eklyo) means to relax or loose heart, to lose control of our heart, to suffer exhaustion. Our heart is what pumps blood to our body and muscles bring the oxygen and nutrients needed to keep us going. An athlete’s heart and a soldier’s heart are critical in determining victory. We need to take good care of our spiritual heart, otherwise we won’t have the spiritual stamina needed to press on to victory.
God has incorporated into His creation a weary-proof provision. God has provided a safeguard against exhaustion; it’s called the Sabbath. It’s not an accident that after Jesus sent out His disciples “as sheep in the midst of wolves,” that in Matthew 11 Jesus called the weary to come to Him for rest. Jesus had warned his disciples that they would encounter conflict, but He had a precautionary strategy to keep them strong, the Sabbath. Matthew twelve is about the spiritual war we are in and God’s solution to finish well by resting in Him.
In Matthew twelve we see the spiritual battle heat up in the form of opposition from the religious scribes and Pharisees. It’s in this chapter that we read for the first time of the plot of the Pharisees to “destroy” Jesus – “Then the Pharisees went out and plotted against Him, how they might destroy Him.” (Matthew 12:14). What we see here is not just a squabble over doctrine but a battle in a larger spiritual war. We need to remember while we are laboring in the harvest field of lost souls, that we are in a spiritual war with those who are bloodthirsty for the souls of men.
The Importance of Rest
Rest is important. People sleeping less than 7 hours a night have much worse mortality risks than those who sleep better. Those who chronically don’t get a good night’s sleep have a 12% increase in cardiovascular mortality risk. Young men who get less than four hours sleep in a single night show a rise in blood pressure. Those who are sleep deprived have significantly greater risk for cardiovascular diseases such as hypertension, stroke, and coronary heart disease.
Those who sleep less than 6 hours a night are linked to an increased risk of prostate cancer. Circadian rhythm disruption from poor sleep is also linked to insulin resistance, dyslipidemia, and obesity. Reaction times and clear thinking are affected by sleep loss. Those who consistently sleep under six hours a night evidence slower reaction times and have more attention lapses. Lack of proper rest is also connected to moodiness, fatigue, a weaker immune system, and greater vulnerability to infection and disease. [2]
1.23 million workdays are lost due to sleep deprivation each year so sleep loss affects all of us. [3] Even those who get good rest, because those lost workdays are passed on to us in product costs. Lack of rest seriously affects us, and what’s more concerning is that about 20% or more of adults experience some form of sleep deprivation.
The Effects of Restlessness on Those in Battle
Being attentive and alert is critical in combat situations. Military research is clear on this topic. Attention, critical in combat, is one of the first things to break down under sleep loss. The standard measure of this risk factor is the Psychomotor Vigilance Task (PVT).[4] The PVT indicates sleep deprivation impairs vigilance, and such vigilance can only be restored by sleep, it can’t be overcome by shear willpower. For every twenty-four hours of sleeplessness the ability of soldiers to do mental work accurately and rapidly declines 25 percent. The effects of a lack of rest can become critical and life threatening when driving in convoys where vigilance to spot IEDs is essential.
A lack of rest and sleep loss, according to a Pentagon study in 2021 Effects of Sleep Deprivation on Readiness of Members of the Armed Forces[5], stated sleep loss has a similar effect on performance, such as physical injury, accidents as being intoxicated. The negative effects of sleep loss were not only cognitive but physiological. Soldiers in simulated urban combat found that sleep-deprived conditions affected heart rate, vigilance, and attention capacity. Common fixes like caffeine can help in the short term but can’t replace the need for sleep and rest.
In WWII soldiers on both sides were given barbiturates to keep their bodies going without sleep.[6] While medication helped soldiers fight for prolonged periods of time in the short run, using such stimulants led to mental breakdowns and severe battle fatigue among the soldiers. Rest is not optional, it’s directly linked to productivity and in combat, survivability.
What does the Bible say about rest?
Too Much Rest
The Bible has a lot to say about laziness, mostly warning against it and praising diligence. The Bible speaks about the person who constantly presses the snooze button on their clock alarm. There is a person whose motto is, “a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest” and such thinking the Bible says leads to poverty like one who robs themselves (Proverbs 16:10-11). The Bible contrasts the slack and with the diligent, “He who has a slack hand becomes poor, but the hand of the diligent makes rich” (Proverbs 10:4). Desires without diligence lead to nothing (Proverbs 13:4; 20:4). There are people who device and imagine excuses to keep them from work (Provers 6:6; 22:13). Some people swing like a door but go nowhere (Proverbs 26:14). Such people are also often those who are quick to dig in and take from what others offer but seldom contribute anything of their own (Proverbs 26:15).
Satan loves the slothful. The Bible says, “He who is slothful in his work is a brother to him who is a great destroyer.” (Proverbs 18:9). Satan the murderer, murder futures, hopes, destinies through lazy losing lukewarmness.
