Where did you go in your head when you read the title of this post? Did you start wishing for a nap… or a trip to some idyllic beach somewhere?
In reading Acts chapter three for Sunday, I was arrested by what seems to be to be an audacious statement from Peter who is preaching to a wondering crowd. He calls out to his hearers, “Repent…that times of refreshing may come…”
“Times of refreshing” I read those words over and over, over and over. Why “over and over”? Because it didn’t make sense to me at first, but I wanted it too make sense.
Maybe this is you at times like it is me: I would love to get a nap in, but everything I am responsible for seems like it is on fire…and I am the only one who can put it out.
Or maybe it is you all of the time. If you are like me there are few times that I feel, “refreshed.” Many times I have a low-grade tension because of a to-do list for my work that needs to be done, a conversation that I am anxious about having, or just whatever is on my mind at the time.
“Escape” masquerades as “refreshment.” I like to watch movies to find something like refreshment. If I can get into a good story for two ours or so, it seems to help…for a time. I escape into someone else’s fictional world for a time, but always have to reenter my own. You probably have your own way of escaping. It isn’t necessarily bad, it just isn’t enough.
Even though these words are Peter’s words in his sermon, in a very real ways they are the Spirit’s promise to us. God the Holy Spirit is inviting us to his refreshment, his oasis of rest. He wants us to find refreshment in him because He knows that we will only find it in Him. That is why it starts with repentance; faith in God’s goodness to give us times of refreshment demand that we turn our back on those sinful things that masquerade as rest and refreshment and turn our hearts to the One who gives his own refreshment and joy!
Join us this Sunday evening as we hear the word of the Lord together and discuss ways that he might bring us into the very refreshment that Jesus himself lived in…and loves to share with us!