I have a love/hate relationship with technology. I am old enough to have seen some progression in this realm. My first phone was a Nextel flip phone, with 250 text messages a month. I progressed to a Razor and eventually, my very first iPhone 4. Now, I have a more advanced iPhone and MacBook and I must say, the ease of use is wonderful. I truly do not understand how people got from place to place without navigation systems like we have now. Even with all the cool features of these gadgets, there are some downsides.

If your phone has ever run slower than usual, or perhaps just ceased to work as well as it once did, you may soon get the intrusive message that a software update is available. If you are anything like me, you can go days or even weeks without doing a thing about it. The notification just sits there, waiting to be acknowledged. Over time, the system seems to win and almost forcibly causes you to take action. The phone will not perform as it once did. An update soon becomes no longer optional, but necessary.

Similarly is our relationship with God. The key components remain the same, such as the foundational truths of salvation and the gospel, but we must be willing to grow and change as time passes.

“When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things” (1 Corinthians 13:11).

“For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God; and you have come to need milk and not solid food. For everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe. But solid food belongs to those who are of full age, that is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil” (Hebrews 5:12-14).

As you become stronger and more mature, so should your faith and relationship with your Maker. An update is required to advance to all God has called you to.

Rachel Skirvin is a lover of travel, nachos, and the gospel. She is a graduate of Urshan College and will most likely always call it Gateway. She is pursuing her master’s degree in counseling and human services with an emphasis in trauma and crisis and is currently serving at The Pentecostals of Cooper City in South Florida.