Refreshing

Refresh

How do you start a new season in life? How do you become refreshed? What can we do to have a better life? Starting a new season of life depends on where the new season is coming from. Knowing the boundaries and barriers will help us be successful. Refreshing is like a great cup of coffee or an ice cold glass of water on a hot summer day, it is good. But that goodness comes from somewhere and needs to be consumed in order for refreshing to occur.

For me, understanding what is going on is a huge part in my ability to deal with things. I’m an introvert, so the energy I use to go through life come from within me. I find God in me as the source for hope, peace and new beginnings. You may be an extrovert, so you draw on the energy of others and external activities to motivate you. Either way, we all need seasons of refreshing.

Spoiler Alert

Some people simply want refreshing to come, to appear one morning like a freshly brewed cup of coffee sitting within reach of your bedside, but few seasons of refreshing come without effort. And even when they do come without effort, effort is still needed to respond. Relationships are a part of the world God has created, relationship to God, others and ourselves. God does send revival, renewal, an unrequested healings or miracles, but when these come, we either respond and receive or perceive and move on. We relate to life. We don’t control our own destiny but we do cooperate with it.

Refreshing, new beginnings, renewal and revival all come from one of three sources. God, others and ourselves are the sources of change and fresh starts. God is the source of divine activity that moves upon us reviving in our inner man and transforming our nature. Others can cause us to undergo renewal through encouragement and counsel. At times, intervention or strong authority might be the tools used to reposition our lives. We effect ourselves through discipline and choices, being made by God with the ability to grow, mature and change.

The question, How do I start a new season of life depends on what is the cause of the new season. When God is the cause, we look to Him for wisdom. When we are the cause, we look to discipline, character, motivation and knowledge. When others are acting on us, we look to relationship issues, humility, discernment and the ability to receive from others.

Let’s say a year is ending and you want to start a new year with hope and new intentions. For the most part this is your doing. Even though God created the world to run in seasons and years, you are calling yourself to take on the next season of life with a new perspective, hope or endeavor. This is a “Me to Me” adventure. So you are going to look to yourself and within yourself for refreshing.

Some simple ways you can refresh yourself are

1.       Eat right
2.       Get the proper amount of sleep
3.       Forgive people and be free from the burden of un-forgiveness
4.       Exercise
5.       Laugh more
6.       Avoid negative and fearful media
7.       Grow in gratitude. (I have a book out that may help you with that, so that could be an “others to Me” adventure and not just a “Me to Me.” In fact, God may be convicting you about being un-thankful, resulting in a Trinitarian renewal. )

Three Questions

Asking these three questions may help you start and succeed in being refreshed. These questions are intended to help you see where the motivation is coming from; God, others or yourself. When all three align together, we can assume that we are being strongly encourage to move forward. Some Christian traditions stress the God to Me method of renewal. That is critical and maybe the most important, but God made us with the ability to ask, seek and knock. You can desire to pray more, to lose weight, to have better relationships, and to be more joyful. The desires we have can be Godly, waiting within us for the season when we discipline ourselves to activate them. You might ask yourself.

What is God doing in my life? What purpose is He moving me towards?

What passions and convictions do I have to live better? What are my wants saying to me?

Who is speaking into my life with love and conviction, helping me fulfill my calling in life?

Points to Ponder

1. If God came to you and called you to move to a land you did not know, to a new place, would you be discouraged or delighted? Was Abraham refreshed when God called him to move on, or burden downed by it? What is the difference between renewal and a burden?

2. Joseph started his journey to the palace of Egypt by his half-brothers throwing him into a pit and telling his family that he was dead. How often does the pathway to the life we desire require us to live in the pit for a season? What kind of renewal and refreshing is yours when your life is in the pit?

3. Hannah lived through some very dark moments before she received from the Lord the long desired child. What role does enduring, forgiveness and rejection play in seasons of refreshing? What wisdom is God displaying by providing both mountains so high and valleys so low into our lives?

Refreshing comes in many ways. You can be refreshed for a moment by a cold drink or revitalized for years through a wondrous encounter of God. Refreshing may come through insight into your life’s purpose of by giving you a purpose for the next year. Understanding where refreshing is coming from assists us in knowing who to receive it and maintain it. While there is much more to say than contained in here, you can start your journey now by seeking to know the source of the refreshing you seek.

One final thought. The passage in Acts, listed below, follows a sermon Peter gives on the day of Pentecost. The church age is just beginning, lives are changing. A new age, a new testament is coming to life. In this passage, six phrases contain great truths about refreshing. I believe many of these truths apply to all three types of refreshing. I added emphasis to the passage by bolding the words I feel highlight these truths. You may find it worth you time to meditate on this passage, desiring God to reveal to you His desire for the next season of refreshing in your life.

Therefore repent and return, so that your sins may be wiped away, in order that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord; and that He may send Jesus, the Christ appointed for you Act 3:19-20 (emphasis added)