Isaiah 40:29, “He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength.”

2 Corinthians 12:9, “And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.”

Isaiah 41: 10, “Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.”

During this month of prayer and fasting we need to first focus on refreshing ourselves. We need to refresh our outlook, our mindset, and our goals. It is time to realign with God’s will and plan for our lives.

A perfect example of the need for a refresh can be seen with computers. A refresh is the process of re-installing a computer’s operating system and updating outdated applications, drivers, and settings on the device. Refreshing is done to restore your computer to its original performance and stability, usually in order speed it up or fix errors.

We need a refreshing in the spirit.

We have all been in one form of struggle or another for a while. Life post COVID-19 is different for everyone. I do not believe there is a soul alive who has not been impacted in some way from this global pandemic. To some extent we all have experienced post traumatic stress as we try to walk in our new normal. But we survived. We are survivors!

However, God has more for us.

Spiritually, many of us find ourselves in a weakened state. Some of us have lost faith in God. Some have stopped attending church. Some have lost track of God in our life. They say they cannot see or feel him as they did before. Society or government is doing all it can to talk or legislate God out of our lives.

But God is faithful. Even in our weakened state, God is still with us. God is still speaking to us. We just stopped listening. We allowed life to take some of what we used to have in Christ. Our walk with him is not as paramount to some as it once was.

The definition of refresh is give new strength or energy to; reinvigorate.

Some common synonyms of refresh are rejuvenate, renew, renovate, and restore. While all these words mean “to make like new,” refresh implies the supplying of something necessary to restore lost strength, animation, or power.

We have to understand God knows us and he knows what it is like to walk in this flesh. (Hebrews 4:15-16). The emotions that we experience – God knows all about them. But he also gave us power when he filled is with his spirit (Acts 1:8). With this power also comes expectation. God expects us to stay connected to him. To turn to him in times of trouble. To ask him for what we need (John 14:14).

As believers, as followers of Christ, we have a responsibility. A responsibility to God and to the people we serve. But we are still human. We experience low times where we are weak and may get discouraged. However, we cannot allow ourselves to wallow or remain in this state. We must take action.

-We must shake this off in praise.

-We must find encouragement in the Bible.

-We must find joy in fellowship with other believers; for we gain strength from one another.

A lot of times we need to move in silence. We cannot afford to alert people to what our plans are. Why? Because when we do we open the door for people to prey on us. To sway us to remain in this same pitiful state. Understand, not everyone wants to see you free or delivered. Some people feel better about themselves when they see you struggling just like they are.

These are the same people that need us to get ourselves together. Luke 22:32, “But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not: and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren.”When are back in our place we can turn around and help others.

Isaiah 40:29, reminds us that God gives us power and increases our strength.

2 Corinthians 12:9, reminds us that God’s grace is abundant toward us. He understands when we are weak. That is when his strength is abundant in our lives.

Isaiah 41:10, reminds us that God is always with us. That he will not only strengthen us, he will also help us.

This is our refreshing.

We surrender our burden to God. We give him our weakness in exchange for his grace, his power, his help, and his strength. We lean on him and trust him to be God.

This is key – in prayer, we must verbally confess to God just what we have been feeling. We have to tell him our truth. Expose all to God. By doing this we free ourselves and our heart is opened to accept that free exchange from God.

This is our refreshing!