Lesson 7

May 8 - 14

Rest and Restoration

Memory Text: Mark 6:31 NIV 31 Then, because so many people were coming and going that they did not even have a chance to eat, he said to them, "Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest."

Sabbath Afternoon

Sunday

No Time

Proverbs 6:9 NKJV 9 How long will you slumber, O sluggard? When will you rise from your sleep?

Proverbs 13:4 NKJV 4 The soul of a lazy man desires, and has nothing; But the soul of the diligent shall be made rich.

2 Thessalonians 3:10 NKJV 10 For even when we were with you, we commanded you this: If anyone will not work, neither shall he eat.

Genesis 2:15 NKJV 15 Then the LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it.

Mark 6:30-32 NKJV 30 Then the apostles gathered to Jesus and told Him all things, both what they had done and what they had taught. 31 And He said to them, "Come aside by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while." For there were many coming and going, and they did not even have time to eat. 32 So they departed to a deserted place in the boat by themselves.

Mark 6:45-46 NKJV 45 Immediately He made His disciples get into the boat and go before Him to the other side, to Bethsaida, while He sent the multitude away. 46 And when He had sent them away, He departed to the mountain to pray.

Monday

The Need for Rest

Ellen G. White comments, Child Guidance, p. 342

Why Poverty Is Often a Blessing.--Riches and idleness are thought by some to be blessings indeed; but those who are always busy, and who cheerfully go about their daily tasks, are the most happy and enjoy the best health. . . . The sentence that man must toil for his daily bread, and the promise of future happiness and glory, both came from the same throne, and both are blessings. {CG 342.1}

Poverty, in many cases, is a blessing; for it prevents youth and children from being ruined by inaction. The physical as well as the mental powers should be cultivated and properly developed. The first and constant care of parents should be to see that their children have firm constitutions, that they may be sound men and women. It is impossible to attain this object without physical exercise. {CG 342.2}

For their own physical health and moral good, children should be taught to work, even if there is no necessity so far as want is concerned. If they would have pure and virtuous characters, they must have the discipline of well-regulated labor, which will bring into exercise all the muscles. The satisfaction that children will have in being useful, and in denying themselves to help others, will be the most healthful pleasure they ever enjoyed. {CG 342.3}

Mental and Physical Activities Equalized.--Students should not be permitted to take so many studies that they will have no time for physical training. The health cannot be preserved unless some portion of each day is given to muscular exertion in the open air. Stated (p. 343) hours should be devoted to manual labor of some kind, anything that will call into action all parts of the body. Equalize the taxation of the mental and the physical powers, and the mind of the student will be refreshed. If he is diseased, physical exercise will often help the system to recover its normal condition. When students leave college, they should have better health and a better understanding of the laws of life than when they enter it. The health should be as sacredly guarded as the character. {CG 342.4}

Exodus 23:12 NKJV 12 "Six days you shall do your work, and on the seventh day you shall rest, that your ox and your donkey may rest, and the son of your female servant and the stranger may be refreshed.

Genesis 2:7 NKJV 7 And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.

Tuesday

The Rest in God’s Pleasure

Matthew 11:28-30 NKJV 28 "Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

Matthew 11:29 "Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 "For My yoke is easy and My burden is light."

Hebrews 2:4 NKJV 4 God also bearing witness both with signs and wonders, with various miracles, and gifts of the Holy Spirit, according to His own will?

Romans 1:17 NKJV 17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, "The just shall live by faith."

Galatians 3:11 NKJV 11 But that no one is justified by the law in the sight of God is evident, for "the just shall live by faith."

Wednesday

The Daily Rest

Read Genesis chapter on2

Ellen G. White comments, Manuscript Releases, vol. 7, p. 224

MR No. 463 - The Senses and Sensuality

The result of pure and undefiled religion in the heart will be to change the whole character, If any man is in Christ, he is a new creature. We will not, must not, be double-minded, unstable. The renewing grace of Christ renounces everything bad in action, in emotion, in thought. That which was good is purified from its selfishness and every taint of impurity. There is a decided change in the whole life. {7MR 224.1}

If a brackish fountain has suddenly lost its bad qualities, the change will be discovered in the purity and sweetness of the streams that flow from it. . . . {7MR 224.2}

I know from the testimonies given me from time to time for brain workers, that sleep is worth far more before than after midnight. Two hours' good sleep before twelve o'clock is worth more than four hours after twelve o'clock. . . . {7MR 224.3}

You can give short lectures in the parlor at stated times, which will be select but plain, upon the human body and how to treat this wonderful house the Lord has given us, which will aid you in your work as physicians as nothing else can. The people . . . need to be enlightened on almost every point of how to treat their own bodies. . . . {7MR 224.4}

Every day the people, be they few or many, need to be enlightened how to take care of themselves. To subject one's self to a severity of labor which is constantly straining the physical power of endurance, the constitution cannot endure, it is a violation of physical law which sooner or later will (p. 225) bring its pain of penalty according to the transgression. Talk to them in regard to the necessity of resting after eating. {7MR 224.5}

Thursday

The Weekly Rest

Genesis 2:1-3 NKJV 1 Thus the heavens and the earth, and all the host of them, were finished. 2 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. 3 Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made.

