“Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit.” Psalm 51:12
Every January, without fail, most people want some type of natural reset.
They long for a change in areas that are lacking with hope of a fresh start and a new beginning.
Marketers know this.
After they advertise to you for two months (November and December) to eat everything unhealthy, all of sudden in January…. you begin to see ads for Jenny Craig, Weight Watchers, Nutrisystem, gym memberships, home gyms, personal trainers, protein shakes and anything else to make you healthier.
There are so many natural resets.
Maybe you are sick of being broke, spending more than you make and your debt has become a burden in your life. There are tools that can help you get a financial reset.
Maybe it is a toxic relationship or a bad habit. Whatever it is, people find hope in a new year to start fresh and change their life.
This is good, we applaud all of this, your body is the third part of what we are made up as (spirit, soul, body).
Although it is important, it should never be the MOST important.
The most important reset in our lives is our spiritual reset.
Here is a question for all of us….
What areas in our life have we let slip in 2023 that have hindered our spiritual growth? The list might be long or it might be short and it doesn’t matter. The fact of the matter is we still need it fixed.
Here is the great promise we all have today, GREAT IS HIS MERCY AND GRACE to every single one of us.
If you have fallen, or you have lacked, or you have broken promises you have made to God….exercise your FAITH and remove the spiritual weight you have put on your life.
“Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us.” Hebrews 12:1
There is weight that might not necessarily not be sin, but it needs to be removed so you can run this race.
The most powerful thing you can do every day is repent.
Every man and woman of God that has put their prideful flesh to the side and has humbled themselves to almighty God and has confessed any wrong in their life, God has restored them.
Look at Jacob – whose name literally means to supplant, which is to deceive and defraud – has an experience with God and gets a new name.
Peter denies Christ three times, but Jesus says after his resurrection in one of the gospels, “Go tell my disciples AND PETER…” Jesus wanted Peter to know he still loved him, even though he had denied him. Why? Because Peter wept bitterly after he knew he sinned.
“Then if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sins and restore their land.” 2 Chronicles 7:14
David was another great man in the Word of God that failed measurably but confessed his sins. He had a spiritual reset moment, and we see the psalm of his repentance…
“Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness: according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions. Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.
For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me.” Psalm 51:1-3
You can’t have a spiritual reset unless you first acknowledge you need a spiritual reset!
The Bible says the prodigal son “came to himself” and that was the start of his confession of wrong.
“Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight: that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest. Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.
Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts: and in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom.” Psalm 51:4-6
You can’t get right until you get honest!
“Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.” Psalm 51:10
Kidner writes, “With the word Create he asks for nothing less than a miracle. It is a term for what God alone can do.”
“Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit.” Psalm 51:12
Guzik comments, “This expresses again David’s confidence in God for his future. He did not dream of upholding himself. Such self-confidence is what typically leads even good men into sin.”
God wants to restore us, but we must be willing to have a reset!
