So when he had received food, he was strengthened. Then Saul spent some days with the disciples at Damascus. Immediately he preached the Christ in the synagogues, that He is the Son of God. Then all who heard were amazed, and said, “Is this not he who destroyed those who called on this name in Jerusalem, and has come here for that purpose, so that he might bring them bound to the chief priests?”
—ACTS 9:19–21
Want to see reset at its rawest and most powerful? Let’s talk about Saul of Tarsus. His reset turned a violent enemy of the young church into its most effective advocate and the author of a third of the New Testament—the apostle Paul.
I meet many people all the time who think their sins, their past, and the trail of wreckage strewn behind them place them beyond hope and out of the reach of Jesus. Their reputations, they think, are set in stone. They’re afraid that even if they were to accept Jesus and become part of his church, those who know them would still see them as the same sinners they’ve always been.
They have nothing on Saul. Neither have you. This is the man who watched over the cloaks of those who stoned Stephen to death. This is the man who then set about “ravaging the church, and entering house after house, he dragged off men and women and committed them to prison” (Acts 8:3 ESV). Then he set off toward Damascus, bearing letters of introduction from the high priest, Caiaphas, with plans to arrest followers of the Way, as fledgling Christianity was called at that time, and “bring them bound to Jerusalem” (9:2). Saul had blood on his hands.
While Saul was on the road to Damascus, Acts tells us he saw a brilliant light that caused him to fall to the ground.
“Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?” (v. 4), said a voice.
Stunned, Saul said, “Who are You, Lord?”
“I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting” (v. 5). The voice told him to go on into Damascus, where “for three days he was without sight, and neither ate nor drank” (v. 9 ESV).
Talk about a hard reset! Saul’s radical transformation changed the arc of human history. It gave the early church the missionary, teacher, and pastor who carried the Way through much of the Mediterranean, founding churches and encouraging and admonishing their members with letters that still constitute half the books of the New Testament.
As we have seen, the process of being reset begins with the call. Most of us hear that voice, although with not nearly the soul-wrenching impact that it had on Saul. We may hear it as a whisper, all but drowned out by the world and its distractions, but the call is there. It is every bit as real as Saul’s, and it leaves us with the choice to pursue it or to turn away.
In Damascus the Lord called a disciple named Ananias and told him to go to the stunned and silent Saul. But Ananias knew just how hard-core Saul was. Like Jonah, Ananias didn’t want any part of the Lord’s invitation. But the Lord said, “Go, for he is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel” (v. 15 ESV). Saul received the Holy Spirit and was baptized. Then he set about making history.
You too are a chosen instrument of God! Your mission is uniquely yours, and it is every bit as real as Saul’s. You can be changed, recharged, and rededicated just as profoundly, and reaching out to the church will let you find the Ananias who can help you take the next steps.
You can be changed, recharged, and rededicated.
Reset: Jacob Becomes Israel
So He said to him, “What is your name?” He said, “Jacob.” And He said, “Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel; for you have struggled with God and with men, and have prevailed.”
—GENESIS 32:27–28
The Lord has a plan for your life. You may not see it at the moment, but he has one for you, just as he has one for me and for each of us. Unfortunately, far too many people never get in tune with that plan. Some are outside the will of God completely and never even become aware of God’s plan. Many of us recognize it early but lose track of it because we are distracted by the things of the world.
There are also those men and women who think they are inside the will of God when they are not. These are the people who outwardly live the Christian life. They go to church. They tithe. They’re on committees. But so many are guilty of working for God instead of with God. We set ourselves in motion, deciding what we think would be best for God and God’s kingdom rather than listening first for the assignment. We are shortsighted, in that we think what we want is what God wants. We think that what we think is important is what God thinks is important. Our intentions may be good, but unless our mission comes from God, we may be sowing discord, doing more harm than good.
What about you? Have you drifted from God? Have you gotten further and further from the clear understanding you once had of what God wanted? Have the passion, desire, and fervor you once had for the things of God waned? Are you operating on self-propulsion, rather than God-propulsion?
Are you operating on self-propulsion, rather than God-propulsion?
Fortunately, it is never too late to reset, whether we are off base a lot or just a little.
