THE REWARD OF RETREAT

FATIGUE 

Fatigue  from The Practical Encyclopedia of Christian Counseling

FATIGUE Much of what we do causes fatigue. That, as God indicated by His words in Genesis 3:18, 19, is one of the consequences of the fall (q.v.). After the fall, man began to sweat in the toil of work and began to encounter many obstructions. Woman would likewise bear children in pain. Fatigue, so long as it is not carried to an extreme, is to be expected. A Christian is to take care of his body as the temple of the Holy Spirit. It is possible to fail to get enough sleep and to injure the body in other ways that make it needlessly tired. But fatigue is no excuse for failing to do what God requires. Overcoming it is largely a matter of wise planning—and then, keeping to the schedule. Rest is an important factor in the Scriptures. One of the pleasant ways of speaking of our heavenly existence is to call it a sabbath-keeping of rest (Hebrews 4). In eternity, all of the effects of the fall—including fatigue and sweat-inducing work—will be fully overcome. See The Christian Counselor’s Medical Desk Reference by Dr. Robert Smith.

Genesis 3:18 NASB95

“Both thorns and thistles it shall grow for you; And you will eat the plants of the field;

Genesis 3:19 NASB95

By the sweat of your face You will eat bread, Till you return to the ground, Because from it you were taken; For you are dust, And to dust you shall return.”

Even Jesus needed physical rest as we read in John’s gospel account:

John 4:6 NASB95

and Jacob’s well was there. So Jesus, being wearied from His journey, was sitting thus by the well. It was about the sixth hour.

Since He knew that he himself needed physical rest, the text tells us: Mark 6:30–32

Mark 6:30–32 NASB95

The apostles gathered together with Jesus; and they reported to Him all that they had done and taught. And He said to them, “Come away by yourselves to a secluded place and rest a while.” (For there were many people coming and going, and they did not even have time to eat.) They went away in the boat to a secluded place by themselves.

The need for rest

Bibliotheca Sacra Volume 73 (Article VIII: The Day of Rest in Nature and Human Nature)

