Renewed, Refreshed, And Revived

Renewed, Refreshed, and Revived

A customer wrote a letter of complaint to a company he had bought a knife from. He said that as he used his new knife it had gotten dull, and he had expected that it would last a long time.

The company responded, “It will. Sharpen it and try it again.”

No matter how sharp a knife might be, however, if it isn’t re-sharpened it will get dull.

The point of the story is that no matter how young or old in the Lord someone may be, no matter if they are a baby Christian or an elder of a church, no matter if they teach in the children’s ministry or adults in a Bible study or home fellowship, or they are serving as a greeter, usher, or in the area of hospitality, if they are not sharpening themselves through time spent in reflection, and examination, along with time spent in prayer, the Bible, and fellowship, they will get dull, burnt out, and what I have seen, quit.

Therefore, we must be constantly renewing, refreshing, and reviving our soul and spirit in the things of God.

Listening to a teaching video, the Lord laid upon my heart several questions that frankly I wasn’t sure when or how I was to ask them, not just of myself, but also of those within the church. And then after reading the story of the customer with the dull knife, I knew that these questions are essential for our own self-evaluation and examination.

Now, these are rhetorical questions, that is, I’m not asking for a show of hands or a shout out, but rather take a moment and quietly reflect and think about how you would truthfully and honestly answer.

• How many of you are happy with where you are in life?

• How many of you believe that God is happy where you are in life?

• How or where do you stand based upon God’s word that says, “These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.” (Isaiah 29:13)

• If Jesus were to return right now, will He find not only faith, but also a people who truly love Him?

For just about everyone in here today you’ve been through so much, one battle after another, from illness to financial difficulties, and everything in-between, that have literally taken your breath away. And what you need now, before you get too dull and used up is to get re-sharpened, that is, get yourself renewed, refreshed, and revived.

This is what I think God wants us to know, because we’ve become a little dull. In looking at the pillars of our church, it seems that the excitement for evangelism, that is, each one reach one with the good news of Jesus Christ, or that of discipleship, that is building up God’s house within us, or are mission of making a difference in our community for Christ, all these seem to have taken a back seat to everything else that is going on in our lives.

So, it’s time we re-sharpen our spiritual senses, renew, refresh, and revive our flagging, if not sagging, spirits. But how we go about doing this, and who we turn to that will help us accomplish these goals; that is what I would like to spend time on today.

1. Seek God’s Rest

One of the most important and commonly neglected areas of our overall health is rest. Rest is essential to good health. And while it won’t provide immunity from illness and disease, it will thwart and slow down some of the more serious physical, emotional, and spiritual problems we face.

Even medical science says that those who get regular and adequate rest are more likely not to get sick as compared to those who burn the midnight oil. Maybe we can say that those who burn the candle at both ends aren’t as bright as they think.

We live in a 24/7 culture with cellphones and the Internet to help us stay connected and assessable. But even with all our new inventions, timesaving tools, short cuts, and quick fix solutions we always seem to be in a hurry and running out of time. And so, we push ourselves even harder, squeezing every second out of our work, play, and family time.

And yet with all these so-called efficiencies, we seem to have less time than ever before. When it comes to life, however, warp speed has a way warping our souls. The thinner we spread ourselves; we’ll soon find that there is nothing left of us at the end of the day.

To counter this overall feeling of tiredness we pop vitamins and no-doze tablets. We take herbal supplements and drink coffee and high-power energy drinks. We do anything and everything to get a boost to see us through the day.