My newborn is my third child, but it’s a new process every time I’ve done it—getting used to the new schedule, being ready to go out the door and having her spit up all over the both of us, waking up to her cries of hunger in the middle of the night, etc.  It’s nerve-wracking to have yet another soul placed within my care to help teach and nourish, but she’s also teaching me.  At yet another of her near-constant feedings, I was thinking about how she cries when she’s hungry.  It’s like she’s never eaten before in her life!  That’s how she starts every bottle, too:  with starvation.  It really made me think about I Peter 2:1-3.

“Therefore, laying aside all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all evil speaking, as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby, if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is gracious.”

No one eats like a newborn.  For a while, I do not exist as her ‘mother’ in her mind.  She doesn’t realize that when she bites, it hurts.  I am not a human being—I’m her source of food.  She eats with a single-minded determination that only those unaware of humanity can have.

This single-minded determination is the example God gives of how we should desire His word.  Do we have that purpose?

“Laying aside…”  We cannot have that single-mindedness about studying God’s word if we allow ourselves to be distracted by the things of the world.  We need to be able to lay aside the other things in our lives.  Try to have personal time with God at a time when people are not likely to be calling or needing you (or even, dare I suggest it? turn off your cell phone).

“Desire…”  If we miss a meal, we feel hungry; but, if we miss a gathering of the saints, we often have the attitude that ‘oh, I’ll just catch the next one.’  It doesn’t hurt us.  It doesn’t make our spiritual bellies contract with hunger, yet it should.

“Grow…”  It’s pretty straightforward knowledge that ‘growing babies’ need food.  How, then, do we expect to grow spiritually if we are not eating a steady diet of holiness?  What I find interesting is that babies grow because they eat.  They do not have to think about it.  They don’t consciously say, ‘okay now let’s get taller; muscles, get stronger.’  It just happens.  Now, some things do take conscious effort and exercise for growth.  I’m not saying it doesn’t.  Emotional growth certainly takes some effort and good decision-making; however, some growth takes only the minimal effort of eating.  For example, there are times in my life that I have been discussing a religious topic with someone and I have been surprised at my own knowledge of where to go in the Scriptures to reply.  I was learning simply by reading.

“if you have tasted…”  My baby likes to eat!  I know this because she eats a lot.  Not just often throughout the day, but in more and more ounces all the time.  Likewise, I think you can tell how much you like the taste of the word of God by how you take it in.  Do you eat small amounts quite often throughout the day, or less often but in big, tasty chunks?  Or, do you hardly ever eat a spiritual meal at all?  Sadly, too many Christians think they can grow by eating a spiritual meal only on Sundays and Wednesdays, or Sunday morning, or a Sunday every once in a while.

The Lord is truly gracious for giving us His Word to help us in our journey toward heaven.  My little girl has taught me the true meaning of desiring that Word.  I hope you find these thoughts to be helpful in your lives, as well.

Tricia Reno