On a hot summer day you and I often experience a dryness that makes us long for some kind of refreshment that will ease our dehydrated feelings.  Sometimes it helps me to recall building a snowman last winter, with great-granddaughter Logan.  OR walking at the ocean’s edge as water and wet sand tickle my bare toes, or (when I was much younger!) jumping into a mountain lake.  Sipping a glass of ice water or taking a rejuvenating cool shower offer easy-to-do disconnects from the heat. 

I also discovered that the Bible overflows with refreshing passages, ones which demonstrate that God is thinking of more than relief from intense warmth.  He wants us to be refreshing people! 

The apostle Paul frequently praised those who refreshed others by their lives and actions.  He commends Philemon by saying, “Your love has given me great joy and encouragement, because you, brother, have refreshed the hearts of the saints”

(Philemon 7).  Paul also asks the Lord to show mercy to the household of Onesiphorus, because “he often refreshed me and was not ashamed of my chains” (2 Timothy 1:16). 

According to my dictionary, the word refresh means “to revive; to renew by stimulation; to rejuvenate.”  People have often refreshed me as they provided the encouragement I depended on to continue with whatever ministry God had nudged me into.  Proverbs 11:25 reminds us that “A generous man (or woman) will prosper; he who refreshes others will himself be refreshed.”