ARTICLE VIIITHE DAY OF REST IN NATURE AND HUMAN NATURE1BY PROFESSOR E. G. MARTIN. CAMBRIDGE, MASS.LABORATORY EXPERIMENTSThat sustained effort of mind or body brings about a state of weariness with marked impairment of efficiency is among the commonest facts of human experience. That an adequate period of rest will abolish the weariness and restore the efficiency is knowledge that sustains the tired worker through his period of toil and enters gratefully into his experience at its completion.These facts of common knowledge, which are, indeed, guiding principles of everyday life, become to the man of science more than just facts on which he may base his conduct; they are to him vital phenomena crying for interpretation. Confronted with the fact of human fatigue he wishes to know what are the bodily processes concerned in it; noting that rest causes weariness to disappear he seeks to learn what there is about rest to give it a power so beneficent.No one would maintain that the nature of fatigue is wholly comprehended, yet in a general way we understand the processes concerned in it. We know that it results from activity of mind or body. We know, further, that in the production of activity the body operates as an engine, and is subject to the same laws as govern other engines. Of these the most fundamental is the law that the energy manifested cannot be created within the engine out of nothing, but must come from an antecedent source. The body, in respect to its energy source, is a chemical engine, deriving its power of activity from chemical transformations in material obtained directly or indirectly from the food. In these chemical transformations by which energy is afforded the material does not vanish, it merely enters new combinations. These latter are without value to the body; they are waste products to be gotten rid of as speedily as possible.The body is so constructed that the energy-yielding transformations, and the consequent production of waste substances, occur directly within the regions of exertion. The muscles that are moved are the immediate seats of the chemical processes which furnish the energy for the movements; the brain cells whose activity constitutes a mental process carry on within themselves the chemical changes upon which their activity is based. In this location of the precedent chemical activity within the operating tissues we have the clue to the nature of fatigue, for the chemical transformations inevitably give rise, as we have seen, to waste products, and as these accumulate, by virtue of their mere presence, they hamper the operation of the tissues. The familiar analogy of the furnace choked with its own ashes illustrates the situation.With a chemical basis for fatigue thus established in the waste products of tissue activity, we are in position to pass ‘to a consideration of the question with which we are more immediately concerned, namely, the manner in which, during rest, fatigue is overcome. Obviously if fatigue is caused by the accumulation of waste products within the active tissues it is to be overcome by their removal. The agency for removal is the blood, with whose swiftly flowing stream all the active tissues are in intimate communication and to which they deliver the waste substances that accumulate within them.If the relationship between tissues and blood were so complete that waste products could be discharged from the tissues as fast as they were formed such a condition as fatigue would apparently be non-existent. Unfortunately such a perfection of relationship does not obtain. The discharge of waste products into the blood-stream often lags behind their production. Moreover, the blood itself is likely to become charged with these substances, in situations where they are being produced abundantly by highly active tissues, through the inability of the organs of excretion to keep pace with the demands upon them. Thus fatigue, instead of being confined to the region of activity, is often carried over the whole body, and we may have the feeling of general weariness, although the exertion may have been confined to special tissues. The necessity for periods of rest alternating with periods of activity, a necessity established by immemorial human experience, is thus seen to be for the purpose of allowing time in which the accumulated waste materials may be cleared out, restoring the tissues to their initial condition of fitness.Through this recognition of the function of rest in the overcoming of fatigue we approach the problem of the significance, from the scientific standpoint, of the regularly recurring day of rest. The question at issue is this: Are any of the bodily tissues so affected by waste products that they cannot make complete recovery during the usual daily interval of rest? If this question is answered in the negative, if there are no tissues which continue to show impairment after an ordinary rest interval, there would seem to be no scientific basis for the practice of a weekly rest day. If, on the other hand, the question is answered in the affirmative, if any bodily tissues at the end of the usual rest period are not wholly recovered, such tissues will enter upon the next season of activity in a state of impairment. This impairment will become more and more marked as days go by, until some sort of a dead level of inefficiency is reached, unless before the cumulative impairment has gone so far as to be serious, an interval of rest, long enough to allow complete recovery, is resorted to. To determine whether or not there is cumulative fatigue in the sense here referred to is the task of the scientific investigator.

Jesus knew the need for rest, even when they did not recognize that they needed it.

Mark 6:31 NASB95

And He said to them, “Come away by yourselves to a secluded place and rest a while.” (For there were many people coming and going, and they did not even have time to eat.)

The Bible Exposition Commentary Mark 6:30–56

Jesus took His disciples to a secluded place so that they might rest after their labors. He wanted to discuss their ministry with them and prepare them for their next mission. As Vance Havner has said, “If you don’t come apart and rest, you will come apart.” Even God’s Servant-Son needed time to rest, fellowship with His friends, and find renewal from the Father.

See also Ps 23:2–3; Pr 17:1; Ec 4:6; Mt 11:28–30

Psalm 23:2–3 NASB95

He makes me lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside quiet waters. He restores my soul; He guides me in the paths of righteousness For His name’s sake.

Proverbs 17:1 NASB95

Better is a dry morsel and quietness with it Than a house full of feasting with strife.

Ecclesiastes 4:6 NASB95

One hand full of rest is better than two fists full of labor and striving after wind.

Matthew 11:28–30 NASB95

“Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. “Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. “For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”

Provision of sleep for rest

Psalm 4:8 NASB95

In peace I will both lie down and sleep, For You alone, O Lord, make me to dwell in safety.

See also Ps 127:2; Ec 5:12

Provision of a Sabbath-rest

Ex 34:21; Mk 2:27

See also Ex 20:8–11; Ex 31:15; Ex 35:2; Le 23:3; Ne 13:15; Is 58:13–14

The purpose of rest

To renew strength

Lamentations 5:5 NASB95

Our pursuers are at our necks; We are worn out, there is no rest for us.