The New Testament Jesus said in the Parable of the Talents that the one who squanders their God given resources is a “wicked and lazy servant” (Matthew 25:26). Simply put, the New Testament principle is, “If anyone will not work, neither shall he eat” (2 Thessalonians 3:10). In Christ Christians are exhorted to be, “not lagging in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord” (Romans 12:11). Too much rest, laziness, slothfulness, are serious sinful problems to be avoided.
Not Enough Rest
The other extreme is to neglect the need for rest. The Bible treats rest as a command, not just a suggestion. In His word God warns against neglecting rest just as much as He warns against laziness. The two aren’t opposites so much as two sides of the same call to live rightly.
It’s interesting that the Sabbath rest was implemented by the Lord before the Fall. God created us in part to regularly rest. The need for rest is something God created into us; it’s not a consequence of the sinful Fall of humanity. God created a Sabbath rest principle into His creation. God designed a creation where we would periodically and purposefully admire and enjoy our Creator and His creation. Sabbath is a time to connect with God; it’s not just a time to take a breath and kick our feet up to relax. The Bible states:
Genesis 2:2-3 — “And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done… because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made.”
God didn’t create a Sabbath day because He was tired, He created it because it is good to enjoy creation.
Later, after the Fall, God included the command for a Sabbath day because He knew sinful man would resist it.
Exodus 20:8-10 — The Ten Commandments state in part: “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work…”
God made the Sabbath so that sinful workaholic people would give their workers and beasts of burdens a rest:
Exodus 23:12 — “…that your ox and your donkey may rest, and the son of your female servant and the stranger may be refreshed.”
The prophets treated Sabbath-breaking as a serious covenant violation. Jeremiah 17:27 warns that if Jerusalem does not “hallow the Sabbath day,” God would, “kindle a fire in its gates” that cannot be quenched. Ezekiel 20 similarly lists Israel’s profaning of the Sabbaths among the reasons for judgment.
In Isaiah 58:13-14 true Sabbath-keeping is defined as delighting in the Lord rather than “doing your own pleasure.” Keeping the Sabbath isn’t staying home from church and watching the game. It shouldn’t be abused and defined to excuse any sinful self-indulgence.
Observing the Sabbath rest is to trust the Lord. To rest obediently is to trust God when He says He will cover us and provide for us as we rest in Him. God promised to provide double the manna on the sixth day so Israel wouldn’t need to gather on the Sabbath:
Exodus 16:23 — “Tomorrow is a Sabbath rest, a holy Sabbath to the Lord. Bake what you will bake today, and boil what you will boil; and lay up for yourselves all that remains, to be kept until morning.”
Exodus 16:29 — “See! For the Lord has given you the Sabbath; therefore He gives you on the sixth day bread for two days.” God builds provision into the rhythm of obedience itself — trusting Him meant not gathering on the seventh day, and He met that trust with enough.
God went so far as to ordain a Sabbatical Year. This was an extension beyond the weekly rest to a seven-year cycle of letting the land itself rest, with an explicit promise attached:
Leviticus 25:20-21 — Anticipating the question, “What shall we eat in the seventh year, since we shall not sow nor gather in our produce?” God answers directly: “I will command My blessing on you in the sixth year, and it will bring forth produce enough for three years.”
God connects blessing to keeping the Sabbath:
Isaiah 58:13-14 – “If you turn away your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on My holy day… then you shall delight yourself in the Lord; and I will cause you to ride on the high hills of the earth, and feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father.”
Sabbath rest isn’t presented as a risk. God asks people to take a step of faith and follow-through and to trust Him.
The important thing to remember about the Sabbath is what Jesus said about it – Mark 2:27 — “The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath” (Matthew 12:8). God made the Sabbath to bless people, not become another lawful burden.
Rest is important. Jesus said:
Mark 6:31 — “Come aside by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while,” after they’d been too busy even to eat.
Jesus wants us to spend some down time with Him. He wants to debrief us, to spend time discussing the days’ events and what we might expect to follow. He simply advises us to get some rest on a regular basis.
Jesus Himself, rested. If He rested, so should we:
Luke 5:16 — “So He Himself often withdrew into the wilderness and prayed.” Jesus modeled rest, not just commanded it.
The greatest application of God’s rest is our resting in the completed work of Jesus for our salvation. In Hebrews it states:
Hebrews 4:9 — “There remains therefore a rest for the people of God.” The Sabbath principle points toward a deeper spiritual rest found in God Himself. We don’t rely on our own work to save us from our sins and justify us for heaven; we REST in the completed work of Jesus to save us.
When Christians get caught up in keeping certain days, they miss the intended mark (Romans 14:5 and Colossians 2:16-17). The Bible doesn’t contradict itself between commanding diligence and commanding rest, it simply instructs to have a balanced sound mind about it (2 Timothy 1:7).
