Spiritual milk versus Solid food

Gracie has been running a fever for two days now and it looks like Elizabeth and I will be spending Memorial Day at the pediatrician. Being parents sure has changed our lives…

One of the biggest changes involves our desire to care for our child and answer her every need. We think much less about ourselves and spend the bulk of our time caring for Grace. The rewards are countless and beyond this world. We can only imagine the greatness of God’s love for His children.

Much like our feeding Grace when she’s hungry, God feeds us when we hunger. Though not always physically, trust that Christ will find a way to feed us our daily bread. Jesus even prompts us to pray to God for this saying “Father… Give us this day our daily bread.” (Matthew 6:11)

What is interesting in the Father’s prayer is that “daily bread” does not always refer to physical bread rather, it often signifies spiritual food. The bible goes even further into separating spiritual feeding into two categories: milk and solid food.

Much like nursing babies, the spiritually immature need milk to help them grow. Why feed a steak to an infant with no teeth? Or even to a baby that can’t handle a fork and knife to cut the meat?

But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their faculties trained by practice to distinguish good from evil.” (Hebrews 5:14)

What exactly does this mean? I believe it simply defines the different levels of Faith most of us go through. It is unfortunate some spiritual babies never grow past bottle feeding. This is essentially a result of the lack of discipline to spend time reading God’s word, poor preaching within their church, the lack of participation in small groups or not enough milk!

As children, in order to grow, we all drank milk until we were ready for solid food. So to grow spiritually, we must also have our fill of spiritual milk and eventually take the plunge and move on to solid food. This is when we become adults and in turn, have babies of our own completing the cycle of life.

Unlike milk, spiritual solids can be tougher to chew and often much harder to swallow. For those who have matured past bottle feeding, God sets forth challenges and spiritual hurdles requiring wisdom beyond infancy. Spiritual adults best be prepared for these times.

How does someone prepare for such challenges? By feeding ourselves through the word of God of course! Seek the Lord throughout each day, study His word in your small groups, put aside prayer time each day so your relationship with God can continue to grow.

Since all of us are at different levels of spirituality, let’s remember we were all infants once and that once we mature past spiritual milk, we are called to share the gospel. It is important we also keep in mind as spiritual adults that we will be held accountable for our actions on a much higher level than babies.

This is why mature Christians are best suited to deal with more controversial issues such as homosexuality, adultery and even blasphemy. Let’s ready ourselves and continue to seek the Lord.

Let’s pray.

Father God;
We thank you for this day
And for the challenges you have brought in our lives,
We ask for your strength in difficult times
And pray you will be there each time we need you.

Lord we thank you for your all mighty power
Which continues to drive us,
And pray you will provide all the food we need
To grow physically and spiritually.

God please forgive our sins
Forgive our hurtful decisions,
And lead us toward clean living
Just as you did while among us.

We thank you for helping us mature spiritually
Through your word the bible,
And ask that you continue to bless our lives
Like only you can.

We thank you for your love and all that surrounds us!

Praise God,
Amen!

This message was written by Daniel St.Pierre
Email: DanielStPierre@ThriveThroughChrist.com

Posted in Bible Studies.

Daniel St.Pierre