Refresh; Day 5 of 5

By David Villa on YouVersion

Just as a cold glass of water after finishing summer yard work refreshes and revitalizes us, manna provides us with the strength to keep going.

This provides us with what we often refer to as a fresh wind.

Many people know about the 80/20 principle; 80% of the value of your work comes from 20% of your time and effort. Sometimes it’s 70/30 or 90/10, but the general point is that a majority of your results come from a small minority of your time.

Fewer people understand that 80/20 is iterative. The 20% breaks down into its own 80/20, and so on. The first iteration would predict that 4% of your time yields 64% of the results.

The challenge is to figure out where to use your time!

What is that 4%? Much leadership work is with people. Which people should you spend time with and why? How much energy should you allocate for strategic study and preparation?

You could go to 50 respected leaders and get 20 different answers. There’s no clear formula.

Christian leaders, however, are fortunate enough to have direction from the Holy Spirit. In this age of expanding choices and amplified noise, we need direction to make the highest value choices for our time, attention, and energy.

Make time today to listen for divine direction.

1. Get the big picture. You might find it helpful to step back and see how your role and current journey fits into the bigger picture of God’s plan.
2. Reset your expectations.
3. Set realistic timelines, and let God do what only He can do.

Don’t let the fresh wind escape your sails. Instead, utilize it to guide you, the vessel, towards a brighter future.

Remember, when God is on your side, who or what could possibly form against you?

Look at the ships also: though they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are guided by a very small rudder wherever the will of the pilot directs.

James 3:4

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.

2 Corinthians 5:17

By David Villa on YouVersion

Just as refreshing a fire requires the feeding of kindling to the flames, we too must feed ourselves in order to refresh and revitalize our minds, bodies, and spirits.

This requires fresh manna—fresh provision, new thoughts, new ideas, new business, and this can be found only within the Word of God.

Manna is daily.

God provided manna for the children of Israel during the forty years that they wandered in the wilderness. It appeared each morning alongside the morning dew, where the Israelites would gather it, and the manna nourished them for the day. Those who tried to hoard the manna for the next day woke up to a putrid, worm-infested mess, with exceptions to the sixth day, in which the Israelites gathered enough manna to last through the Sabbath. God provided manna to meet their physical needs but also to remind them that they needed more than bread for life.

They needed God.

Psalm 23 promises that because the Lord is my shepherd, I have everything I need. Just as Israel counted on the daily manna in order to survive and push on during their journey, God wants me to depend on Him daily.

His provisions show up when I need them and not before. When I try to secure today what I think I’ll need tomorrow, it doesn’t work. It doesn’t work because God wants me to trust Him each day for that day’s need. I was created to rely on Him.

Manna can be unusual. The word itself loosely translates to “what is it?”

I’m not sure what the Hebrews expected when Moses told them that they would see God’s glory in the morning, but they didn’t expect what they found.

Sometimes we don’t recognize God’s provisions either. It doesn’t look like what we expected.

But it is always there, if we’re willing to look for it.

And it is always enough.

and he rained down on them manna to eat and gave them the grain of heaven. Man ate of the bread of the angels; he sent them food in abundance.

Psalm 78:24‭-‬25

By David Villa on YouVersion

Once we have refreshed our vision for the road ahead, we must also rekindle or refresh our fire.

To refresh your fire is to strengthen what remains to ensure that your foundation remains sturdy and will be able to sustain you for the long haul.

Through the process of tempering, steel and other metals are put into intense heat where they are purified and strengthened. As the heat is applied, the impurities come to the surface and are removed leaving a pure metal. Interestingly, the hardness of the metal is reduced through the fire; however, its flexibility under pressure, or ductility, is increased. This causes the overall strength and versatility to rise.

It will bend in the face of adversity, but it will not break.

There are times in our lives when we go through fires and pressures that are anything but comfortable. Whether it is a physical ailment, financial hardship, relational challenge, or spiritual dryness, these times test the very core of our personhood. The fire brings the impurities to the surface, but each of us must choose to remove them from our life. The fire breaks down our own hardness, but there is strength in learning to be flexible. Although these “fires” are not desirable, when we submit our life to the will of the Holy Spirit, they begin to expose the impurities in our life, reduce our “hardness,” and give us strength and flexibility for the purpose that God has for our life.

We too will bend in the face of adversity, but we will not break.

Maybe your fire has been stoked or smothered. Maybe your coals are still red hot, or maybe they are starting to cool down. Wherever you are in your journey, it isn’t too late to add kindling, and revitalize the fire inside of you.

Don’t give up.

Instead, strengthen what remains, and watch your fire grow.

each one’s work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done.

1 Corinthians 3:13

Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord.

Romans 12:11