BY GREG CRUM

“Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord;” Acts 3:19

Acts Chapter 3 begins by telling us of the day that Peter and John were used by God to heal a beggar at one of the gates of the temple in Jerusalem. The man that was healed had been crippled in his legs and feet from his birth, but at the name of Jesus he was crippled no longer and was seen leaping and praising God in the temple courts. Well, as you can imagine, that caused a stir! I mean, to think, someone running around and jumping up and down in church, just because God’s presence had touched them, perish the thought. All sarcasm aside, the people at the temple had seen a great miracle, but when you read on through the chapter you see that was not the end of the potential supernatural moving of God that day. No, the other people in the temple that day were also given the opportunity to get in on the supernatural blessings of the Lord. How so? They were given the opportunity for a time of spiritual refreshing from the Lord.

Friends, have you ever needed refreshing? For instance, have you ever been hot and thirsty after working outside on a summer’s day? Once you got back inside and got access to a cold drink, what did that do for you? Wasn’t it the best-tasting, most satisfying thing you ever experienced? Or maybe you’ve been cold and dirty after several hours of working through a winter’s storm. What did that hot shower do for you? Didn’t you want to stay in there until you turned into a prune?

These are ways we have refreshed the body in our lives, but did you know that you can receive refreshing for your spirit as well? You can! What’s more, it’s actually more important that we are refreshed in our spirits than our bodies because a revived spirit will affect every aspect of our lives in a positive way.

So, how do we receive spiritual refreshment? Well, there’s no physical liquid that will soothe the human spirit, but there is a refreshing for the core of who we are, and the answer to what that is can be found in Acts 3:19. There it tells us that if we repent and allow ourselves to become converted, there will be a refreshing that comes from the presence of the Lord. Repentance is the vehicle for God’s grace that brings spiritual refreshment in our lives!

Now, in times past we’ve written of repentance, and we’ve noted that so many people have the wrong impression of this spiritual blessing. Most established believers look at repentance as a curse instead of a blessing. They look at it as a failure, as a position of embarrassment. The truth of the matter is that repentance should be viewed as none of these, rather, it should be looked at as the Biblical key to receiving from God. Repentance is one of God’s most valuable gifts because it reverses the judgment that was on the way and makes a way for the Lord to come and bless us.

Think about it. The Bible states that John the Baptist came preaching a message of repentance. Why? To make way for the Lord, or in other words, to give the Lord a clear path into the human heart.

Brothers and sisters, repentance will do the same thing today for sinner as well as saint (to be sure we have things we should repent of as well). It will move the obstacles between us and the Lord out of our way. It is a gift from God, a tool that leads us to acknowledging the truth. Let’s embrace the opportunity to repent when we see the need for such in our lives and open the door for a new spiritual refreshing in our hearts.

Greg Crum is the pastor of Calvary Temple in Lovely.