"Renewal"

It's good to be back from vacation...somewhat! I was not ready to return but once I hit the "Kansas Mountains", it made home look so much better! Let me share with you something I learned several years ago about 'vacating.'

Many people go on vacation to get away. It is so needful at times and very beneficial. Have you ever thought about what you do on vacation? Most people go so fast, pile in so much in a short time that they are just as worn out when they return as before they left. We need to learn a lesson. Jesus would often slip away into the mountains to get away from the crowds always pressing Him and demanding His time. He saw His retreat into the mountains as a time of refreshing and renewal. How did He renew? By renewing His spiritual well being.

Our spiritual well being is directly tied to our physical well being. Many do not realize that. When God's word speaks of being "renewed in the spirit of your mind" (Eph. 4:23), there is something very significant about that. Have you ever been involved in an outreach or maybe several nights of a meeting where God's word is taught? At the end, even though you have travelled each night and it tires the body, you find yourself "renewed." You don't want it to end and you feel better. Why? Because the whole week or days has been about renewing your mind from God's word. You fed your spiritual side and it affected your physical side. I have been worn out mentally and physically only to leave the house in the evening to a Bible study with individuals. All the sudden, you find yourself "renewed" and vibrant because you fed your spiritual well being. As I have spoken across this country, I find that at the end of several nights of lessons and enjoying the fellowship of other brothers and sisters, no one wants it to be over. There is a new strength, a new spirit, a new life and growth that has taken place. That is what is a "renewal" and that's what I do on vacation.

Maybe we need to refocus our thinking and efforts when we go on vacation, realizing it is good to get away but to put all your efforts into spending tons of money, running from one place of entertainment to another while the spirit side of us is left untouched, it wears us out even further. Jesus knew that His spiritual renewal was the vital part of His physical well being. "And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect." (Rom. 12:2) Maybe that's why our spiritual progress is so slow?