Exodus 20:8-11 NKJV 8 "Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the LORD your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. 11 For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.

Mark 2:27 NKJV 27 And He said to them, "The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath.

Friday

Ellen G. White comments, Counsels on Health, p. 99

Intemperance in eating and drinking, intemperance in labor, intemperance in almost everything, exists on every hand. Those who make great exertions to accomplish just so much work in a given time, and continue to labor when their judgment tells them they should rest, are never gainers. They are living on borrowed capital. They are expending the vital force which they will need at a future time. And when the energy they have so recklessly used is demanded, they fail for want of it. The physical strength is gone, the mental powers fail. They realize that they have met with a loss, but do not know what it is. Their time of need has come, but their physical resources are exhausted. Everyone who violates the laws of health must sometime be a sufferer to a greater or less degree. God has provided us with constitutional force, which will be needed at different periods of our life. If we recklessly exhaust this force by continual overtaxation, we shall sometime be losers. Our usefulness will be lessened, if not our life itself destroyed. {CH 99.1}

As a rule, the labor of the day should not be prolonged into the evening. If all the hours of the day are well improved, the work extended into the evening is so much extra, and the overtaxed system will suffer from the burden imposed upon it. I have been shown that those who do this often lose much more than they gain, for their energies are exhausted and they labor on nervous excitement. They may not realize any immediate injury, but they are surely undermining their constitution (p. 100) {CH 99.2}

Ellen G. White comments, Child Guidance, pp. 397-398

In Work.--We should practice temperance in our labor. It is not our duty to place ourselves where we shall be overworked. Some may at times be placed where this is necessary, but it should be the exception, not the rule. We are to practice temperance in all things. If we honor the Lord by acting our part, He will on His part preserve our health. We should have a sensible control of all our organs. By practicing temperance in eating, in drinking, in dressing, in labor, and in all things, we can do for ourselves what no physician can do for us. {CG 397.1}

As a rule, the labor of the day should not be prolonged into the evening. . . . I have been shown that those who do this often lose much more than they gain, for their energies are exhausted, and they labor on nervous excitement. They may not realize any immediate injury, but they are surely undermining their constitution. {CG 397.2}

Those who make great exertions to accomplish just so much work in a given time, and continue to labor when their judgment tells them they should rest, are never gainers. They are living on borrowed capital. They are expending the vital force which they will need at a future time. And when the energy they have so recklessly used is demanded, they fail for want of it. The physical strength is gone, the mental powers fail. They realize that they have met with a loss, but do not know what it is. Their time of need has come, but their physical resources are exhausted. Everyone who violates the laws (p. 398) of health must sometime be a sufferer to a greater or less degree. God has provided us with constitutional force, which will be needed at different periods of our lives. If we recklessly exhaust this force by continual overtaxation, we shall sometime be the losers. {CG 397.3}

In Dressing.--In all respects the dress should be healthful. "Above all things," God desires us to "be in health"--health of body and of soul. And we are to be workers together with Him for the health of both soul and body. Both are promoted by healthful dress. {CG 398.1}

It should have the grace, the beauty, the appropriateness of natural simplicity. Christ has warned us against the pride of life, but not against its grace and natural beauty. {CG 398.2}

In Eating.--True temperance teaches us to dispense entirely with everything hurtful, and to use judiciously that which is healthful. There are few who realize as they should how much their habits of diet have to do with their health, their character, their usefulness in this world, and their eternal destiny. The appetite should ever be in subjection to the moral and intellectual powers. The body should be servant to the mind, and not the mind to the body. {CG 398.3}

Those who eat and work intemperately and irrationally, talk and act irrationally. It is not necessary to drink alcoholic liquors in order to be intemperate. The sin of intemperate eating--eating too frequently, too much, and of rich, unwholesome food--destroys the healthy action of the digestive organs, affects the brain, and perverts the judgment, preventing rational, calm, healthy thinking and acting. (p. 399) {CG 398.4}