Jacob’s Story
Let’s consider the story of Jacob, the man whose reset included a name change that to this day identifies a nation. While Saul’s name change was simply a matter of his using the Roman version of his name, Paul, to become more closely identified with those to whom he was preaching, it was God who changed Jacob’s name to Israel. His descendants became known as Israelites and eventually as the tribes and the kingdom of Israel.
Jacob’s father, Isaac, and his mother, Rebekah, were close to the Lord. In fact, the Lord told Isaac, “I am with you and will bless you and multiply your offspring for my servant Abraham’s sake” (Gen. 26:24 ESV). But you don’t get credit for being the child of godly parents; God has children, not grandchildren. We are each responsible for our own relationship. We may begin that relationship thanks to our parents, or perhaps we are introduced to God through proselytization and catechism, but it is our personal experience that God uses to broaden and deepen our relationship with him.
Jacob was a trickster. The name Jacob refers to his role as a supplanter. He swindled his older twin brother out of his birthright. Then when his father was near death, Jacob teamed up with his mother to deceive him, covering himself with skins to make his father think Jacob was his hairy brother, Esau. Asked directly by Isaac whether he was really Esau, Jacob lied outright, so that he might get Esau’s blessing by subterfuge. When Esau found out, he was furious, and Jacob, at his mother’s behest, fled to avoid his wrath.
One night while on the run, Jacob had a dream in which God promised him and his offspring “the land on which you lie” (Gen. 28:13). He also promised that Jacob and his descendants would spread in every direction and that God would “keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land” (v. 15). That convinced Jacob that the place he slept was the very “house of God . . . the gate of heaven” (v. 17).
When Jacob woke, he made a vow. “If God will be with me, and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat, and raiment to put on, so that I come again to my father’s house in peace; then shall the LORD be my God: and this stone, which I have set for a pillar, shall be God’s house: and of all that thou shalt give me I will surely give the tenth unto thee” (vv. 20–22 KJV). This was not Jacob passively accepting the God of his parents. This was Jacob in a fresh relationship based on his own experience.
Now, God takes vows very seriously. Ecclesiastes 5:4–5 says, “When you make a vow to God, do not delay to pay it; for He has no pleasure in fools. Pay what you have vowed—better not to vow than to vow and not pay.”
Isaac and Rebekah had sent Jacob to Rebekah’s brother, Laban, so that Jacob might marry one of his daughters. Laban tricked him into marrying two of them, Leah and Rachel, and Jacob worked for Laban for fourteen years for the privilege. When he had fathered eleven sons and a daughter, Jacob asked Laban to allow him to return to Canaan, his home, but Laban asked him to stay since Jacob’s industriousness had made Laban a very rich man. The two struck a bargain that Jacob was able to use to greatly enrich himself as well. Laban and his sons became angry and, this time at the Lord’s behest, Jacob fled, taking his wives and flocks as well as Laban’s idols, which Rachel had taken without Jacob’s knowledge.
At one point during his journey, Jacob wrestled through the night with “a Man” (Gen. 32:24) variously interpreted to be an actual man, an angel, a Christophany (or preincarnational appearance of Christ), or God the Father. Whichever it was, Jacob asked afterward for a blessing, and his opponent complied, saying, “Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel; for you have struggled with God and with men, and have prevailed” (v. 28).
The name Israel means “he who struggles with God” or even “having power with God.” Jacob’s new identity made it clear that his mission and his power came from his relationship with God, not from his own power or machinations, and the nation that took Israel’s name can be found throughout the Old Testament responding to God with questions and challenges as well as with love and submission.
Back to Bethel
In Genesis 35, God called Jacob back to the place of that first blessing, to that place where God was fresh and alive within him, where he had been excited enough about God to make his vow. God is calling you back to that very place as well. That is the true nature of reset. For most of us, that place is just as special, just as memorable as it was for Jacob. After all, that is the place where the Lord and his grace found us. When you got saved and started on your journey of faith, you no doubt had a marvelous honeymoon experience. But then, life happened. You began to drift. You began to focus more attention elsewhere. It’s not that you didn’t love God. It’s just that you got busy at school. You got busy with work. You got busy with the cares of the world. You no longer prayed like you once did. You didn’t read God’s Word like you once did. You didn’t take the things of God as seriously as you once did.
