Spiritual Milk
By Becky Soyster
“Like newborn babies you should crave (thirst for, earnestly desire) the pure (unadulterated) spiritual milk, that by it you may be nurtured and grow unto [completed] salvation, since you have [already] tasted the goodness and kindness of the Lord.”
1 Peter 2:2&3
The Lord has blessed me with a baby who sleeps through the whole night. So by the time morning comes you can imagine how hungry he is. When he first wakes up he fusses around trying to get my attention, but not too distraught about it if I lie there for a few minutes to wake up. The second I get close to him and he sees me and smells his milk, it is a totally different story. He starts letting out this urgent, barky cry and pulls himself to me trying to search for his food. There is no doubt that this baby is hungry. As I sit down with him to feed him, he is still crying but now he grabs my shirt with both hands and pulls his face to me, tossing his head back and forth trying to find the food he knows is there. He searches with extreme fervency. I know that this baby will be fine if he has to wait for his food for a few minutes but it would be really hard to convince him of that.
The Lord showed me this as I was reading 1 Peter 2. This is how we are supposed to be. We are supposed to crave the pure spiritual milk like newborn babies. The Word of God is our spiritual milk. Imagine yourself waking up and earnestly searching for your spiritual milk, The Word of God. How much stronger would we be if we woke up and could not wait to get nourishment in the morning, if we sought the Word with the fervency of a newborn searching for his milk? Can you feel your soul crying out for the nourishment it so desires?
When my son is done eating, I don’t even have to pat him on the back usually to get him to burp. All I have to do is sit him up and out it comes, the evidence that he has a full belly.
God does not want to have to beat us on the back to get the evidence of being in His Word to come out of our mouths. It should naturally come forth. We should be excited to share what we have learned with others. People should be able to look at us and say “Wow, there is something different about her today.”
When my son overindulges himself and does not let his milk settle, it is not very pretty. Up comes a good portion of his meal, usually all over himself and me.
What he has taken in did not have time to settle before he became active which results in it coming back up. My first reaction to this is repulsion. Does anyone enjoy being thrown up on? The same thing can happen if we don’t take time to meditate on what we read and try to hear the heart cry of God. We end up walking around spewing out what we “think” God was saying to us without being in tune with God. The reaction of those being thrown up on? “Gross, that was disgusting!”
God showed me that this is what happens to us when we feed on God’s Word without meditating on it and asking God what he wants us to learn from what we read. Reading the Word is great but if we don’t balance it out with communing with the Father, we are robbing ourselves of the full relationship we could have with our Lord.
My son would never let me get away with only feeding him for a few minutes in the morning. Well, anytime really. I spend a good portion of my day nourishing my son. I would have it no other way. That is our time to bond, to be close to each other. It is satisfying to know that this baby needs what I am providing for him and it brings us closer to spend that time together.
It works the same way with God. He is our maker and he longs to nourish us, to spend time with us. Take time to let God speak to you through His Word. If you quickly read the Word for five minutes and then go about your day, what you took in won’t nourish you through your whole day.
Amos 5:4 says “For this says the Lord to the house of Israel: Seek Me [inquire for and of Me and require Me as you require food] and you shall live!”
When we eat we have an expectation that the food we eat is going to nourish us. It has to be put into our body and consumed for it to be able to do that. We need to come to the Word of God with the same expectation remembering that we need to intake it for it to nourish us.
1 Peter 2:2&3
The Lord has blessed me with a baby who sleeps through the whole night. So by the time morning comes you can imagine how hungry he is. When he first wakes up he fusses around trying to get my attention, but not too distraught about it if I lie there for a few minutes to wake up. The second I get close to him and he sees me and smells his milk, it is a totally different story. He starts letting out this urgent, barky cry and pulls himself to me trying to search for his food. There is no doubt that this baby is hungry. As I sit down with him to feed him, he is still crying but now he grabs my shirt with both hands and pulls his face to me, tossing his head back and forth trying to find the food he knows is there. He searches with extreme fervency. I know that this baby will be fine if he has to wait for his food for a few minutes but it would be really hard to convince him of that.
The Lord showed me this as I was reading 1 Peter 2. This is how we are supposed to be. We are supposed to crave the pure spiritual milk like newborn babies. The Word of God is our spiritual milk. Imagine yourself waking up and earnestly searching for your spiritual milk, The Word of God. How much stronger would we be if we woke up and could not wait to get nourishment in the morning, if we sought the Word with the fervency of a newborn searching for his milk? Can you feel your soul crying out for the nourishment it so desires?
When my son is done eating, I don’t even have to pat him on the back usually to get him to burp. All I have to do is sit him up and out it comes, the evidence that he has a full belly.
God does not want to have to beat us on the back to get the evidence of being in His Word to come out of our mouths. It should naturally come forth. We should be excited to share what we have learned with others. People should be able to look at us and say “Wow, there is something different about her today.”
When my son overindulges himself and does not let his milk settle, it is not very pretty. Up comes a good portion of his meal, usually all over himself and me.
What he has taken in did not have time to settle before he became active which results in it coming back up. My first reaction to this is repulsion. Does anyone enjoy being thrown up on? The same thing can happen if we don’t take time to meditate on what we read and try to hear the heart cry of God. We end up walking around spewing out what we “think” God was saying to us without being in tune with God. The reaction of those being thrown up on? “Gross, that was disgusting!”
God showed me that this is what happens to us when we feed on God’s Word without meditating on it and asking God what he wants us to learn from what we read. Reading the Word is great but if we don’t balance it out with communing with the Father, we are robbing ourselves of the full relationship we could have with our Lord.
My son would never let me get away with only feeding him for a few minutes in the morning. Well, anytime really. I spend a good portion of my day nourishing my son. I would have it no other way. That is our time to bond, to be close to each other. It is satisfying to know that this baby needs what I am providing for him and it brings us closer to spend that time together.
It works the same way with God. He is our maker and he longs to nourish us, to spend time with us. Take time to let God speak to you through His Word. If you quickly read the Word for five minutes and then go about your day, what you took in won’t nourish you through your whole day.
Amos 5:4 says “For this says the Lord to the house of Israel: Seek Me [inquire for and of Me and require Me as you require food] and you shall live!”
When we eat we have an expectation that the food we eat is going to nourish us. It has to be put into our body and consumed for it to be able to do that. We need to come to the Word of God with the same expectation remembering that we need to intake it for it to nourish us.
1 comment:
Wow Becky, I don't know if you ever go back and check your old posts or the comments on them, but this really hit home with me today. Just last night I was in tears over my fear of turning away from God, yet to angry and hurt to invite Him into my heart. Then today I started looking at your older posts, and also posts of some of your friends blogs. As I was typing last night I was listening to the you tube song "By Your Side" by Tenth Avenue North. One line in the song (which I found on one of your friends blogs by the way) states "Just don't turn away" and "to where will you go child where will you run?" then "please don't fight these hands that are holding you". I felt and still do that God is trying to talk to me, directing me to where he wants me to go so that I will see him, and that He is by my side, holding me. Telling me that He forgives me for my anger- as any parent would do. Just waiting to return my love and loving me still even while I rage at Him. So Thankyou for being a guiding light in my storm. Thankyou for your strength of Faith and for you courage to share His message. It was there when I needed it the most. I love you. Sarah
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