“For they have refreshed my spirit and yours.” (1 Corinthians 16:18)
You love to see them coming. There are some people that are simply refreshing to your spirit. They bring joy, encouragement, wisdom, and spiritual perspective. To be around them is to be energized and helped. They carry the life-giving fragrance of Christ.
There are others, however, who seem to have (as one man said) the “spiritual gift of deflation.” “The mouth speaks of that which fills the heart,” Jesus said. You cannot be a refreshment to others if you are not filled with refreshment yourself. A heart filled with the Holy Spirit is the key to producing the fruit of love, joy, peace, patience, and on and on.
Such refreshment comes from an unselfish heart that is genuinely more interested in others than themselves. That is so concerned for the purposes of God and the needs of others that they hardly ever think about themselves at all.
And it is a deliberate choice, a consciousness that our lives, words, and demeanor affect those around us. Would you two things today?
1. Be grateful for the people God has placed in your life to refresh you. Pause right now and thank Him in prayer, and then thank THEM for their vital role in your spiritual life.
2. Be a refresher. Be aware that your words can lift up or tear down, build or destroy. See how many people you can refresh today. Heed Paul’s instruction:
“Let no unwholesome word proceed out of your mouth, but only such a word as is good for edification, good for the need of the moment, and gives grace to those who hear” (Ephesians 4:29).
