Acts 3:11-26
While he was clinging to Peter and John, all the people ran together to them at the so-called portico of Solomon, full of amazement. But when Peter saw this, he replied to the people, “Men of Israel, why are you amazed at this, or why do you gaze at us, as if by our own power or piety we had made him walk? The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified His servant Jesus, the one whom you delivered and disowned in the presence of Pilate, when he had decided to release Him. But you disowned the Holy and Righteous One and asked for a murderer to be granted to you, but put to death the Prince of life, the one whom God raised from the dead, a fact to which we are witnesses. And on the basis of faith in His name, it is the name of Jesus which has strengthened this man whom you see and know; and the faith which comes through Him has given him this perfect health in the presence of you all.
“And now, brethren, I know that you acted in ignorance, just as your rulers did also. But the things which God announced beforehand by the mouth of all the prophets, that His Christ would suffer, He has thus fulfilled. Therefore repent and return, so that your sins may be wiped away, in order that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord; and that He may send Jesus, the Christ appointed for you, whom heaven must receive until the period of restoration of all things about which God spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets from ancient time. Moses said, ‘THE LORD GOD WILL RAISE UP FOR YOU A PROPHET LIKE ME FROM YOUR BRETHREN; TO HIM YOU SHALL GIVE HEED to everything He says to you. And it will be that every soul that does not heed that prophet shall be utterly destroyed from among the people.’ And likewise, all the prophets who have spoken, from Samuel and his successors onward, also announced these days. It is you who are the sons of the prophets and of the covenant which God made with your fathers, saying to Abraham, ‘AND IN YOUR SEED ALL THE FAMILIES OF THE EARTH SHALL BE BLESSED.’ For you first, God raised up His Servant and sent Him to bless you by turning every one of you from your wicked ways.”
“Hit ‘Refresh!’” If the website won’t load, you refresh it. Sometimes that works. You are able to see what you need to see and get the information you need.
I just need a few minutes to sit in the pool, enjoy a cool drink, and refresh myself. Maybe you’ve said something like that.
But webpages and dips in the pool don’t always work. And even when they do, the results are not permanent.
True refreshment, however, comes from repentance and faith in Jesus. This is what Peter promises these people. “Therefore repent and return, so that your sins may be wiped away, in order that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord,” he says to these people. Refreshment comes from sins’ banishment. It is possible for those who repent. It is experienced in the Lord’s presence.
Being refreshed is a fleeting thing. It comes and goes. There is always need for more. But we can thank God that in his presence we may be refreshed. He forgives those who repent and return to him. He removes our sins from us so that they do not hold sway over us. He gives times of refreshment this side of heaven as a foretaste of the perfect and eternal refreshment of the life of the world to come.
Whenever you experience any semblance of being refreshed, let that remind you of God’s love, promises, and the blessings of his presence in our lives.
David Bahn - Reflections 
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