The Hard Reset – In God I Trust

The Hard Reset – In God I Trust

A typical computer can process billions of bits of data per second, with the exact amount depending on the processor's clock speed and architecture, but a modern high-end CPU can handle processing billions of instructions per second.

A modern cell phone is significantly more powerful than the computers used to put a man on the moon, with a vastly superior processing power, memory capacity, and overall functionality, making the Apollo Guidance Computer on the lunar missions seem extremely basic by today's standards; a typical smartphone has hundreds of thousands of times more processing power than the computers used in the Apollo missions.

Our brains are like computers.

Information scientists have found that the average person living today processes as much as 74 gigabytes (GB) of information a day through TV, computers, cell phones, tablets, billboards, and many other gadgets. That’s the equivalent of watching 16 movies, reading over 200,000 words, or scrolling on TikTok for nearly 200 hours.

And every year, our brains take in 5 percent more information than the previous year. To further put this into context, consider this: only 500 years ago, 74 GB of information would be what a highly educated person consumed in a lifetime, through books and stories. Furthermore, in 2011 alone, we took in five times as much information every day as people did in 1986 – the equivalent of 174 newspapers.

What we sometimes forget, however, is that our brain is a living, active organ. Unlike a machine or computer that passively responds to inputs and processes data, the neurons in our brain are living cells with a metabolism. They need oxygen and glucose to survive – and when they’re processing an onslaught of information nonstop, they can easily get tired.

I want to continue tonight with the same theme that Pastor Joseph has been preaching on Sunday mornings. Arise- Get up. Isa 60:1 "Arise! Let your light shine for all to see. For the glory of the LORD rises to shine on you.

Here is the problem that we face sometimes. In order to Arise - get up, we have to realize that we are down. And sometimes we don’t realize it until we are completely shut down, and we find ourselves not able to function the way we are intended to.

As I look around the room tonight I see quite a variety of ages and backgrounds. Some of you came to know the Lord at such a young age you probably can’t remember not having Jesus in your hearts. Others may have come to the Lord just recently or in the last few years. A large part of us are somewhere in between that. And there are many religious backgrounds that we could all talk about. But there is one thing that I am sure that we all have in common. I would guess that everyone of us has come or will come to a point in our lives where we have served so long, studied so much, prayed so often that everything becomes just a matter of fact – it’s what we do! I know I have questioned if I am making a difference, if my understanding of scripture is accurate, or if God even hears when I pray. Like my brain as well as my spirit man has been overloaded and I’m freezing up. Nothing is happening.

It’s kind of like what happens with your computer when you get too much data in the system and the process gets slow or sometimes even freezes. Sometimes turning it off and back on helps, but sometimes it takes a hard reset to get moving in the right direction.

According to Google, a "hard reset" is a process on an electronic device that restores it to its original factory settings, essentially deleting all user data, applications, and settings stored on the device, similar to formatting a hard drive on a computer; it's often used to fix software.

Key points about a hard reset:

1. Performing a hard reset will erase all data on the device, so it's crucial to back up important information before doing so.

2. A hard reset can sometimes resolve software issues that can't be fixed through other methods.

3. After a hard reset, the device will be returned to its original state as it came from the manufacturer.

Of course, tonight’s lesson isn’t about computers. It’s about what happens when you get to that place in your spiritual life, where it seems like, no matter what you do, what you are doing has become so routine, that no matter how much you study, or pray, or work, there’s just blank space.

You’re not alone. David, the man after God’s own heart wrote this.

Psalm 13:1 How long, LORD? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? 2 How long must I wrestle with my thoughts and day after day have sorrow in my heart? How long will my enemy triumph over me?