Eat Up
There is much more we would like to say about this, but it is difficult to explain, especially since you are spiritually dull and don't seem to listen. You have been believers so long now that you ought to be teaching others. Instead, you need someone to teach you again the basic things about God's word. You are like babies who need milk and cannot eat solid food. For someone who lives on milk is still an infant and doesn't know how to do what is right. Solid food is for those who are mature, who through training have the skill to recognize the difference between right and wrong. Hebrews 5:11-14
Insight
As a parent, watching your kids grow up is difficult for a host of reasons: dealing with adolescence, giving up control, and the realization that in the near distant future, they will no longer be living under your roof. After a trip to a local restaurant, I can add another reason to the list.
My youngest daughter has finally reached the point where she can no longer order off the kid's menu. Granted, being that she’s a freshman in high school, she aged out of that years ago, but her height, combined with my frugalness, allowed that charade to continue. Even though our waitress had a mask on, I could tell she snickered when we tried to order her chicken fingers.
She knew, and I knew, that my daughter had graduated to a more refined palate: Goodbye PB&J's and fruit cups. Just think if that switch never occurred, and she continued eating off the kid's menu. Can you imagine a person having a mid-life crisis chowing down on a corndog, orange slices, and a juice box? You can't because it would feel odd and so out of place.
Why? Because immaturity sticks out.
In today's passage, the author of Hebrews speaks about the need to grow up spiritually and how it influences what we consume. From time to time, I catch myself saying, "I'm hungry for more of God" or "I'm craving depth in my relationship with Christ." I don't think I'm alone. Many of us try to skip the appetizers and start devouring the meat and potatoes of faith and theology.
We can mistake trivia for depth, information for the application, and head knowledge for heart transformation when we do this. We're not ready for the four-course meal because just a few nibbles leave us with a tummy ache.
The reality is we can't stomach some of the basics: forgive as we've been forgiven, love and pray for our enemies, look for ways to give rather than take, be quick to listen and slow to speak. Those simple yet incredibly challenging foundational truths are, in essence, baby food, or as the author puts it, spiritual milk.
Until we continually rely on the Holy Spirit and put godly wisdom into action, we have no business worrying about the rest of the menu. Growing up in Christ involves moving beyond the basics of the faith.
Spiritually maturity gets produced through practice, so eat up.
Reflection
Where are you struggling to apply some foundational spiritual truths?
Why did this aspect of your faith stick out?
Prayer
God, let my hunger for You be displayed in a posture of humility. Let me love simply, forgive boldly, and act courageously. To do so, I need to position myself as a student of Your heart. In Your name, Jesus. Amen.