See also Is 40:29–31

To know peace

Matthew 6:25–34 NASB95

“For this reason I say to you, do not be worried about your life, as to what you will eat or what you will drink; nor for your body, as to what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? “Look at the birds of the air, that they do not sow, nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they? “And who of you by being worried can add a single hour to his life? “And why are you worried about clothing? Observe how the lilies of the field grow; they do not toil nor do they spin, yet I say to you that not even Solomon in all his glory clothed himself like one of these. “But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, will He not much more clothe you? You of little faith! “Do not worry then, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear for clothing?’ “For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things; for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. “But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. “So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

My Favorite Illustrations Lord’s Day

“Blue Monday” usually follows “Abused Sunday.”

See also Job 11:18–19; Ps 3:5; Ps 16:8; Pr 3:24; Php 4:6–7

The character of rest

The absence of war

Joshua 11:23 NASB95

So Joshua took the whole land, according to all that the Lord had spoken to Moses, and Joshua gave it for an inheritance to Israel according to their divisions by their tribes. Thus the land had rest from war.

See also Jos 14:15; 1 Ki 5:4; 1 Ch 22:9; Ps 46:9–10; Pr 1:33; Is 14:3

The absence of social strife

2 Corinthians 13:11 NASB95

Finally, brethren, rejoice, be made complete, be comforted, be like-minded, live in peace; and the God of love and peace will be with you.

See also Ec 10:4; 1 Co 1:10; 1 Th 4:11; Heb 12:14; Jas 3:17–18; 1 Pe 3:8

The absence of fear

Mark 4:37–38 NASB95

And there arose a fierce gale of wind, and the waves were breaking over the boat so much that the boat was already filling up. Jesus Himself was in the stern, asleep on the cushion; and they woke Him and said to Him, “Teacher, do You not care that we are perishing?”

See also Ge 32:11; Ps 127:2; Mic 4:4; Mt 6:31

The absence of anxiety

1 Peter 5:7 NASB95

casting all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you.

See also Mt 6:25; Php 4:6

The presence of God

Exodus 33:14 NASB95

And He said, “My presence shall go with you, and I will give you rest.”

See also Dt 33:27; Mt 11:28

The experience of security

Deuteronomy 33:12 NASB95

Of Benjamin he said, “May the beloved of the Lord dwell in security by Him, Who shields him all the day, And he dwells between His shoulders.”

See also Pr 19:23

The experience of peace in death

Revelation 14:13 NASB95

And I heard a voice from heaven, saying, “Write, ‘Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on!’ ” “Yes,” says the Spirit, “so that they may rest from their labors, for their deeds follow with them.”

See also Dt 31:16; Job 3:13–17

The destruction of rest

By business

Psalm 39:6 NASB95

“Surely every man walks about as a phantom; Surely they make an uproar for nothing; He amasses riches and does not know who will gather them.

See also Ge 31:40; Ec 1:13; Ec 2:23; Ec 8:16; Lk 21:34

By conflict

2 Corinthians 7:5 NASB95

For even when we came into Macedonia our flesh had no rest, but we were afflicted on every side: conflicts without, fears within.

See also La 5:5; 2 Co 6:5; 2 Co 11:27

By grief

Jeremiah 45:3 NASB95

‘You said, “Ah, woe is me! For the Lord has added sorrow to my pain; I am weary with my groaning and have found no rest.” ’

See also Job 3:26; Ps 77:4; Da 6:18

By unconfessed guilt

Psalm 32:3–5 NASB95

When I kept silent about my sin, my body wasted away Through my groaning all day long. For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me; My vitality was drained away as with the fever heat of summer. Selah. I acknowledged my sin to You, And my iniquity I did not hide; I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord”; And You forgave the guilt of my sin. Selah.

See also Ge 4:12; Dt 28:65–67; Is 48:22; Is 57:20–21; Re 14:11

By sickness

Job 30:17 NASB95

“At night it pierces my bones within me, And my gnawing pains take no rest.

See also Job 7:4–5

Conclusion

retreating from the crowd is difficult for some because they fear lonilessness.