You know what it feels like on a hot summer day and you have been outside working or even having some fun at the beach with a game of volleyball and you sweat and then you get so thirsty? When you take those first few sips (or guzzles) of cool water, it is refreshing indeed. It refreshes your body and your heart and your brain - well all of your insides really.
The same thing happens when you've been working in the field for the Lord as well. We can get so caught up in the work that we forget that we are thirsty, maybe even do not "feel" thirsty for a while.
Then suddenly there comes a malaise or fatigue or you get thrown a boulder you were not expecting and it knocks you off your feet. Metaphorically, you may need another person to bring you that cool drink of encouragement to help strengthen your body and your heart and your mind.
It happened for my husband and I in the most unexpected way today. We have been working as kingdom partners in several things and recently received some news (there is that boulder that you were not expecting) that knocked the wind out of us.
How many of you are familiar with that feeling? I am actually speaking of the physical sensation of falling to the ground from a tree or say, walking along the top of a swing set and falling to the ground. Yes, that was me and yes, I did those things and yes, I eventually fell to the ground and for just a moment or two, which felt like an eternity, I literally could not breathe.
THAT is how we felt over some distressing news recently. We just sat and had no words for a little while and we wept and then we began to pray. Somebody out there just thought or said out loud, "You should have prayed first." Friend, if that was your thought, then you've never had the wind knocked out of you. But once we got our breath back, we have not ceased to pray - for in this situation we are begging God to intervene.
Because we have some hard decisions to make, we needed the counsel of someone very trustworthy, very biblically versed (pun intended) and who would pull no punches but would help us with a decision or two and who knew us well.
We contacted this person who shall remain nameless ,for they are humble in heart, expecting to get some good advice, expecting to either confirm or deny what we thought was the right decision and he did all that.
What we did NOT expect was to come away from the lengthy conversation weeping with joy because we were so encouraged by this person. We didn't even know we were that thirsty! He told us that our experience and all that God had brought us through was for a purpose and that we should be in a place where we could freely share and teach these things so that others could benefit from all that God had poured into us.
Honestly, sitting right here in our living room, the Holy Spirit was moving so much by the end of the conversation that Greg and I were actually weeping with joy. Our hearts were overflowing because we were thirsty for encouragement. Odd, we didn't know we were that thirsty. We're still trying to work through that one but we have an idea already.
Do you know what? - this is scripture - written 2500 plus years ago, that showed up today real, relative and powerful. That is God's word, real, relative and powerful! Why am I even surprised? Proverbs 11:25 says, "A generous person will prosper; whoever refreshes others will be refreshed" in the NIV and in the NASB "A generous person will be prosperous, And one who gives others plenty of water will himself be given plenty."
Either version you read, this one is perfectly clear. When you give of yourself to refresh someone else, then you yourself will be refreshed. We know that God is going to refresh this person in some way. Why? Because He said so.
Don't you just love how God loves on us sometimes in the most unexpected ways.
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