Setting Our Hearts

Just as we reset our clocks, Communion invites us to reset our hearts and minds, remembering Christ's sacrifice, examining our motives, and looking forward to his promised return.

By Doug Redford

October 22, 2026·2 min read

In brief

Communion: A Weekly Reset for Our Hearts and Minds

Just as daylight saving time reminds us to reset our clocks, Communion invites Christians to reset their hearts and minds. Reflecting on Paul’s instructions to the Corinthians, this devotional encourages believers to remember Jesus’ sacrifice, examine their hearts, and anticipate his promised return.

Communion provides a weekly opportunity to refocus our hearts and minds on Christ.
Paul’s instructions in 1 Corinthians 11 emphasize reverence, self-examination, and remembrance.
The Lord’s Supper calls believers to look back at Jesus’ sacrifice and forward to his promised return.

Those who live in the world of Daylight Savings Time know that it will soon be time to “fall back,” meaning setting our timepieces back one hour so that sundown will occur one hour earlier than before. Sunrise will thus occur one hour earlier as well. Whenever this change occurs, whether in the fall or in the spring when our timepieces “spring forward,” news stories often provide advice as to how best to prepare for the change, primarily its impact upon one’s sleeping habits. And there are plenty of reminders on TV during the weekend when the change occurs so that no one should forget!

Communion: Resetting Our Hearts and Minds

Communion provides us with the opportunity each Lord’s Day to engage in another kind of setting: the setting of our hearts and minds. The culture in which we currently live can throw our spiritual timing off severely between Sundays with its constant barrage of values and lifestyles that are counter to what we as Christians desire to follow.

The church in Corinth was probably the most ornery, disoriented group of believers to whom Paul wrote. Their observance of Communion had degenerated into utter confusion, with some using the gathering known as the “love feast” to do nothing but gorge themselves while ignoring the needs of others. It is no coincidence that the only time Paul referred to Jesus’ institution of the Lord’s Supper occurred with the church in Corinth (1 Corinthians 11:23-26). Paul challenged the believers there to look back to that pivotal night and treat their observance of the Supper with the singular reverence it demands. The Message offers this paraphrase of Paul’s words in verses 27 and 28:

“Anyone who eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Master irreverently is like part of the crowd that jeered and spit on him at his death. Is that the kind of ‘remembrance’ you want to be part of? Examine your motives, test your heart, come to this meal in holy awe.”

Remembering Christ’s Sacrifice and Promised Return

Communion is a time to set (or reset) our hearts and minds: to go back in time and reflect on Jesus’ sacrifice at the cross and to move forward in time and reflect on Jesus’ promised return (11:26). While no one knows the exact time of that event, we can remember on each Lord’s Day that the final “day of the Lord” (1 Thessalonians 5:2) is closer than ever.

Author: Doug Redford

Doug Redford has served in the preaching ministry, as an editor of adult Sunday school curriculum, and as a Bible college professor. Now retired, he continues to write and speak as opportunities arise.