I love coffee! I love thinking about it. I love the smell of it. I love drinking it—I love everything about it, but what I love most about coffee is how refreshing it is. Coffee can take a dreary morning and turn it into a bright day. A good cup of coffee can give you a new lease on life.

Like a fresh cup of coffee that energizes our mornings, there is nothing like having a freshness with God. Freshness opens our eyes and hearts to the new things God wants to do in our lives. If we desire to experience what God has for us, then there must be a shift in our thinking regarding certain aspects of our lives.

3 Things that Bring Certified Freshness:

1. Fresh Praise

When facing a difficult circumstance or situation where we have no idea what is going to happen, we can have the tendency to start asking questions like, “What do I do?” “Can anyone help me?”

We start questioning everything that’s happening in our lives and why it’s happening. This is generally because we have shifted our focus almost entirely to our circumstances rather than the One who has them under control. We allow our feelings of doubt to override our faith. When this happens, there’s one thing we must do: praise!

In Psalm 103, the psalmist starts with praise.

“Praise the LORD, O my soul; all my inmost being, praise his holy name. Praise the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits – who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion, who satisfies your desires with good things…” (Psalm 103:1-5a NIV)

Our attitude towards God shapes the way we approach God.

We must constantly and continually remind ourselves of who God is and what he is able to do in any season, situation, or circumstance. Our attitude towards God shapes the way we approach God. When we approach God with praise, like the psalmist, we will begin to be energized with life and faith, knowing that God is good and does good because we know that the God in Psalm 103 that, “heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion”, is the same God that wants to do that for us today! Fresh praise puts our thinking back in focus and increases our faith!

2. Fresh Perspective

Few things are more difficult than trying to live for God with an outlook full of condemnation. Condemnation drives us to work harder, be better, and do more for what God has already given us through Jesus. The work we do from condemnation is like an old gritty cup of coffee. We may not be able to tell it’s bad from merely looking at it, but once it’s tasted, it’s getting thrown out. Why? Because old coffee may have the caffeine we need, but its taste kills the joy of drinking it. Work done out of condemnation may be good work, but the feeling of never adding up kills our joy, peace, and our freshness with God.

Understanding who God is and what He has done for us through Jesus Christ will break us from the vicious cycle of performance. Paul, the writer of Romans, says this about the importance of God’s grace in the life of the Christian:

“There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death (Romans 8:1-2 ESV).”

God’s grace removes the tiredness of, “meeting God halfway” and empowers us by the realization that God has already done everything for us.

God’s grace helps us grasp the life of freedom we have in Christ. God wants to work in our lives in order to strengthen us, build our faith, and bless others because of His love for us. When we capture the fresh grace of God in our lives, we will feel the baggage of failure, disappointment, and lack of ability lift from our shoulders. God’s finished and completed work through Jesus Christ, puts the focus on what Jesus has done and not what we are attempting to do for Him. God’s grace removes the tiredness of, “meeting God halfway” and empowers us by the realization that God has already done everything for us.

If we are focused on performance, we will never walk in God’s power and grace! This change in perspective will move us from sitting on the sidelines of life, to becoming an active part of what God is doing. God’s grace is essential to a fresh perspective, which in turn brings renewed freshness in our walk with Him!

3. Fresh Faith

Some people seem to view doubt almost like a badge of honor, but doubt is like a cold cup of decaf coffee. It is useless. It has no power to energize us or bring life to our situation. Walking and living in doubt is cold, bitter, and worthless when desiring the freshness of faith in God’s power and presence in our lives.

James 1:5-8 says, “Ask boldly, believingly, without a second thought. People who ‘worry their prayers’ are like wind-whipped waves. Don’t think you’re going to get anything from the Master that way, adrift at sea, keeping all your options open” (MSG).

Doubt will detour us from the fresh faith God wants to give us as we walk with him.

God wants to energize our faith, but are we praying in faith or are we filled with worry? Doubt will detour us from the fresh faith God wants to give us as we walk with him.

Jesus says this in Matthew 17:20, “. . . I say to you, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there’, and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you.”

We can be assured, knowing what Jesus has done for us, that we can put our trust in Him. Fresh faith enables us to see God moving in new ways through our prayers.

A Fresh praise helps us magnify God; a fresh perspective helps us come before God, and a fresh faith helps us confidently serve God. No matter what we are facing, God wants to do something fresh in our lives. The question is, do we see that? And if we do, will we pursue it?