Fortunately, the God we serve is the God of the second chance. He authorizes spiritual U-turns. Ours is a God who loves you in spite of the path you’ve taken. No matter what you’ve done, no matter how far off you’ve wandered, you are a candidate for a reset.
It was sin that drove Jacob from his peace, from everything that was normal in his life. That is what sin does. His own misdeeds forced him to flee from his brother, Esau. Sin will always have you on the run. I see so many people whose actions have stripped them of peace and normalcy. When Adam and Eve sinned, they were driven out of the Garden of Eden. When Peter sinned and denied the Lord, he “went out and wept bitterly” (Matt. 26:75).
Fortunately, the God we serve is the God of the second chance.
It may have been sin that drove Jacob to Bethel—the name means “house of God”—but when he found God there, everything changed. The Lord met him in the midst of his mess. That in itself made Bethel a place of great victory.
Our messes do not disqualify us. They do not stop God from meeting us right in the middle of them. That is one of the glorious realities of God’s nature and of our relationship with him. We can be running from God, we can be doing our own thing, but God finds us right where we are. “Those who are well have no need of a physician,” said Jesus. “I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners” (Mark 2:17).
As he spoke to Jacob, God will speak to you, and when God speaks, he has already factored in where you are in your life. He is aware of your situation. He is aware of your destiny. And it’s important to note that God does not give suggestions. God gives commands. God’s call to Jacob in Genesis 35:1 was a command to go back to the place where he started. “Arise, go up to Bethel and dwell there; and make an altar there to God.” He wanted Jacob back in the place where God had found him. And that is where God wants you.
Back Where He Found You
As he calls us to reset, God is saying to each of us, “I want you back in the place where I found you.” For Jacob, it was a physical place, the place where that incredible dream caused him to wake up knowing something had changed and that he was ready to meet the Lord’s promises with promises of his own.
Too many of us have gotten so far away from that place where our worship was sincere and our excitement was palpable that we don’t understand what it means to go back. But we can take consolation in knowing that Jacob was in a similar place. By chapter 35, it had been twenty years since his flight from Esau and that moment when God found him. Jacob had drifted, as we often do. He had been inundated with carnality, and he found himself intermingled with idols. He had gone cold against God. He was no longer the worshiper that he was in chapter 28.
That’s what happens to us when we get caught up in the world. We come to church and think God is impressed by our praise, but there is a distinct difference between praise and worship. Praise is simply a response to what God has done for us. You don’t have to know God deeply or be mature in your faith to praise God, and praise often gets intermingled with a spirit of entitlement among church people. “As long as God is my heavenly bail man and does what I ask him to do, I will praise him,” is how we look at it. “I will praise God for my house. I will praise God for my car. I will praise God for my scholarship or my sweet boo.”
I see that sort of mind-set all the time. I will know what your relationship with God is if you lose your house, if you lose your car, if you lose your scholarship, if you lose your boo. If your relationship is real, you won’t sit there with your lip stuck out. You won’t take a sabbatical from church. You will come in to the house of God and you will declare, “I will still worship God. I will still give God glory because the Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.”
God was telling Jacob to go back to that place where his relationship with God was authentic, where his worship was sincere, and each of us is Jacob when it is time to reset. Think about where the Lord found you. Think about your Bethel. Think about when the Lord saved you and what he saved you from. Think about the grace he so freely offered. Remember where you were, what you were caught up in, how tangled up your life was. Think about the bad choices you made. And yet God saved you.
Commitment and Promise
Let’s look more closely at that meeting as Jacob experienced it. This was a place of spiritual commitment, and God made promises to Jacob:
• He promised him blessing.
• He promised him protection.
• He promised him provision.
• He promised him his presence.
And Jacob made a threefold promise of his own:
• You will be my Lord wherever I go.
• I will set up this stone as a memorial because I want people to know where you met me.
• Whatever you bless me with, I will give a tenth back to you.
To take on that first promise of Jacob is to recognize God in every aspect of our lives. We are no longer just Sunday Christians. We become his people, and others can see the light that shines within us, day in and day out.