You’re In A Spiritual War
The satanic forces of evil attempted to destroy Jesus at His birth through Herod. In the gospels they seek to plot and destroy Jesus through the religious Pharisees and religious leaders. They will seem to succeed only to have their plot explode in their faces at the resurrection of Jesus. But just as these forces sought to destroy Jesus, they seek to destroy if not physically, certainly spiritually, those who are disciples of Jesus. If they can weaken us through a lack of rest, they will do so.
We are in a war. Remember what Jesus said:
Matthew 10:22-25 – “And you will be hated by all for My name’s sake. But he who endures to the end will be saved.23 “When they persecute you in this city, flee to another. For assuredly, I say to you, you will not have gone through the cities of Israel before the Son of Man comes.24 “A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master.25 “It is enough for a disciple that he be like his teacher, and a servant like his master. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more will they call those of his household!”
Remember the inspired words of the apostle Paul who wrote:
Ephesians 6:10-12 – “Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might.11 Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.”
That we are in a war should not intimidate us or keep us awake at night. That’s because of a few rock-solid truths of Jesus that we can rest on. These truths are as follows.
First, the outcome of this war is decided, Jesus has won and we are victorious in Him. We see evidence of this in the following verses:
John 16:8-11 – “And when He [ i.e. the Holy Spirit] has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment:9 “of sin, because they do not believe in Me;10 “of righteousness, because I go to My Father and you see Me no more;11 “of judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.”
Romans 16:20 – “And the God of peace will crush Satan under your feet shortly. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Amen.”
Colossians 1:13 – “He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love,”
Colossians 2:14-15 – “having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.15 Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it.”
1 Peter 3:21b-22 – “through the resurrection of Jesus Christ,22 who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, angels and authorities and powers having been made subject to Him.”
1 John 4:4 – “You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.”
Revelation 12:10-11 – “Then I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, “Now salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren, who accused them before our God day and night, has been cast down.11 “And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death.”
Secondly, those who reject Jesus are under the influence of Satan to do his bidding. That those who reject Jesus are under the power of Satan is seen in the words of Jesus to Paul which state::
Acts 26:17-18 – [Jesus said to Paul] “‘I will deliver you from the Jewish people, as well as from the Gentiles, to whom I now send you,18 ‘to open their eyes, in order to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who are sanctified by faith in Me.’”
Later in his epistles Paul is inspired to elaborate on the influence of Satan on those who reject Jesus when he writes:
2 Corinthians 4:3-4 – “But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing,4 whose minds the god of this age [ i.e. Satan] has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them.”
Ephesians 2:1-2 – “And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins,2 in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience,”
1 John 5:19 – “We know that we are of God, and the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one.”
Satan’s influence in such people does not at all diminish their own culpability in the crimes against God they commit. They are under the influence of Satan because they have rejected, rebelled against God, they have chosen sin over salvation and so have put themselves in this position. They are a willing tool in the hand of the adversary. When Paul was opposed by a sorcerer named Elymas Paul referred to him saying, “O full of all deceit and all fraud, you son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, will you not cease perverting the straight ways of the Lord?” (Acts 13:6-12). If you aren’t for Jesus, you’re against Jesus. There is no middle ground. Those who reject Jesus are under the influence of Satan. The hatred toward Christians that we see in the world is rooted in a satanic influence upon those who reject Jesus.
Third, Satan’s aim is to destroy God, and all associated with Him. That Satan’s ambition is to destroy God and the godly is confirmed in the fact that one of his names is “The Destroyer”:
Revelation 9:11 – “And they had as king over them the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in Hebrew is Abaddon, [i.e., literally “destruction”] but in Greek he has the name Apollyon. [i.e., literally, “Destroyer”]”
Since the time of his ejection from heaven, Satan and his demonic angels have sought to destroy God’s people. Though ultimately defeated, Satan causes a great deal of pain through persecution of God’s people as seen in the following verses:
Revelation 12:7-9,12b – “And war broke out in heaven: Michael and his angels fought with the dragon; and the dragon and his angels fought,8 but they did not prevail, nor was a place found for them in heaven any longer.9 So the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was cast to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him. . . Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and the sea! For the devil has come down to you, having great wrath, because he knows that he has a short time.”
Satan is out to murder the saints and those under his influence are out to do the same according to Jesus, as evidenced in the following verses:
John 8:44 – “You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it.”
Jesus here is testifying as to the influence of Satan upon those who would eventually orchestrate His murder.
During the Tribulation period of the End Times, we will see Satan’s influence behind the murderous work of Antichrist and Babylon who seek to destroy the saints of God. This is evidenced in the following verses:
Revelation 13:15 – “He was granted power to give breath to the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak and cause as many as would not worship the image of the beast to be killed.”
