The Daily Reset

Since my teenage years, I have loved to get up early to see the morning sunrise! It started with those 3:30 am wake up calls by my squirrel hunting neighbor, Jim. He was around my dad’s age and served as a mentoring influence to teach me everything about hunting and gun safety. Jim would lightly tap on my window on Saturday mornings to rouse me. I was a light sleeper and would usually be anticipating the prompt. I would quickly get dressed, grab my rifle, and report to the truck.

A Sherman Sunrise!

We would go to a nearby 24-hour day restaurant for a bowl of cereal and then get into the timber in time to be set and in place when the squirrels began their early cutting of hickory and walnuts. It was always a treat for me to look out on the horizon and see the daylight peeping through the treelined woods. As the moments of sunrise progressed, the light would form into beautiful and brighter layers of purples, blues, oranges, and yellows until the rays were so brilliant I could not look directly into them! A perfect sunrise!

I liken each new day as a reset or reboot that gives each of us another chance to get our lives back on track. Since the fall of man in the beginning of history, mankind has been in moral freefall because of sin. Adam and Eve were cast out of Eden because of their choice to disobey God’s only restriction on their life in paradise. God said, “You can eat from any tree… except the tree of knowledge of good and evil. The moment you do, you’re dead!”

They yielded to the tempter’s lies and deception, “You won’t die. God knows that the moment you eat from that tree, you’ll see what’s really going on. You’ll be just like God, knowing everything, ranging all the way from good to evil.” (Genesis 3:4-5, MSG). Of course, that was a lie! And this fatal choice, to side with the devil, put Adam and Eve in a spiritual riptide that pulled all of humanity throughout history down with them! We are still feeling its deadly and spiraling effects!

During most of my years in the Baptist tradition, we would hold annual springtime renewal events in our churches that would allow our members to experience spiritual renewal. We called them revivals, but most of them were simply spiritual meetings that didn’t really turn out to be the hoped-for transformational and reviving experiences that we all sought and needed. Nevertheless, there were those rare occasions when a few did get revived and even some non-churched individuals were saved and brought into church life through believer’s baptism.

In the latter years of my pastorates, I introduced the season of Lent into our annual program of renewal. This gave individuals another way to evaluate their spiritual journeys and make recommitments to Christ. The season of Lent was and is a spiritual reset for us. The Scriptures are clear about our need for a daily and continuing resetting of our lives. “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will purify us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9, NIV).

This year, our online small group is using a helpful resource book called, Jesus Asking. Author and pastor-leader, J.D. Walt is using a devotional approach to challenge his readers to experience renewal in the forty days leading up to Easter. One technique he is using is a repetitive and daily reminder at the beginning of each new devotion, to read and re-read Ephesians 5:14, “Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.” This is a call to spiritual awakening by asking each believer to leave behind the old life with yesterday’s deeds of darkness, experience a renewing reset through repentance, and make a commitment to yield to Christ’s Lordship and control in our lives.

There is hope in this world even though it seems like everything is in chaos and spiraling out of control. Let’s arise, reset, and follow Christ who offers this reassurance, “I have told you these things, so that in Me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world!” (John 16:33, NIV).

Mike Keppler, retired pastor,
active churchman and
doting grandparent.
Contact: drmjkeppler@gmail.com
©2018-2026 All rights reserved.
Serve by Design. mjkministries.com

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