To take on the second is to acknowledge that it is God’s presence in our lives that has changed us. It is to recognize that God has found us and lifted us from where we were. It is to be unafraid to share that part of our story when it will bring hope to others.
To take on the third promise is to make sure we give back to God in all things. Any relationship with God is reciprocal, and we are to share our material as well as our spiritual blessings. Jacob’s third promise is also an indication that the tithe was established well before God gave Moses the Law. There are those who say that tithing is of the old covenant. This shows us that it was pre-Mosaic covenant.
We become his people, and others can see the light that shines within us, day in and day out.
So many of us have spiritual amnesia. We act like the Lord didn’t find us in a place of sin, out of control, in a downward spiral. When you remember where God found you, you begin to realize that God deserves so much more than you are giving him right now—so much more praise, so much more time, so much more glory. When you think about how far God has brought you, it will make you want to return to that place where your appreciation was fresh. It will make you look at your shortcomings and say, “I’ve got to get my life together. I’ve got to go back to God. I’m ready to return to the way things used to be.”
Does your life look like this?
• Are you just praising God in church or not at all?
• Are you so lost in the music on your car stereo that you haven’t prayed in your car in months or years?
• Are you so busy that prayer has to wait until this show goes off and that show goes off and maybe just one more and before long you’re too tired to pray at all or you fall asleep while you’re praying?
• Is your Bible just something that lies on the table until Sunday morning, when you grab it to take it to church? Do you pick it up at all?
Return to Me
We need to be like the prodigal son who came back to his senses and said, “I will go back to my father’s house, even if I have to be a servant. I’ve got to go back to the place where I know I need to be” (Luke 15:17–19, author’s paraphrase).
In Malachi 3:7, God says, “Return to Me, and I will return to you.” But the return he asks for is a complete one. And so I must ask you:
• Do you remember exactly where that place was?
• Do you remember when you would praise God just by yourself?
• Do you remember when you would be in your car, tears running down your face, and you were giving God glory, and you would forget the light had turned green?
• Do you remember when your Bible was full of highlighted text, with notes in the margins, and you were like a sponge soaking up God’s Word?
• Do you remember getting lost in prayer in the evening, looking for guidance, praising his name, taking the good and bad of your day to him?
• Do you remember the time when nobody had to beg you to come to church and you would be in the house of God often, giving God glory?
• Do you remember when you weren’t too tired or when it didn’t matter how much rain was coming down, and you would give God glory?
• Do you remember the time when you thought about the goodness of Jesus and all he did for you and you couldn’t help but praise him?
That’s where God is trying to get you back to! “Jacob, arise, go to Bethel. Settle there” (Gen. 35:1, author’s paraphrase). God is saying, “You are living too low. The places you dwell, the people you associate with, the standards you set are all too low. You are too anointed to be where you are.”
The only sensible response is, “I’m getting away from low-down people. I’m tired of people who don’t want anything and don’t want anybody else to have anything. Lord, lift me up. Let me stand. Plant my feet on higher ground.”
Can you come back to that place?
Can you come back to first things?
Can you reset your worship?
Can you recommit yourself to do the things you did before you drifted so far away?
God Is Speaking to Us
We are all Jacobs, and though it may be twenty years since we’ve been on fire, God never stops seeking us. No matter how far we drift, God keeps talking to us. In fact, sometimes when you’re doing your dirt, you really wish God would just be silent. But God keeps reminding you, keeps saying, “I’m still talking to you.” You may be out there twerking and dropping it like it’s hot, but you know you still hear God’s voice because after you get in your car and turn on the radio, there’s God talking. Driving down the street, you see a billboard, and there’s God talking. Somebody walks by you with a T-shirt on, and there’s God talking. You see a member of the church—there’s God talking. Everywhere you look, every time you turn around, God is talking to you. You try to hide your Bible, you put away your religious CDs, but there’s God, still talking.
When Adam and Eve sinned, the voice of God went walking in the garden looking for them. I don’t care what situation you find yourself in, God is talking to you right now. You are not reading this book by accident. God is right here with you, saying, “Get up out of the low place. Pull your life back together. Reset. Get back to Bethel. Go back to the place where I first called you.”
