Each January we get an opportunity to reset our lives. I can’t help but think of the reset button on my original Nintendo back in the day. I would press that reset button so much to try to get those game cartridges to work properly or to start over in a game that was not tracking in a winning direction. We could think of a computer that freezes up and needs to be reset. Or, we might think of resetting an athletic stance or pieces on a board game.
The word reset simply means to “adjust in a new or different way.” The goal is to start over better. And, I think that’s what we are after in a number of ways when we consider the New Year. We might reset different aspects of our lives like diet and exercise as a common example. What might it look like to reset in our relationship with God?
Anytime we reset toward God, we are worshiping. Worship is meant to encompass all aspects of our lives (Romans 12:1), but we make intentional choices to worship Him with our lives when we adjust how we are responding to God in a season of life, a new year, or a moment’s notice.
God has closed the gap between heaven and earth and has offered all it costs in Christ to reconcile our relationship, so that all that’s left for us is to turn and accept His embrace. That is the soul’s reset—whether it is when someone receives Christ for the first time, the plan for a new spiritual practice in a new year, or a moment of gratitude or praise during a day or hour.
“It is good to give thanks to the Lord, to sing praises to Your name, O Most High; to declare Your steadfast love in the morning, and Your faithfulness at night…”
Psalm 92:1-2
Just like a healthy diet and exercise is good for our bodies, it is good for our souls to worship! It is good for us to say, “Thank You.” What gratitude junkies find in experience, science keeps discovering just how healthy it is mentally, emotionally, and relationally. And, there is a spiritual source of all that goodness and even the ability of gratitude—our Generous God.
It is good to sing praise! Music and singing are great blessings of worship. It is good to carry a worship song or hymn for the season we find ourselves in or throughout the course of a day to continually reset our souls in relation to God or in those many moments of temptation and growth opportunities that come with each new day and year.
It is good to recall God’s steadfast love and faithfulness! Anytime is a good time to worship. And, anytime we worship is good for us. There are ways that each of us can reset our mornings and evenings, our drivetimes and carlines, our steps and transitions between work meetings in and toward the steadfast love and faithfulness of God. We will find grace for each need as we reset worship as we live out our days (Hebrews 4:16).
