A Faith Ready for Solid Food
One of the greatest excitements of my first year of parenting was watching my son learn to eat solid foods. I’ll never forget the moment I placed him in the highchair. The camera came out to capture this memorable milestone. The whole house grew quiet. All eyes were on the star of the show, my 6-month-old. He began by eating small spoonfuls of purees and handfuls of bananas. A mess began to pile up all around him and the floor below. The chaos seemed to disappear in the laughter and anticipation of staring at him, wondering what he would grab next from his highchair tray. My husband and I giggled and smiled as he ate, or played with, his food.
With each child that came after him, it never got old. The same routine, the same excitement came with feeding them their first foods. After drinking only milk for so long, learning to eat solid food is surely an exciting milestone in life.
Milestones are not just a part of our physical development and growth, but also our spiritual development and growth. When we first come to Christ, we are spiritually like babies, needing milk that is the basic truth of the Gospel. And as we grow and mature, just like an infant, we go from drinking only milk, to feasting on the Word of God—digging deeper into Scripture and doctrine as our solid food. There comes a point when milk alone isn’t enough for our growth and development. We need something more. Just as an adult cannot live on milk alone, the same is true with our spiritual development. While the “milk” was appropriate in one season, as we grow, it becomes insufficient in another season.
The author of Hebrews addressed this when he wrote to the believers about their need for spiritual maturity: But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil (Hebrews 5:14, NIV).
Spiritual maturity isn’t just ingesting more; it’s digesting and putting into practice what we have learned. Babies don’t become mature simply because we keep giving them more milk. They mature as they receive solid food (ingesting it) and process something (digesting it) more substantial.
Learning to receive and process something more substantial sometimes looks messy, just like my son with his messy bananas. But the mess is an important part of the maturity process. Just reading Scripture is not where the growth happens. It’s in how we digest the Word of God and respond to it in our daily lives. How do I love others like Jesus? How do I serve those around me? How do I forgive when I’ve been wronged?
James 1:22 says, But don’t just listen to God’s word. You must do what it says. Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves (NLT).
The Bible, time and time again, shows us how to be a doer of the Word and not merely a hearer. This is what it means to grow in maturity, becoming more like Jesus, being able to handle spiritual food and not just milk. A hearer of the Word has only ingested the food, a doer of the Word is digesting the food and allowing it to help them grow toward spiritual maturity.
Today, what is the next step that you need to take to digest the Word of God, what He is speaking, and truly grow? How can you grow in spiritual maturity by the way you live out your faith for Christ and love those around you?
Let’s pray: Lord today, take me deeper in You. Help me to not become comfortable taking spiritual milk alone, but truly to grow in spiritual intimacy with You. Help me to not just ingest but digest Your Word and allow it to transform my life, my thoughts, and my actions. In Jesus’ name, amen!
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Scripture is taken from: THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission.
All rights reserved worldwide; and the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
