Times Of Refreshing Are Coming Your Way

Acts 3:19 (AMP) So repent (change your mind and purpose); turn around and return [to God], that your sins may be erased (blotted out, wiped clean), that times of refreshing (of recovering from the effects of heat, of reviving with fresh air) may come from the presence of the Lord;
As a young boy I lived near a creek that flowed almost year round. During the winter it would swell and during the summer it would slow down to a trickle. I spent hours upon hours along its banks hiking and playing and building forts, etc. It was a great place for a young boy to play and a great place for the imagination to have no limits. One time, my friends and myself decided to dam up the creek so we could have enough water to swim in. It was a lot of work. Kids from all over the neighborhood pitched in to help with the dream of having our own swimming hole. We even built a channel with a gate to keep the water flowing through until we were ready to block it up completely. The big day finally came and we completely blocked up the stream and waited for it to get full enough so that we could swim in. Little did we know that two problems we’re about to take place. First, we did not know that the waters were filled with some sort of bacteria. We all broke out in hives from one end to the other. Second, we didn’t take into consideration that the stream also helped water livestock and farms downstream. Standing on the banks, covered with welts and hives a farmer came around the bend and busted us all and made us tear the dam apart. As we started dismantling the dam – water began to break through with a huge rush and begin to pour downstream again. All our hard work went, well… down the drain (you might say). It is interesting – the book of Acts gives us this very same analogy by saying that sometimes our own lives become like that dam and need to be broken up. We become stagnant and filled with bacteria. The only way to get clean is to break up the dam. The only way to be free is to let go of that which is causing the difficulty and pain in your life from the first place. The promise is given: repent and seasons of refreshing will come your way – a “refreshing from the Lord.” May I encourage you today to press in for your deliverance and press in for what God wants to come into your life? Breakthrough is within your reach. It is right around the corner. Don’t be afraid and take the first step. When you do – watch out, great peace will be just around the corner.