Week 33: August 10-16, 2025 -Prayer and Accepting Jesus are Mankind’s Manufacturer Reset Button
This week’s daily readings:
This week’s devotional:
Prayer and Accepting Jesus are Mankind’s Manufacturer Reset Button
by Murielle Francois
Scripture:
But the plans of the Lord stand firm forever, the purposes of his heart through all generations. Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, the people he chose for his inheritance. From heaven the Lord looks down and sees all mankind; from his dwelling place he watches all who live on earth—he who forms the hearts of all, who considers everything they do. No king is saved by the size of his army; no warrior escapes by his great strength. A horse is a vain hope for deliverance; despite all its great strength it cannot save. But the eyes of the Lord are on those who fear him, on those whose hope is in his unfailing love, to deliver them from death and keep them alive in famine. We wait in hope for the Lord; he is our help and our shield. In him our hearts rejoice, for we trust in his holy name. May your unfailing love be with us, Lord, even as we put our hope in you.
— Psalm 33:11-22 (NIV)
Reflection:
There are times when I reflect on things I have done that, in God’s sight, would not be righteous, and I would just like to press the reset button on myself.
When you buy a new cell phone and you take it out of the box, it’s so nice and new! It has gigabytes of space, and it doesn't have a lot in it yet. It comes pretty much empty, originally, with a minimum of basic apps. But give yourself a week and you will have downloaded 10 apps. After a month, the phone is more personalized with new apps, contacts added, lots of pictures and videos taking up the space in your phone. After a while, the years pass, and your phone starts to slow down. It’s not as quick as it was when you first took it out of the box. It has some glitches here and there, especially if you haven’t kept up with the upgrades. After a while, you just want to reset – going back to when the phone was brand new, full of space, and faster than it is now after years of use.
Sometimes we want God to just hit the reset button on us! Sometimes we wish we could go back and do a couple of chapters of our lives over again, thinking a different outcome would make life better. But there are no accidents or coincidences – just God’s plan for our lives.
The Scripture I chose from Psalm 33 gives us a sneak peek at how God works. It talks about “he who forms the hearts of all, who considers everything they do.” This tells me that God is very active in our day-to-day lives, not just watching, but considering and acting. He hears every word that comes out of our mouths and sees every action we choose. I guess our reset button is pushed during our daily prayers to God for forgiveness and thanks. It’s a time where we ask God to guide us throughout our day, thanking God for his grace. That’s our reset.
You can push a paperclip into a hole at the bottom of your cell phone to reset it to the manufacturer's standard. It will empty it and make it new again. But the human reset is Christ. Becoming like him more and more every day is our reset. When we accept him into our lives and our plans, allowing him free reign, that’s our opportunity to reset our minds on God and his plan for our lives, his will for our destiny, and for the destiny of people around us.
Near the end of this piece of Scripture I've chosen, it says, “We wait in hope for the Lord; he is our help and our shield.” I take this as a reminder that God is there watching, listening, and engaging. He’s not sitting on the sidelines, but active in all that we do. We don’t even need to ask for him to be there; he’s there anyway!
Prayer:
Almighty God, I thank you for your grace and your mercy. I thank you for being watchful over me and my family, and I’m grateful you are active in my busy day-to-day life. I lack nothing because you are there watching, listening, engaging, protecting, providing, and active. I thank you, Lord, that I can reset my mind through prayer of confession and thanksgiving. I am allowed to start over! Let the Holy Spirit redirect me and guide me in my life that I may continue to become more like Christ every day. In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen