This past weekend I went on my college group's winter retreat and the theme was "Refreshed." Now, this may be a theme that we might not always think about because life and society are always moving and it seems like there is never enough time to stop and be refreshed. Sometimes, even when we try to be refreshed, it can become something that we can't do on our own.

God is always going to be there with us, even when we can't always feel him there and this can play a huge role in being refreshed by God. There are so many times in life where you may be going through something and someone says that they understand and if you know them and what they've gone through, then you know that they don't understand.

It can be so infuriating when this happens, but even still, we can always know that God understands exactly what we are feeling. Jesus came and experienced everything we go through and more because he experienced everything for everyone and that in and of itself is refreshing.

Being able to come to God and completely fall into him and let him refresh and renew you can be such a beautiful thing. Although, being refreshed in Him may not be what we think it means.

We might think that "being refreshed" means rest or sleep and that we should just give it to God to deal with, but that is not the case. God might bring us a verse or a friend or even a full community of people to refresh us and give us rest, without actually sleeping for rest.

In Matthew 11:28-29 it says, "Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls." This verse shows how God is going to be there for us and will give us rest and He may give us rest we didn't even know we needed.

For example, I went into this past weekend just hoping to be able to relax and I thought that was all the refreshment that I was going to need, but God brought a wonderful new friend into my life and refreshed me through my community in a way that I didn't even know I needed.

God can refresh us in so many ways from refreshment in Him to refreshment in relationships and community. Even if you don't know what kind of refreshment you may need, God does, and all you have to do is ask him for it.

Don't feel bad to ask for refreshment or think that you don't have enough time for it either. You can only go a mile a minute for so long and even through all of that God is right there waiting to be able to refresh you and give you rest. So don't be afraid to take a minute and ask to be refreshed.