Refreshed

Christians cannot be refreshing encourager's until we have been refreshed by Christ. Many times we ignore our relationship with Christ by trying to minister to others in our own strength. It is easier to help others deal with their problems than to look within our own hearts. After all, looking within may reveal issues we may not want to explore? As we study and apply the lesson of becoming refreshed by the Holy Spirit, we need to grasp the depth of Titus 3:3-7:

For we also once were foolish ourselves, disobedient, deceived, enslaved to various lusts and pleasures, spending our life in malice and envy, hateful, hating one another. But when the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared, He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, that being justified by His grace we might be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life. NASB

These verses remind us where we were before Christ transformed our sinful nature. And we are reminded that renewal is the work of God’s Spirit, whom He poured out through Jesus. If we want to be a refreshing source from which the River of Life can flow, we must first allow Him to refresh us daily. We cannot allow holy distractions to prevent us from continually responding to God’s refreshing call to repentance.