This past week Husband was having difficulty with his chaplain email account so he called the IT department at our denomination’s national office and requested assistance. The man who helped him asked a few salient questions. Listening from my side of our home office I could tell the man was extremely patient and sincerely wanted to render assistance. He couldn’t.

The source of the problem was not user error. Husband was using Microsoft Office 2007. Our software was out of date.   

We’ve been discussing this all week. When our prayer life is faltering and we have difficulty hearing the voice of the Holy Spirit, could the source of our problem be that we are attempting to function with an outdated understanding of God? Do we occasionally need to update our spiritual software?

God never changes. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. (Hebrews 13:8) But we aren’t.

Our lives are filled with people, experiences, thoughts, and feelings that are uniquely our own. Each day is new and we are changed—sometimes in big ways, but most of the time our changes are almost imperceptible even to us.

We are molded and shaped under the loving direction of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. We move from obedience to disobedience and back again. We are wounded, forgive, and are wounded again—often by the very same person. We hurt the people we love and must walk through the painful process of apology. We sin, promise to never do it again, and then we do.

Like Adam and Eve in the garden, we long to hide our nakedness from the all-seeing eyes of God. Our perception of His true nature fades. That is when we desperately need a spiritual update.

Sometimes our understanding of God needs to better reflect who we have become and what we have learned along the way. Periodic spiritual reflection, rediscovery, and revival can “freshen up” our ability to communicate with the One who always has our best interest at heart, the One from whom we can never ever hide.  

Before moving forward, I need to know where I am. Or more specifically, WHO I am today, right now. What thoughts and people bring me joy? What worries me in the night? What challenges distract me during prayer? What is the source of the shame that causes me to be unseen by God who created me? When did my enthusiasm for “missional living” begin to wane?

Usually my need for a spiritual update isn’t when I am in crisis; it’s when my life feels stale, tedious, and under-appreciated. The opposite of love isn’t hate; it’s apathy. When the vivid colors of God’s love has blurred into grey, that’s when I need to rediscover the excitement of Him in my life.

The prophet Isaiah saw the Lord in chapter 6 and it changed him forever. The more clearly he saw the reality of God’s goodness, the more clearly he saw that he was not. Like many other men in scripture (Job, Daniel, Jeremiah, Peter, John, Paul), revival couldn’t begin until Isaiah admitted his own spiritual depravity.

Likewise, only when we come face to face with who God is and where we are in the natural growth-cycle of life, will the Holy Spirit produce in us conviction, humility, a desire for personal forgiveness, and ultimately repentance.

That is how we update our spiritual software. And not just once. It is a process that is necessary over and over in the life of an active and growing Christian.

Do you long to hear Him clearer?