Refresh
"The Lord is my shepherd... He refreshes my soul."
– Psalm 23:3
I hope your summer is off to a wonderful start! I am writing this week from Dauphin Island, AL, where I am on a family vacation, soaking up some rest and quality time with my family and grandkids.There is something about the smell of salt water in the air, the slower pace, and the laughter of grandkids that does something really good for the soul. Summer has a way of giving us permission to slow down, and I am so grateful for that. This week, I want to share a word that I believe God has for all of us in this season: Refresh.
True refreshment can be hard to find! The world offers us the idea of escaping through “vacations”, but they rarely deliver renewal. There is a universal law of entropy at work in our lives, constantly pulling us toward disorder and away from the true source of life and refreshment. It sneaks in especially during times of “vacation” when we can drift from our spiritual rhythms, leaving us more vulnerable to apathy and emptiness. So how do we push back against that pull? We remain connected with the one true source of renewal – Jesus! He is the God of Refreshing, Renewal, and Redemption. He is the God of Re-everything! He did not design us to run on our own strength or the world's counterfeit ideas of reset and refreshment. He designed us to need Him, and He meets us with true and lasting refreshment.
Three Principles of Godly Refreshing
Refresh Your Mind: The world we live in is constantly competing for our minds. Our culture is loud, opinionated, and relentless in shaping how we think and what we believe. Left unchecked, we drift. We start believing things that are simply not aligned with God's truth. That is why Romans 12:2 is such a powerful reminder: "Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind."The word "transformed" there is the Greek word metamorphoo, the same root as "metamorphosis". God does not just want to tweak our thinking. He wants to completely transform it. When we reject the world's noise and turn our minds toward His Word and His ways, He realigns our thinking with Christ and fills us with peace, hope, clarity, and renewed purpose. A refreshed mind is a powerful and fruitful thing.
Refresh Your Strength: Life is demanding. Relationships, responsibilities, disappointments, and the daily grind have a way of wearing us down over time, both physically and spiritually. The Apostle Paul understood this well. In 2 Corinthians 4:16, he writes that “though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day.” That is one of the great promises of walking with God. Even when life is hard and we feel depleted, He is quietly renewing us from the inside out. Isaiah 40:31 gives us that beautiful picture of “those who hope in the Lord mounting up with wings like eagles, running without growing weary, walking without fainting.” And Nehemiah 8:10 reminds us that "the joy of the Lord is your strength."This is not manufactured positivity. It is a supernatural empowerment that comes from daily pursuing Him. Give Him your weariness, and He will give you His strength.
Refresh Your Soul: Of all the things in us that need refreshing, perhaps none is more important than the soul. Our soul is the deep center of who we are, where we dream, where we feel, and where we long for something more. Augustine famously said that our hearts are restless until they find their rest in God, and I believe that is profoundly true. Only God can fill the deepest longings of the human soul and make us truly whole. Psalm 23 gives us one of the most tender pictures in all of Scripture – “the Lord as our shepherd, leading us beside still waters, restoring our souls.” He is not driving us, He is leading us. He is not demanding from us. He is inviting us to give Him our hearts, to let Him shepherd us through every season, and to drink deeply from His living water. When we do, our souls are filled to overflowing, and we cannot help but pour that refreshment into the lives of the people around us. That is the abundant life Jesus promised, and it is available to every one of us “today”.
The season of summer is a gift.The travel, the slower pace, and the time away with people we love are all worth celebrating and enjoying. But let us not miss the deeper invitation of this season. Jesus is the ultimate source of refreshment, and He is calling us to abide in Him, to stay connected to the vine, so that no matter what the summer brings, we are being continually refreshed from the inside out. I pray we will maintain our priority of abiding in Jesus this summer so we can be truly refreshed and pour that refreshment into those around us.
Challenge Question:What is one intentional step you can take this week to seek refreshment in Christ, and how can you pour that same refreshment into someone else in your life right now?
Prayer:Father, thank You for being the God of Refresh, Renewal, and Redemption. We come to You weary from the demands of life and asking You to renew our minds, restore our strength, and refresh our souls. Help us to stay connected to You as the vine and source of all true refreshment this summer. May the rest and renewal we receive from You overflow into the lives of those around us and draw them closer to You. In Jesus name, Amen.
Jesus is the ultimate source of refreshment. As we begin our summer, let’s stay connected to the Source of life and refreshment and experience the abundant life He has promised. Have a blessed and refreshing summer!
