Times of Refreshing… Hello to my weekend readers. I hope you enjoy this musing on “being refreshed” because, the reason I am using it is HEAT—HOT HEAT—that makes our lives and our planet very difficult to enjoy, to work, and be comfortable as well.

We Arizonans are pretty used to heat—but—this was a record-breaking never experienced before. In fact, for 2023, the meteorologists reported that Arizona had 31 consecutive days over 110 degrees, some went up to 118-119 degrees! And, even the Phoenix airport had to shut down because their tarmac was clocked at over 122 degrees; planes cannot get enough lift to fly in that kind of heat.

However, it wasn’t just Arizona with deadly heat—over 30 states and 45+million people have been sweating it out and in major cities the death toll is still stacking up. I cannot imagine our workers outside in this deadly heat. How can they refresh themselves and not get heat stroke which can be so deadly?

This kind of heat is more than just hard on us physically—it is also hard on us mentally and that means it is impacting our spiritual life too! We are trying to survive this in our body, soul, mind and heart as well. For many, that need for refreshment is hard to find and it hurts our souls, too. It’s not just that our bodies need a re-boot, it is our whole persona. In other words, the heat in degrees, the heat in anger, the heat hurting our health, the heat that knocks at our conscience and sucks us dry—all of this can be deadly in unbelievable ways.

So, can you use some spiritual refreshment? Who of us doesn’t?! God’s Word is like that dive in the water—it refreshes and revives us. In fact, the word ‘refresh, refreshing’ is described from Webster’s dictionary as: “to restore strength and animation; to revive, to restore or maintain by renewing supply-replenish; to update or renew.” Just reading this description can give us a renewal of hope and restoration!

David wrote in Psalm 19:7 [NLT]: “The instructions of the Lord are perfect, reviving the soul.” In Matthew 11:28-30 [Message] we hear Jesus calling to us saying: “Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.”  

I just love the word ‘refresh’—because it is not only a perfect term to describe a reboot—it even means a return to something that we need, love, or yearn for. When we think of those things our minds get excited, our heart feels less heavy and we just want to dive into something cool and refreshing!

In this heat-dome in our country right now we probably are not thinking about opening God’s word for refreshment but it is the best thing we can do! There are many Scriptures that give us replenishment, restoration, and gaining perspective on life—even in the heat! And yes, it’s another lesson about getting direction from the Lord. And as you open the Bible, the Word of God, it will refresh your soul.

Another way to find this refreshment is to think of others more than yourself. Our homeless population continues to grow and often the first to die in this kind of heat—already down and out—their hopes dashed. In Proverbs 11:25 [NIV] has a mandate on helping others: “The generous will prosper; those who refresh others will themselves be refreshed.”

We all need a spiritual reboot—a refresh—a restoration update—and the best way to do this is to spend time in God’s presence, reading God’s Word, putting the needs of others above our own wants and needs—and—knowing that through all this, God will refresh our body, soul, spirit, heart and mind! After all, who but God can give us a reboot? AMEN!