Blessed is the man who restarts devotions.

I wish someone had told me this before I turned 35, so I’m putting it in this final Word of the Week for all of us as 2015 is about to begin.

Blessed are you when after trying 15 times to catch up on your Bible reading plan, when after breaking the promise to yourself and God to pray everyday, and when after trying to read through something that ended up being too long, too weird, or too boring you restarted. When you wake up one morning or realize one evening that you are hungry for something that all the ordinary things in life just haven’t satisfied, then blessed are you when you chew on and digest the Word of God through restarting your reading and praying for the 16th time.

We restart because our hope is in God’s faithfulness, not ours. So when you restart, you don’t need to carry guilt. Instead you need to celebrate. Scripture is replete with great restarts. Beginning with Genesis 3:15 there is the hope that every promise broken by sin will be made new ultimately in Christ. Look at Abraham, Moses, Samuel, David, Hezekiah, Josiah, Peter, and Paul. While they all had restarting as part of their story, the most beautiful thing in each of them is that God brought something good out of the mess they left behind. The restart points to God’s goodness, not their ability to fix their own mess.

I'll close with this link to a biblical restart I read about in 2 Chronicles 30:9-27. These people needed a restart as badly as any of us, and they did restart as a result of reading God’s Word and trusting Him to take care of their hearts in worship.

In Him,

Tag