Revelation 17:5-6 – “And on her forehead a name was written: MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.6 I saw the woman, drunk with the blood of the saints and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus. And when I saw her, I marveled with great amazement.”
What reaches a height in Revelation has already begun in history. Many of the prominent leaders in the early church died at the hands of persecutors. According to tradition (see Foxes Book of martyrs): James, son of Zebedee, brother of John was beheaded; Philip was crucified; Matthew was beheaded: James the less, author of the biblical epistle, had his skull crushed with a club; Matthias was stoned and beheaded; Andrew was crucified; Mark was torn to pieces by an angry mob; Peter was crucified upside down (upside down at his request because he didn’t feel worthy to die right side up as His Savior did); Paul was beheaded; Jude was crucified; Bartholomew was beaten and crucified; Thomas was speared; Luke was hanged; and Simon the Zealot was crucified.
The Benefits of Sabbath Rest for Those in the Spiritual War
We are in a war, and we need our wits about us. We need to be alert, attentive, and obedient. We cannot afford to let our guard down or exhaust ourselves by relying on our own strength. God has given us a Sabbath rest to help us with that. We need to have our Commander regularly search our heart and tend to it. That heart care takes place during Sabbath rest times. We would be foolish to neglect such a provision. Warriors need rest. Observe and enjoy God’s Sabbath, it is one of God’s most blessed provisions to keep us strong.
Because we are in a war, and because we need rest to stay alert in that war, we need to remember – If you’re in a war, in an active conflict, your effectiveness and alertness which are essential to not only victory, but survival, are directly linked to the amount of rest you get. God knows what He’s doing when He commands people to rest. Rest is for our own good and a factor in whether we will be victorious or survive the spiritual war we are in.
God’s Sabbath rest principle is His provision to keep us from weariness that can sideline us or make us more susceptible to the enemies’ attacks. How might we summarize the benefits of Sabbath Rest for those in the spiritual war?
First, the principle of Sabbath Rest is part of our Commander’s marching orders. While observing the Sabbath rest is not a law Christians need to observe legally, it is a principle that God built into His creation before the Fall of humanity. Living out a Sabbath in principle (observing a regular time to stop work and spend with God observing and appreciating His creation) helps to restore the soldier of God. But the principle of Sabbath rest is part of our Commander’s plan for those who serve in His army. Therefore, it is one of those “orders” those serving Him should obey (John 14:15 and 21).
Second, the principle of Sabbath rest is where we get our marching orders. As we spend time with the Lord He is able to direct and redirect us in terms of His marching orders. As we spend time with our Lord, He has our attention and we allow time to make sure we are serving where he wants us to serve and how He wants us to serve. It is in our Sabbath times with the Lord that He reaffirms that we did not choose Him, but He chose us and that our Source for success is God our Father petitioned in the name of Jesus in prayer (John 15:16).
Third, the principle of Sabbath provides us a time of assessment before the Lord. As we spend time with the Lord we are able to submit ourselves to Him and His instruction. This time with our Commander provides us with an opportunity for Him to assess our service, correct us, reprimand us, encourage us, keep us on course.
Fourth, the principle of Sabbath provides time for rejuvenation. As we spend time with our Commander we are able to receive refreshing from the Holy Spirit. In these times with God we are able to keep on being filled with the Holy Spirit to empower us onward (Ephesians 5:18).
Fifth, the principle of Sabbath provides for camaraderie. As we observe Sabbath rest with other Christian soldiers in this war, we are able to encourage and spur on each other to love and good works (Hebrew 10:24-25). Camaraderie is important because those in God’s army are to be known by the love they show for one another (John 13:35). In or Sabbath rest with the Lord and fellowship with one another we draw close to the Lord and with each other. The outflow of such togetherness is a willingness to lay down our lives for the Lord, and each other (John 15:13).
Yes, we are in a war, and we need to regularly rest if we are to march on to victory. We need to be well rested in order to know where and how to fight and to be able to be aware of the wiles and tactics of our devil enemy. Please join me in praying:
Father in heaven we come to You in Jesus’ name. Please forgive us for neglecting Your Sabbath rest. Please meet with us in Sabbath. Please strengthen our heart and keep it pumping purely. Please strengthen and empower us. Please make us what we need to be so we can do what You call us to do, for Your glory, until Jesus returns. In Jesus name, we rest. Amen!
[1] Photographer captures intense battle between 2 HUGE ferocious bears
[2] https://www.sleepfoundation.org/how-sleep-works/sleep-facts-statistics
[3] https://www.rand.org/news/press/2016/11/30.html
[4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychomotor_vigilance_task
[5] https://news.usni.org/2021/03/03/pentagon-report-on-sleep-deprivation-and-military-readiness
[6] https://www.magellantv.com/articles/a-war-with-drugs-wwiis-amphetaminefueled-armies