Reset

Over the years, I have learned that the best fix for disgruntled technology is the reset button. It’s become my go-to almost immediately when anything electronic starts acting up. Occasionally, technology decides it’s time to do unto others as they do unto you, and I get a rude awakening. Last week in my home office, I was working on some rather large documents for our business. Halfway through the first document, my internet decided to reset and boot me off the company network. I lost everything I wrote. After rewriting a portion of my lost words and numbers, I applied what I thought was wisdom and tried saving the document more frequently. Each time I attempted saving, the internet rebooted and dumped my hard work all over again.

As I sat frustrated starring at a blank document, God brought revelation. I was frustrated with an opportunity to start over with a clean slate. I started typing again and realized the difference between editing a document and rewriting one. When editing, I find myself hesitating to reword a sentence or paragraph too much because of the extra work it tends to create. Rewriting the document from a blank page instead gives a sort of freedom. Since this was the third or fourth time I had written the information, the kinks were already worked out in my head. The data flowed much easier onto a blank page rather than trying to move it around and squeeze it in where it made sense. The whole process just flowed easier.

Jesus sacrificed Himself to give us a blank page. Through mercy and grace, every moment can be made fresh and new. It doesn’t matter what words or numbers I put on the page; in a moment of repentance, they are erased and I am free. I am not bound to having to edit grammatical errors and sentences that don’t flow. The stress of deleting an entire sentence and having to rewrite it doesn’t exist. Jesus wipes the page clean, and I am free to start over with a blank slate.

Unlike my not so friendly internet connection, Jesus won’t just randomly hit the reset button for me. He sees when I drag myself into an editing nightmare and gently nudges me to ask for His help. He leaves it up to me to cut, paste, delete and add on my own for as long as I want. He watches as I frantically search the thesaurus for words to make my document sound more precise. He waits patiently for me to realize that finding a blank page would just be easier.

Not only does He give me a blank page when I finally give in and ask for His help, but He comes along side of me and shows me what to put on the page and exactly where to put it. He shines light on my past fumbles and successes. He highlights what to delete and what to keep. With precision, He molds my document into something that I could never create myself. Then, He gives me the opportunity to hit the send button and distribute what He created to those who need the data He placed on my blank page.

Lord Jesus, thank you. Thank you for forgiving me and for all the blank pages You have given me. Thank you for all blank pages that You will give me in the future. Teach me to come to You for a blank page first instead of trying to edit it myself. Remind me daily of the edits You have already made in my life. I stand in those victories and will use them as a foundation to continue to build upon.

The enemy cannot have the edits You have made in my life. “What shall we say about such wonderful things as these? If God is for us, who can ever be against us? Since he did not spare even his own Son but gave him up for us all, won’t he also give us everything else? Who dares accuse us whom God has chosen for his own? No one—for God himself has given us right standing with himself. Who then will condemn us? No one—for Christ Jesus died for us and was raised to life for us, and he is sitting in the place of honor at God’s right hand, pleading for us. Can anything ever separate us from Christ’s love? Does it mean he no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or hungry, or destitute, or in danger, or threatened with death? (As the Scriptures say, ‘For your sake we are killed every day; we are being slaughtered like sheep.’) No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us.

And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 8:31-39 (NLT). In Jesus’ Name.