Restart-Refresh-Refill
January 2023
We have made it through the holiday season once again. I hope it was everything you wanted it to be! I’d like to take a moment with you today to get ready to roll with your new year. I have an inner excitement and expectancy for this year ahead. Not only for me and my family, but also for you and yours. I truly believe God is getting His people ready and in position to live above the curse of this sin ridden world and reign as kings in this life as it says in Romans 5:17, TPT, “Death once held us in its grip, and by the blunder of one man, death reigned as king over humanity. But now, how much more are we held in the grip of grace and continue reigning as kings in life, enjoying our regal freedom through the gift of perfect righteousness in the one and only Jesus, the Messiah!”. So get your heart ready to receive the riches of His free grace that He is about to let flow into your life this year!
As I was praying over what the first devotional would be for 2023, the idea of pressing the restart button kept coming back to me. Let’s focus on that today. We are going to be restarting, refreshing, and refilling to get moving with power this year. I remember different times in the past where I felt frustrated in my faith walk. I wasn’t where I thought I would be or I had experienced some circumstances that did not turn out exactly how I “believed” they would. And Then there were times when I just didn't understand some things and that was frustrating to my faith. I remember other seasons where I had gotten myself into the “works mentality.” This “works” thing was when my faith was centered on me doing all the right things. It was a time focused on me being good enough and having faith in what I could do instead of my faith being in what Jesus had accomplished for me on the Cross of Calvary. I think that most believers walk through seasons of these same mindsets and situations, that’s okay! God is not upset or mad if that’s you. He is gently nudging you today to bring your focus back in and to restart, refresh, and refill with Him.
So below I propose 5 ways that we are going to restart, refresh and refill to prepare our hearts to walk in God’s vision for our year!:
Become as a child: Matthew 18:1-3, AMPC, “AT THAT time the disciples came up and asked Jesus, Who then is [really] the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? And He called a little child to Himself and put him in the midst of them, And said, Truly I say to you, unless you repent (change, turn about) and become like little children [trusting, lowly, loving, forgiving], you can never enter the kingdom of heaven [at all].”
The Bible tells us in multiple places that we are to imitate children in our faith. Children just willingly believe, they do ask questions, but regardless they believe just about anything you tell them. That’s how we are to be with the Word of God. Believing whatever the Word of God tells us, regardless if we understand the how, when, who, or why. The Holy Spirit is willing to teach us ALL things, (1 John 2:27), but in the meantime become as a child and just choose to believe because the one who has promised is faithful, (Hebrews 10:23).
Have the faith of Jesus: Galatians 2:16, KJV, “knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.”
As New Testament believers, we have a better and more profitable covenant than those of the Old Testament. One of those benefits is that while we do have our own faith that springs from our spirits, we have an even MORE reliable faith to stand on. We have the faith of Jesus. Jesus has the most mighty and undefeatable faith of all. And we have the advantage of getting to say, “I believe the faith of Jesus about me!” Jesus had to have great faith to do all that He did. He had to believe His inner relationship with the Father to step into His divine destiny here on the earth and believe that He is the Son of God. He had to keep that faith in the face of every trial, temptation, and difficult storm. Jesus held that faith the whole way until He believed that He must go to the cross to save the entire world from damnation. Then He continued to believe to complete it until death and then spent 3 days carrying our punishment in hell, enduring the worst punishment of all, spiritual death and separation from God. The whole time He had to have faith in the Father that He would truly, when it was all said and done, raise Him from death. The life, sacrifice, and resurrection of Jesus took the most faith ever. And now we get to use His perfect, incorruptible faith as we walk out our own faith walk. Jesus believed that once everything was finished the curse would be broken and the blessing would be our inheritance. He now sees us healed, whole, and prospering. So we need to believe what Jesus believes about us. We must believe in His faith and see ourselves healed, whole and prospering in every area of life.
Faith without works is dead, but we can’t put our faith in our good works: James 2:17, AMPC, “So also faith, if it does not have works (deeds and actions of obedience to back it up), by itself is destitute of power (inoperative, dead).”
I am a strong believer in doing what the Bible explicitly tells us to do. We must follow its instructions. However, we have to allow the Holy Spirit to lead us into obeying and doing what the Bible says through the spirit of Grace. We need to monitor our motives and feelings behind our works to make sure we do not cross over the line into believing that we get to have the Blessing because we did or said the right thing. We received the Blessing through God’s grace. He freely gave it to us. We do not have it because we said all the perfect confessions and love others the right way. Yes, we need to confess God’s Word over our lives, love people and all the other things, but that’s not where our righteousness comes from. Jesus is the one and only source of our righteousness.
Know God’s will for you is good: Jeremiah 29:11, AMPC, “For I know the thoughts and plans that I have for you, says the Lord, thoughts and plans for welfare and peace and not for evil, to give you hope in your final outcome.”
This one is straight forward, but key. We have to get it knit into our hearts and minds that God’s will for us is for good and not for evil. Bad things happen in this world because sin is present. The devil is the one that comes to steal, kill and destroy, (John 10:10). Jesus came to be the solution to all the destruction the devil brings to our lives. We must stop placing blame on God for things that the devil brought into our lives. How can you ask and believe God for goodness and blessing if you think that sometimes He brings evil to your path to teach you a lesson. There can never be true trust in your heart when you believe that way. He is a loving Father who parents us with love not punishment.
Do not view God, who He is, His abilities, His willingness, or His Word, through the lens of your own life experiences or the life experiences of other people: Hebrews 10:23, AMPC, “ So let us seize and hold fast and retain without wavering the hope we cherish and confess and our acknowledgement of it, for He Who promised is reliable (sure) and faithful to His word.”
I know it is so easy to judge God and get a perception of Him based on something we walked through or something someone we know walked through. While hard times are a fact, the Word of God is THE Truth that is higher than any life experience we walk through. As humans it can be difficult to not allow our perception to get jaded. We have to change our mindset to believe that Who God is, is not determined by what we or others walk through. It is determined through the unfaltering Word of God. If the Bible says He is faithful to His promises then we have to see God through that and hold that truth higher than what we are seeing and experiencing around us. If the Bible says you are healed by the stripes that wounded Jesus, then you have to believe that you are healed regardless of the symptoms you are feeling. If the Bible calls you prospering in your finances, then you have to believe that you are bursting at the seams with overflow when you have a mountain of debt you're staring at. Hebrews 11:1, AMPC, “ NOW FAITH is the assurance (the confirmation, the title deed) of the things [we] hope for, being the proof of things [we] do not see and the conviction of their reality [faith perceiving as real fact what is not revealed to the senses].”
I believe this year is going to be a “no-nonsense” year for believers. And by that I mean, straight forward, to the point, not beating around the bush, either you’re in or you’re out. And we need to intentionally position ourselves to be in. Believers are going to experience this year in one of two ways:
- They are going to be tossed to and fro with the waves of the world. Struggling with the same stuff the world is.
or
- They are going to step into their true identity in Christ, quit the aimless way of living, and shed the curse. They will walk completely in the Blessing and look nothing like the world.
I want to help you be the latter. Let’s make the quality decision together, this first Friday of the new year, to be intentional and prepare our hearts to walk in the Blessing this year. Let’s get ourselves ready to be able to go deeper than we ever have before and let the power and goodness of God show up in our lives, and prove this Jesus thing to be true to this lost and hurting world.
- Made by my husband while listening to me speak this blog edition out loud. :)
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