Today at work I was feeding a baby who is in the transition period between bottles and solid food. Slowly over the past couple weeks I have noticed that the formula is becoming less and less appealing to him. He craves the oatmeal, fruit puffs, and smashed vegetables. When it's time for a bottle he is not interested at all and may drink half of it (if he is really hungry), but when it comes time for the solid food...he is all over it! He devours it and cries when it's gone wanting even more.
This got we thinking about some verses in Hebrews,
Hebrews 5: 12-14 ~ "Although by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the basic principles of God’s revelation again. You need milk, not solid food. Now everyone who lives on milk is inexperienced with the message about righteousness, because he is an infant. But solid food is for the mature, for those whose senses have been trained to distinguish between good and evil"
Just as when a baby is born he needs milk to survive, so new Christians need to experience the 'milk' of the Word in order to grow. When you first come to know Christ, you shouldn't jump straight into the complex theologies in the Bible because you don't want to overwhelm yourself. You need to learn the basic principles and stories first. David and Goliath, Mary and Joseph, The 10 Lepers, Jonah and the Big Fish, Daniel and the Lions Den, and so on and so forth.
But as you grow and mature in your faith so should the depth of your study and understanding grow.
The more you get into and the more information you uncover, the more your hunger for the meat should grow.
I find it ironic that God's Word is compared to food multiple times:
- In Hebrews it is compared to milk and meat
- It is compared to milk again in 1 Peter
- In Psalms it is compared to honey
- In John, Christ is referred to as the "Bread of Life"
- In Luke it is compared to seeds (and yes, I count that as food. Food grows from it and I love sunflower seeds)
And I can predict that if you skip a meal you may become ill or easily aggravated, am I right?
Well, following that theory...if the Bible is 'food' for our Christian life, if we miss our personal time in God's Word...shouldn't we become spiritually ill?
Ponder this for a second, how healthy would you be physically if you could only eat while you were reading your Bible... A lot of us would be starving! Would you?
Indulge in it, devour it, crave it! The more you study and learn, the more you will WANT to study deeper and learn even more.
Start by spending 5, 10, 15 minutes a day and see where it goes from there. Before you know it, you will really be getting into it and an hour will pass by before you know it.
I know life gets busy and you may feel like there is no time...but lets be real. How much time a day do you spend on the computer? Watching TV? Texting? Facebooking? Playing video games? Shopping? If you spend anytime doing any of that, you have time to study, it all has to do with your priorities.
To be real with you guys, since I started this blog I am spending more time studying and reading than I ever had. And I'm not missing wasting my time on other things at all.
Just the other day I sat down with a man in my church and began discussing the Scriptures and before I knew it 4 hours had past and there was STILL so much I wanted to discuss. See? That's what happens when you show a genuine interest and hunger the things of God. He will give you the time and energy.
So what's on your Spiritual menu this week?
Will you order the milk, the steak, or will you continue to starve? the choice is yours.
"Read your Bible, pray everyday and you'll grow grow grow."
"Bible reading is an education in itself."
"Within the covers of the Bible are the answers for all the problems men face"
Live...Laugh...Love
Until Next Time,
Racheal <3
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