reset: “to set again or to set differently; to change the reading of.”
As I sit in my car trying to make a phone call, I let out a deep sigh. This always seems to happen when I need to complete a task using my phone. My phone is frozen again and the only way I can get it to function is to hold the power button down for a few moments to reset it. So I reach to the side of the phone and hold down power button and wait for the phone to reset. And some days, my life feels like the sleek phone – stuck and frozen, cool and lacking in function, not going anywhere.
Today especially, I spent most of the day on my couch, aimlessly scrolling through channels. Somewhere between restlessness and boredom, I feel stuck. I am stuck in inactivity, stuck spiritually, stuck in my energy level, stuck in my desire to simply sit, stuck in a rut, stuck emotionally. Relationships, business, creativity, and even my heart seem to be at a standstill.
Everything around me seems to be stagnant. I am reminded that being at a standstill hinders me from going forward. It hinders my ability to move in the very things that God has called me to do. It hinders me from growing and from changing. Instead of being recharged and frozen in this state, I want the Lord to reset everything about me. Because I had been here before, I knew there were three things I would have to do in order to prepare for the Lord to reset me.
“No one tears a piece of cloth from a new garment and puts it on an old garment; otherwise he will both tear the new, and the piece from the new will not match the old. And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; otherwise the new wine will burst the skins and it will be spilled out, and the skins will be ruined. But new wine must be put into fresh wineskins.” —Luke 5:36-38 (NASB)
I want fresh wineskins. I’ve known all along what I would need, but I was too lazy to do get into action. And that is part of why I needed the Lord to reset me: I needed Him to quicken my response to the His nudging. If you find that you are not moving or not progressing in any area of your life or even that you are not responding quickly to the Lord’s voice,there are 3 ways to position yourself for the Lord’s reset.
1. Prayer and Fasting – Being intentional about taking time to talk to and hear from God is a sure way to access God’s presence. Fasting gets our attention off the things that normally consume our thoughts and our time (food, television, social media, etc.) and helps us to clean the slate. Together with prayer and the word of God, fasting allows God to have our undivided attention without the filters and fluff.
2. Focus on the Word of God – I find that I am most at a standstill when I am not taking in the Word of God. The Word of God allows us to be reminded of the the Lord’s thoughts towards us and His desires for us.
3. Praise – Nothing gets my mind off my situation like praise. During praise, I let the joy of the Lord saturate my heart and overwhelm me. Praise allows us to shift our perspective (from me to Him, from looking inward to looking upward). Praise your way out of depression. Praise your way out of the funk.
Reset me Lord, God almighty. Reset my eyes to look only at you and not around me. Reset my prayer life and increase my zeal for you. Reset my relationship with you, my testimony, my emotions, my personality and my ability to forgive. Reset my words, my creativity, my energy, my gifts. Reset my time spent in your presence, reset my identity, my praise, my health, my relationships and my bloodline. Reset my life Lord because without your intervention, I am stuck going nowhere.