No matter how far we drift, God keeps talking to us.
Just do what 1 John 1:9 says: “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
Come back to that place where you and God first exchanged vows and find yourself reinvigorated. But get ready because when you do, you can expect big things to happen.
Isaiah Calls the People of Israel to Reset Again
“Come now, and let us reason together,”
Says the LORD,
“Though your sins are like scarlet,
They shall be as white as snow;
Though they are red like crimson,
They shall be as wool.”
—ISAIAH 1:18
One of Scripture’s recurring themes is God’s call to his people to turn back to him, and one of the most dramatic examples comes in the opening chapter of Isaiah. This passage is often referred to as the prophet’s first published sermon. Many theologians, including John Calvin, believed that the custom of the prophets was to hang a copy of their sermon on the temple doorpost, that those who would enter might see and hear what God was saying to them firsthand.
Whether you consider it in its written form or imagine Isaiah himself preaching it, this is a powerful sermon leveling five charges against the people of God:
• They were not representing the Jewish nation as they should. They were hypocritical.
• They had a spirit of ingratitude. God had done so much for them, but in their narcissism they acted as though they had done these things themselves.
• They were so corrupted that God could not bring reform to the nation, reform he desired to bring about if only the people would turn from their wickedness.
• Universal corruption was everywhere you looked. Their systems and inner workings had degenerated.
• Their rulers were perverse. Those expected to set the example were among the worst offenders.
Whenever we see God’s people admonished in Scripture, it is worth our while to see ourselves in their actions, and it’s plain to see that we are much like the people of Israel. The good news is that we also share with them the opportunity to live inside God’s solutions, for, finally, after listing their transgressions, telling them, “Your hands are full of blood,” and promising death as the price of continued disobedience, God offered an olive branch. In verse 18, he reached out with an earnest call to repentance and reformation. He offered life if they would just learn to do good—in other words, if they would reset.
We also share with them the opportunity to live inside God’s solutions.
“Let us reason together,” says Isaiah. This is God calling them and us—not tomorrow, not six months down the road, but now. This is a call for immediate action.
The Lord pleads often with us to choose his way. “I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day,” says Deuteronomy 30:19 (RSV), “that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse; therefore choose life, that you and your descendants may live.”
Timing
Most of us don’t get the sudden blinding light Saul did. We don’t have our transgressions posted on the church door. We often procrastinate when it comes to the choice to reset, in large part because it means giving up the things that keep us from God. We are drawn to those things, and many of us won’t turn away from them until they’ve brought us trouble and turmoil, until we’ve experienced the chaos and destruction that accompany our vices.
Reset requires the willingness to declare, “Lord, I’m done. I’m going to reel some things in.” It requires stepping up. Paul said, “When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways” (1 Cor. 13:11 ESV). The difference is what stepping into that reset moment can accomplish.
God is a God of timing. He operates in kairos rather than chronos—his time, not ours. He knows exactly where to meet us because he knows our journeys in their entirety, and he knows how to get our undivided attention. There comes a moment for each of us when that happens, when we realize now is the time. And until you realize that, you will remain in that messed-up situation, you will stay on the street, doing your dirt, outside of God’s will.
It’s time.
This is not about time on the clock. In this case, God’s kairos moment is when you recognize that something in your spirit is saying, “I am tired. I am fed up. I need a change.” It is the moment when God sends you the word. He too is saying, “I am fed up. I have had enough of your perverse proclivities. I have had enough of your dirty dealings. I have had enough of your sanctimonious sacrifices. I am tired, weary of seeing you in a position of being sick and tired because of your own sin and corruption.” He is requesting an audience, one-on-one, with an offer that can resolve your situation, no matter how corrupt and chaotic.
And when God says it’s time, it’s time. Ask Saul. Ask Ananias. Ask Jonah.
“Let us reason together,” says Isaiah 1:18. Let us talk this through. Let us argue it out.
There are huge consequences to this call. Without that choice to reset, there is death. The call to reset is God’s calling us on the carpet, saying, “I’m going to deal with you straight-up”—something he will do both when he is blessing us and when he is confronting us. God wants us to be just as straight-up—and there’s no point in trying to hide, since he knows us, our situations, and our proclivities anyway!
