Dear Heavenly Father,
You are holy and full of majesty, and You deserve all praise, glory, and honor. Thank You for being an awesome God, and for blessing us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places because of our union with Jesus Christ. Your Word commands us in Acts 3:19(NLT), “Now repent of your sins and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped away.” This verse is very precious, Dear Father, because You have shown us such mercy by giving us the chance through Jesus Christ to repent of our sins. Your Word tells us in 2Timothy 2:15 to work hard to present ourselves to receive Your approval. You tell us to study Your Word so that we know it for ourselves, and we can explain it very plainly. When we study Your Word, we find out the things You like and dislike. We can know what pleases You. Then, if we find out that we’re not pleasing You, we can repent, and to repent is to change our hearts and minds to line up with the example of Jesus Christ. This way, we won’t keep doing the things that displease You.
2Timothy 3:16 (NLT) informs us, “All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right.” Your Word teaches us the right way of believing and living. And not only this, Your Word corrects us when we’re wrong, but if we won’t read Your Word, we won’t be able to properly discern the rightness or wrongness of our actions. When we haven’t studied Your truth enough, we may not know that some of the things we’re currently doing are wrong in Your sight. Some of us flat out refuse to make time to meditate on Your goodness and learn of it by studying the scriptures more. Because of this, we’ve continued to make the same mistakes repeatedly. We haven’t repented of our sins and turned to You, but have allowed arrogance and pride to get in the way. Please forgive us for this, Heavenly Father. We will do better, and we ask for the guidance of Your Spirit as he helps us to comprehend Your Word and change our ways.
You tell us in Ephesians 4:30(NLT), “And do not bring sorrow to God’s Holy Spirit by the way you live. Remember, he has identified you as his own, guaranteeing that you will be saved on the day of redemption.” When we learn that we have brought sorrow to Your precious Holy Spirit by offending You with our sinful actions, we should feel genuine sorrow ourselves. Jesus Christ teaches us in John 10:10 that through him, You have given us access to a more than abundant life. You want us to enjoy ourselves, and You want us to be blessed. The way to achieve this kind of life is to make sure that the motivation behind everything we do is to please You.
We must have a desire to wake up in the ways we’ve been asleep. We must be sure to ask You to point out the things we’re getting wrong so we can recognize them, and repent. To be in denial and behave as if we’ve done nothing wrong will not cut it. 1John 1:8(KJV) says, “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.”
We are to take a posture of humility and do as the psalmist said in Psalm 51:10, which is to ask You to create in us a clean heart and renew a sense of do-rightness in us. After we’ve recognized our wrongs, it’s our job to release them and to change our hearts and minds to be more like Christ. This is what pushes the “restart button” in our attitudes and behaviors and marks our growth and maturity in Christ.
Father, we are committed to be the person You have called us to be by allowing Your Spirit to be at work in our lives. We will partner with Your Spirit by reading and studying Your Word more and by praying more often as well. This puts us in line with Your Will, and when we’re in Your Will, we can’t help but to be elevated and increased in Your Spirit’s fruit. Thank You for helping us to grow and thank You for blessing us so richly. In the powerful name of Jesus Christ. Amen.■
Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.
“Push the Restart Button”, written by KLizzie, edited by Reverend Fran Mack, for Sundie Morning Sistas ©2022. All rights reserved. All done to the glory of God through Jesus Christ, our Lord! SMS is dedicated to inspiring and encouraging Christian Women through the Word of God.