Times Of Refreshing
Big Bear Lake, CA
Lakes are pretty cool places. One might say that they're refreshing.
Last week, we were able to run off to Big Bear Lake for a few days. The trip was relatively last minute for us (we're planners) and was a beautiful bonus gift from God because He’s awesome and He’s an awesome Father.
On one of the days that we were up there, we hiked up to Bertha Peak. When we got to the top we told Silas, "Do you see all this? God created all this. And the same God who created all this loves you."
Then we followed it up with, "Well, technically, man made this lake. But God made the raw materials."
It's been interesting to learn how many caveats we have to make nowadays. The first time Silas told us that he wanted to pray I emphatically assured him, "baby boy, I will always pray with you!" Well, now he uses “I want to pray” as a stalling technique at bedtime so we've had to change our response to, "You can pray to Jesus whenever, wherever, all by yourself. If you're in real need, we will always stop to pray for you."
I feel like I have to caveat the phrase "times of refreshing" too since people have different definitions of rest and refreshment.
Times of refreshing don't come from a fully crossed out to-do list. Jeff still had to do some work and write a sermon. I still had a meeting and some other stuff to tend to. There are no breaks from potty-training, as it would turn out. But none of it was burdensome. It was a joy to do all those things in a cabin in the woods. It was a joy to join our Bible study on the lake via video call.
And, times of refreshing don't come just because you're in a beautiful physical environment. Something like three-fourths of Jesus’s earthly ministry was done around the Sea of Galilee (aka Lake Kinneret, aka Lake Tiberias.) And we can see how much conflict was happening interpersonally amongst the disciples, long strolls along the lakeshore with Jesus notwithstanding. They fought about who would be the greatest.
“An argument arose among them as to which of them was the greatest.” Luke 9:46
You know how we know about this conflict? They told us. They took a story that made them look immature and recorded it because after Jesus’s resurrection, they knew that story had no hold over them anymore. Their identity was sealed in Christ. There was no need to keep their blunders secret. They brought it out into the light.
After walking with the risen Jesus, Peter preached,
“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”
Acts 3:19
We’re going through the book of Acts as a church right now, and we’ve been struck by how much Peter had to unlearn and learn as he continued to walk with Jesus. And I’m guessing Peter needed times of refreshing to keep going.
Dr. Rob Reimer has said,
“If you aren’t experiencing times of refreshing from the Lord, invite the Spirit of God to shine light into your soul. Bring everything into the light. Get back into alignment with Jesus so that your sins may be wiped out and you may experience times of refreshing from the Lord. God never convicts us to make us feel bad; He only convicts us to set us free.” [1]
Fighting sin takes its toll. Spiritual warfare takes its toll. But the deeper life with the Holy Spirit replenishes abundantly. Focus on the cross. Focus on Jesus. Rest in who He is. Obey His commandments.
Notice that Acts 3:19 says times of refreshing come from the presence of the Lord. A.B. Simpson, in The Cross of Christ, has a section entitled, “The Principle of Death in Our Deeper Life.” He says,
“It is only after the strength of nature fails us that the strength of God can come in. Even then the answer is sometimes not given until we have first surrendered it to Him and have been willing to give up even life itself and have learned to seek the Blesser rather than the blessing. Then God often reveals Himself to us as a Healer, as He could not do until we were wholly abandoned to His will.” [2]
Seek the Blesser. Come to Jesus in prayer to seek Him, not just His hands.
We’ve been living in a season of refreshing recently, and it has been due to the presence of our Lord. Praise be to God.
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Reimer, Rob. https://www.facebook.com/DrRobReimer/posts/5373932269300262?comment_id=5373982509295238
Simpson, AB. The Cross of Christ (Camp Hill: Christian Publications, 1994), 34.