This is God urging us to break through our wall of separation. There is distance between our will and God’s will. There is a gulf between what we want and what God wants. There is a paradigm shift between rebellion and obedience. And there is a fundamental difference between feeling bad about a situation and truly being convicted about it. You can feel bad about being pulled over for speeding. You can look sorrowful enough that the police officer says, “All right. I’m just giving you a warning, but slow down from now on.”
“Yes, Officer, I’ll do that,” you say, but you’re hardly out of sight before you’re speeding again. Remorse is not conviction.
The only thing big enough to bridge that gap between our will and God’s is reset—a fundamental, hard reset.
It’s when you get weary enough of doing it your way that you’ll really surrender, and the gateway to deliverance is often just that—being tired enough to see the light and hear the voice.
There is nothing wrong with being tired, if you’re tired of being played, tired of a dysfunctional relationship, tired of trifling friends, tired of being up all night, tired of hangovers, tired of playing games. In fact, often God cannot get your attention if you’re not tired, played out, spent down to your marrow. If you’re still doing what you’re doing and caught up in it, God says, “I can’t work with you. I can only work with folks who are out of strength and out of fight.”
Stop Struggling
There was a young boy trying to show off for the young girls at the beach. He jumped on his surfboard and paddled out to where the big waves were. He looked cocky and confident, but the reality was that underneath his swagger, he couldn’t swim. As he tried to ride those waves, he suddenly realized they were much bigger and stronger than he was. Soon he was overtaken, knocked from that board into the ocean. This was much more than he had bargained for. In an instant he was scrambling for his life, trying with real desperation to turn his thrashing about into real swimming. He and the people on the shore both realized rather quickly that his efforts weren’t going to be enough.
Among those onlookers was a lifeguard, a tanned, muscular young man who looked calm and collected behind his reflective shades. You would have thought he would spring into action and sprint toward the water to rescue our young show-off, but the lifeguard just sat there looking. The boy went down once and came back up.
“Heeellllllp!” he yelled, struggling as only the truly scared can struggle. “I can’t swim!”
The lifeguard slowly took off his shades and leaned forward to look more closely at him. The boy went down and bobbed up again.
“Heeelllllp!” he yelled, with even more panic in his voice. “Please help.”
With a little more animation, the lifeguard climbed down off his perch and walked to the edge of the water.
The boy went down again, and came up a little more slowly this time. His cry for help was a shadow of what it once was. He was no longer struggling. Quickly the lifeguard swam out to him, placed one arm under his, and swam with him back to the shore. There he let the boy cough and sputter until the water was out of his lungs. The boy panted, wild-eyed, until he finally caught his breath. When he had regained his senses and his strength and had pulled the seaweed from his face, he turned with real anger toward the lifeguard.
“What’s wrong with you? What kind of lifeguard are you? I almost drowned out there!”
“A pretty good one, actually,” said the lifeguard.
“What do you mean by that?” said the boy. “Another minute and I’d have died!”
“Well,” said the lifeguard, “if I had gone straight out to you while you were thrashing around as hard as you were, you would have taken me under with you. I had to wait until you were too tired to struggle before I could safely rescue you.”
You may be one of those people to whom God is saying, “I’m going to let you keep on struggling. I am going to wait right here until you say, ‘Lord, I’m tired. I resign. I’m done.’ ”
It’s at that point that God will step in—or swim out—and rescue you. That is when he can change your circumstance.
Just because he is waiting doesn’t mean God doesn’t have the power or the will to save you. On the contrary, there is no circumstance, no depth of sin, no manner of human condition that he can’t overturn. No matter what you’ve been caught up in, God is sufficient. He has the power to change you.
He just needs you to stop struggling.
REFLECTIONS
• Have you been the beneficiary of God's promises?
• What promises have you made God in return? Have you kept them?
• Have you discerned God’s plan for your life? Where would you start?
• Do you feel as though you have moved away from that plan?
• Is your current choice of friends and circumstances shortchanging your position as a child of God?
• Are you prepared for God to meet you where you are? Are there other people who might act as guides to help you?